This year's survey of Burlington's young professionals was released Thursday with some familiar complaints about jobs and housing. There was also a surprising new complaint about heavy traffic and lousy roads.

"Young professionals love Burlington and want to stay here, but challenges like a lack of single family homes, a high cost of living and insufficient job growth opportunities are major concerns," Erin Bombard, director of Burlington Young Professionals, said in a statement.

The top three "assets" of the Greater Burlington Region to emerge from the survey were culture/sense of community, natural assets, and "localvore" culture. The top three "challenges" were cost of living, housing and lack of job opportunities/job growth.

Catherine Davis, executive vice president of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement it should come as no surprise that people in their 20s and 30s are "looking to buy homes, start families and grow in their careers," and that it should "galvanize us into action."

Just over half the respondents to the survey were renters, mostly in Burlington and South Burlington. The respondents are making monthly student loan payments of $424 on average.

Here are some more statistics from the survey:

Average yearly individual income: $57,000

Marital status: 58 percent single

Gender of respondents: 64 percent female; 35 percent male; 1 percent gender non-variant/non-conforming.

Own a home in Burlington: 14 percent

Own a home outside of Burlington: 54 percent

The survey, sponsored by the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and Burlington Young Professionals, is based on 500 responses from people working in the Burlington area, 74 percent of whom were between the ages of 22 and 34, and 85 percent of whom are employed full-time. The survey took place in February and March.

More than 40 percent intend to leave

One of the more troubling results of the survey is that more than 40 percent of the respondents intend to leave the state. The reason, according to the survey, is that they can't afford to buy a home.

Brittany O'Brien, 32, can relate. She said Thursday that she and her husband were lucky to buy a house in Richmond in November 2017, despite the fact that both of them have good jobs. Both were born and raised in Charlotte.

O'Brien works remotely in marketing for Orgain, an Irvine, California-based company that makes organic, plant-based protein powders, bars and shakes. She previously worked for Seventh Generation and Mamava in Burlington. O'Brien's husband works in digital marketing for Ben & Jerry's.

It took about a year for O'Brien and her husband to find a house, and even then, it was thanks to some creative maneuvering.

"Looking for houses here was not easy," O'Brien said. "It was really competitive."

The couple went to see a house on the market in Richmond that needed too much work to be affordable, O'Brien said, when they noticed the house next door was being renovated. O'Brien's father-in-law suggested they call the town to find out who owned the house.

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The town clerk told them who owned the house and long story short, O'Brien and her husband were able to work out a deal with the owner, who took a liking to them.

"He gave us an incredible deal," O'Brien said. "The house never went on the market, so we didn't have to deal with bidding wars."

O'Brien said she got her job at Orgain through connections from Seventh Generation.

"Once you're here long enough and have a community you can make it work but coming from out of state it's a lot tougher," she said. "Every job has so many applicants. It helps to have someone who knows you and can speak on your behalf."

O'Brien added that a lot of her friends are making their own jobs by starting their own businesses.

"Dave Dolginow is a good friend and he co-founded Shacksbury Cider with Colin Davis," O'Brien said. "They're doing great and their ciders are popping up everywhere. My buddy Cam started Seedsheet, and another buddy Andy began Faraday."

All of which is to say, O'Brien said, that Vermont is "certainly a state with a strong entrepreneurial spirit."

Stop complaining?

Dan White, 33, would agree. He started Localvore, an app that connects customers to local businesses with deals and "exclusive experiences," in 2011, when he was 26 years old.

White, a native of Evanston, Illinois, actually moved to Vermont to start his business.

"I had a group of friends who grew up in Vermont, so I knew it to be a very big buy-local community," White said.

Vermont was also the only state that his former employer, Groupon, wasn't in.

White actually rejects the complaints in the survey, including the high cost of housing. He pays $1,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Burlington that includes parking, utilities, and internet.

"Try to do that somewhere else, in any downtown market," White said. "I think it's perfectly reasonable."

Getting a job comes down to relationships no matter where you are, White said, although he concedes it might be even more so in Vermont because it's a small place.

"I think a lot of young professionals have a grass-is-always-greener complex," he said. "Building a career, building a business, whether an entrepreneur or professional takes a long time. It doesn't happen overnight."

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.