You need to be very careful moving to VT right now. We have a massive drug problem that's just being uncovered, a lot of it coming from NYC. I actually live in Burlington, and I don't think the police can keep up. You can see gang stuff all the time on the streets, I even see what I'm sure are drug deals regularly. It's really difficult to tell where's safe, I've heard that plenty of rural areas are no better and maybe worse. Our drug program and police can't keep up, they aren't growing fast enough... if anything, there have been federal budget cuts for VT's funding. Don't know what's going to happen.

thx for the replies. I looked at Essex, and there are some nice houses. Looking at the map, it looks like it's aways away and maybe not a very direct route? Also, is there anywhere in VT where property taxes aren't high? I assumed they were almost everywhere, so Essex doesn't look bad.

ok, that sounds like an ok drive, thx again!