Yes, housing may be cheaper...
Vermont May Have a Population Problem
https://www.newser.com/story/363974/vermont-may-have-a-population-problem.html
And initial housing costs don't account for utilities .
But VT is not climate-disaster-safe...
Vermont in top 10 states with most federal disaster declarations
Vermont in seventh place — tied with Kentucky and South Dakota — for most federal disaster declarations in the country due to extreme weather.
https://vtdigger.org/2024/07/29/vermont-in-top-10-states-with-most-federal-disaster-declarations-new-study-says/
Top 10 States FEMA AND HUD COST PER CAPITA (2011-2024)
Louisiana $2,953
Hawaii $1,772
New York $1,385
Vermont $902 <======
New Jersey $854
North Dakota $846
Alaska $770
Florida $571
Texas $531
West Virginia $531
So... we've thought about this a lot and come close to buying land in Vermont as a backup plan for *when* our house burns down.
Most of the Vermont disasters, maybe all of them, are related to flooding. The problem is, as in all flooding situations, people keep rebuilding in flood plains. The house my mom grew up in on Baxter Street in Rutland flooded in 1927 and flooded in the last major flood, and in basically every southern Vermont flood in between.
Vermont is not like Missouri. There are relatively few river bottoms and most of the land has enough relief that it has never flooded in historical memory. So there are LOTS of places where the land is cheap, the topography makes it safe from flooding, you can buy enough land to clear around your house for wildfire safety, there is enough undulation in the topography to make tornadoes rare and it's far enough inland that hurricanes bring big rains, but not devastating winds. In every one of these disasters that make the news, I ask my brother and father if they have any issues and, living in hilly areas, they never have. They just go about their day.
In California, by contrast, I would say there are only a handful of densely populated areas that are truly safe from wildfire and those places are at risk of earthquake and prohibitively expensive. Having lived in both and having a lot of connection to Vermont, I feel way way way more stressed about natural disaster in California than in Vermont. It occupies my mind for months at a time every year and in Vermont, my family basically gives no thought to it at all. In 95 years in the state, my dad has literally never had even a near brush with a disaster.
So, why don't we just move? Many reasons. Simply put, for all the problems, California is an amazing place. But here are a few considerations for someone who, I'm guessing, lives in NC who may not have every lived north of the Mason-Dixon...
- Vermont is one of the cloudiest places in the country. People often underestimate the impact of coming from 4466 kJ/m^2 of sun in NC to 3826kJ/m^2 in VT, because that difference is not spread evenly across the year. It mostly comes in the winter where you get the double whammy of short days and most of the cloudy weather for the year. Battleship grey skies for days on end as things go back and forth between snow and rain (as they do now, though they rarely did when I was a kid) does not seem as risky as flood, fire or tornado, but seasonal depression is a potentially fatal disease.
https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/sunniest-states
https://www.farmersalmanac.com/top-10-cloudiest-u-s-states
- ice is also potentially fatal to elderly people - fall risk in VT is going to be a lot higher
- sedentary lifestyle is a long-term risk to older people - unless you're a skier or you love sitting on an exercise bike, it can be hard to stay active in the winter, and cross-country skiing has become much less reliable. The ski area where the high school teams raced when I was young, which is part of the reason my brother chose a house only a couple miles away, has not opened in years because it's one of the lower altitude areas. This is happening at more and more places in VT. Winter in Vermont without skiing is a dreary affair. Some people like ice fishing, but that is a special kind of crazy :-)
We have a friend who suddenly decided based on climate risk and politics that she was going to move to Vermont. I asked if she had ever lived outside of California or had ever spent a winter in a place that is cold, cloudy and dark. She said no. I suggested she spend at least one full winter in such a place before pulling the trigger.
You might recommend the same to your friend if he/she has no actual experience of living in Vermont, Maine, Upstate New York, Upstate New Hampshire in winter. There is more to a happy life than housing cost and climate risk.
I've lived in the Shenandoah Valley (Lexington, Lynchburg) for 7 years total. Some 10-20 inch snows and lots of black ice. It's still my favorite getaway spot and we've considered buying a cottage around Goshen VA, but I would not want to live there. ...too dingy & gritty. Grey grit & dust everywhere. The grey grittiness was even worse around West Lebanon NH - White River Junction VT (daughter graduated boarding school there).
NH-VT Snow. When you see a good number of houses with 2nd floor exterior doors with no deck or porch, there's your sign. And firewood, every corner has a firewood sales lot. There's another sign. Forget dinky snow blowers, old front-end loaders parked at the crest of the driveway were popular.
A teacher's new-ish Toyota Corolla was flattened by a block of ice that slid off the gym roof. The dorm had one of those 2nd floor exits and students used narrow paths through 8ft deep snow to get to class all winter. I went to a Burger King that all you could see of the building was the sign and and the rooftop fans & equipment. The parking lot was cleared for a dozen cars and there was a tunnel to the doorway.