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Vermont Property Transfers Now Available as Spatial Data

January 26, 2024
Property Transfer Spatial Layer

Location data of property transfers (PTTR's) are now available in the Vermont Open Geodata Portal. The dataset provides approximate point locations and associated public information collected by the Department of Taxes under 32 V.S.A. § 9606 for all property transferred by deed in Vermont beginning in January 2019 through present. The layer will be updated weekly. Most transfers (70%) will appear in the dataset within four to five weeks of the sale’s closing date. The property transfer dataset can be used as a supplement to parcel data served by the parcel program which provides an annual snapshot of property ownership as of April 1st and is updated each spring based on the latest statewide Grand List.

Data Access

The data will also be available to view within the Parcel Viewer later in 2024. They are also linked from the parcel page at the Vermont Open Geodata Portal.

Content and Mapping

The layer contains PTT-172 and PTT-175 data as received from the Department of Taxes, with five additional fields: latitude, longitude, standardized town name (based on town code), town GEOID, and the match method used for geocoding. Transfers that could not be geocoded because of an incomplete or invalid SPAN or property address are still retained in the data table but are not represented spatially and do not include coordinates.

More details about the data and methodology can be found at the Property Transfer Tax webpage.

Multiple methods were used for geocoding property locations; in order of priority and precision these are:

  1. Geocoded using the VCGI ESITE Geocoder with the property street and city. MatchMethod = Property Address (ESITE). If unmatched:
  2. Match on SPAN in the E911 Site Locations layer; geocode using the location of the ESITE. MatchMethod = SPAN (ESITE). If unmatched:
  3. Geocode using the VCGI Composite Geocoder with the property street and city. MatchMethod = Property Address (Composite). If unmatched:
  4. Match on the SPAN in the Standardized Parcel Data layer; geocode based on a point located within the parcel polygon. While the point will fall within the correct parcel it may still be distant from the actual property, particularly in large parcels, and is the least precise. MatchMethod = SPAN (Parcel centroid).
  5. Properties that cannot be geocoded using the methods above are listed as Unmatched.

Questions?

Questions about the content of a property transfer should be directed to the Department of Taxes at tax.rett@vermont.gov.

For questions specific to property locations as shown in this GIS layer, please contact VCGI at vcgi@vermont.gov.

In addition to details about ownership, the data layer contains several date fields that allow one to view property transfers not just by location but also by time. For example, this animation shows transfers that closed in central Vermont through 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and then 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions

Click on a frequently asked question below to see an answer. FAQ answers are subject to change.