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We are considering moving from Long Island, NY to Fairfield county and need advice on which towns to research.
My husband commutes to NYC at least 3 days per week, I work from home. We have two children (5 and 1 year old) so schools are very important. We can afford a house around 600K, 650K if we really stretch it.
What would you recommend as overall value: schools and good place to raise children, doable commute to NYC, social life, decent house for our budget.
How long does he want to commute each of those days?
All the towns are great family towns from Greenwich up to Milford (train line towns) except the one in between Fairfield and Stratford. $600K works fine in Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, Stratford, and Milford. You might be able to squeeze into Westport and get the top school district but the house will be a fixer upper and probably right off the Post Rd. Stratford and Milford will offer bigger house but longer commute.
Unfortunately, $600,000 to $650,000 is not going to buy you a lot in towns that offer an easy commute to NYC. Greenwich, New Canaan & Darien all have median home prices of well over $1 million. Wilton and Westport are also excellent towns with great schools, but even there, you're probably looking at an older home on a busy road.
On the plus side, all of those towns I just listed offer much lower property taxes than Long Island.
I Fairfield is the way to go. You can get a small cape in the university section or something more substantial towards Fairfield Woods / Stratfield in the low to mid 600's. Only other option I can think of for the price is Norwalk, but the schools aren't that great. Maybe Ridgefield too actually, but a little more difficult commute and you'll have a 20 min drive to the train rather than just a few minutes in Fairfield (but longer train ride).
fairfield or live in south easton and drive to fairfield/bridgeport train. living in trumbull and driving to bridgeport train is an option. maybe some homes in wilton fall into your price range (drive to south norwalk train)
For the commute - 1hr on the train, maybe 1:15hr would be OK. He is fine driving to the train for another 15 min.
Then Ridgefield for a little more value, Fairfield for the beach and a shorter ride to the train. Both are great towns, can't go wrong with either. Now it's just up to your preference - spend a few days in both, it's a great time of year for that.
A lot will depend on what you expect to get for your budget. If you can accept a very modest home or condo in need of work you may be able to get something in closer towns like Greenwich or Darien. Wilton may be good to consider as well.
For nicer single-family homes in your price range, you are likely talking about some of the outer towns to consider. Along the New Haven line, Fairfield, Easton and Trumbull come to mind. Though these are pushing the commute time limit so check the schedules to be sure your husband would be comfortable with the commute.
You could also go north to the Danbury area and commute using the Harlem line but the towns in Connecticut that could fit your criteria would have a longer commute. Ridgefield is wonderful but a bit pricey. Other towns include Bethel, Brookfield and New Faifield but again the commute times would be longer. Jay
Another issue to point out is that some of these towns may have years waiting lists for parking passes. May be beneficial to be within walking distance to a station.
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