Buying in Orange County, Vermont

Orange County at a glance

Orange County is one of 14 counties and county-equivalents in Vermont. Its county seat is Chelsea. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 30,050 across 687 square miles of land — about 44 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 27 offenses — 0.9 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Orange County

• Property record card — the Orange County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Chelsea — start there for office locations and the parcel search.
• Deeds & liens — the Orange County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Orange County is the primary county for 26 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Orange County reported 27 offenses — 0.9 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (11). The crime section below sets that beside the Vermont county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Vermont Sex Offender Registry (Vermont Crime Information Center, Department of Public Safety) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Orange building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Chelsea.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Vermont.

Reported crime in Orange County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Orange County reported 27 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 9 violent and 18 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 0.9 per 1,000 residents (violent 30.0, property 59.9 per 100,000).

Inside Vermont, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 228 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 930 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 14 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (11), aggravated assault (7) and motor vehicle theft (4).

Coverage: 5 of 5 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 5 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Vermont rules that apply in Orange County

Traps researched for Vermont buyers: Private-well and septic risk sits with the buyer.

Read the full Vermont guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Vermont counties

All Vermont counties · Vermont buyer guide