Local conditions
| 90°F+ days a year | 7.9 |
|---|---|
| Freezing days a year | 56 |
| Snow, inches a year | 85.9 |
NOAA climate station: Essex Junction 1 N, about 3 miles from the center of Essex.
- The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan lists the Osgood Hill Box Culvert Project, replacing 3 flood-hazard culverts on Osgood Hill Road and Catella Road.
- The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan says the total number of housing units in town grew from 4,137 in 2010 to 4,799 in 2020.
- The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan puts the town's 2021 median household income at $96,045, above the county, state and national medians.
- The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan puts the town's estimated 2020 population at 11,484.
- The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan says 40% of the town's population is older than 50.
How Essex compares next door
The Town of Essex's 2024 Town Plan puts the town's median household income at $96,045, well above the county, state and national medians, in a town whose Planning Commission approved 27 subdivisions between 2015 and 2022. Essex Junction, the separate city carved out next door, is not covered by that same town plan or population count, so a search that treats "Essex" and "Essex Junction" as interchangeable is really comparing two different municipalities' facts, not one address. The town's own school buildings average 65 years old with no major renovation in the last 15 years, per the same plan, which is a different aging-infrastructure profile than the compact, newer core of Essex Junction next door.
Getting started
Families should name Essex, not simply the broader Essex area, when asking about routes, ZIP codes and nearby options.
Home-care coverage
Give the exact location and ask whether staffing approaches from Colchester, Milton, Essex Junction or another direction.
How far to search
Essex Junction, Colchester, Williston and Jericho may all fit a practical community radius.
Keep Essex and Essex Junction as separate search locations because housing, transportation and provider routing are not interchangeable.
- Essex Junction
- Colchester
- Williston
- Jericho
Costs
Ask whether travel or shift minimums vary between village-area and outlying Essex addresses.
For a community comparison, add family travel and transportation to the written housing and assessed-care total.
Winter and transport
Winter roads, driveway conditions and longer trips across the municipality can affect early or late visits.
The backup plan should name who clears access and who can cover if the agency cannot reach the home at the expected time.
Questions for providers
Are you confirming coverage for the Town of Essex address, rather than assuming Essex Junction coverage is the same?
The first week
Confirm the municipality and ZIP code before requesting quotes.
Build one home-care scenario for the actual schedule and one community-radius scenario, then document which assumptions each provider confirmed.
Licensed settings
The senior-living licence count for Essex is zero.
Coverage instead comes from the 28 settings elsewhere in Chittenden County, 7 dementia-designated and 13 Medicaid-accepting.
Hospital and home health
Chittenden County's general acute hospital for a Essex address is University of Vermont Medical Center Inc.
in Burlington (Joint Commission accredited), and its discharge planners are typically the quickest way to home health or rehab.
Chittenden County's home health licence goes to UVMHN Home Health and Hospice, headquartered in Colchester — clinician-ordered clinical care that's billed apart from non-medical help in Essex.
Resources
Five Corners and the villages of Essex
Five Corners in Essex Junction, where Route 2A, Route 15 and Pearl Street meet, is the busiest crossing a home caregiver has to plan around.
Essex Center and the Essex Free Library sit on Route 15 to the east, and the Essex Outlets and Maple Street commercial area lie toward Colchester.
Roads through Essex
Route 15 and Route 2A carry most trips in and out of Essex, Susie Wilson Road links the Essex Junction side of town to the interstate, and Route 289 runs across the north of town.
Essex Center is the reference point most agencies use when they quote a travel charge.
Care close to the Essex line
Essex has no licensed setting inside the town line, so a household usually looks at Mansfield Place in Essex Junction, an assisted-living and memory-care community with Violet studio, Dogwood one-bedroom and Trillium two-bedroom floor plans.
Colchester and Williston are the next nearest towns with senior housing and memory care.
Because the Senior Van crosses into Williston and Colchester for medical trips, a resident without a car can reach most of these settings for a tour.
The Essex Senior Van
The Town of Essex, including Essex Junction, runs a Senior Van that any resident over 60 may use for in-town rides at no cost.
It has a wheelchair lift, takes people to the gym, doctors, the hairdresser and the grocery store, and also crosses the line into Williston and Colchester for medical appointments.
To book a ride, call 802-878-6940 on weekday mornings or 802-876-5087 on weekdays from 10 to 4.
On the first Wednesday of each month the van also takes town residents 60 and over to the farmers market.