[NHartphotog]

Agreed--CT stinks, like most of the northeast. Southern NH is VERY similar in terms of cost of living, ridiculous taxes, and the absolutely impossibility of being able to hire help to do anything--get your driveway plowed, grass cut, household cleaning, etc.

Anything that requires skill, like carpentry, is expensive beyond belief. If you can get anyone to return your call, that is.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by NHartphotog

Agreed--CT stinks, like most of the northeast. Southern NH is VERY similar in terms of cost of living, ridiculous taxes, and the absolutely impossibility of being able to hire help to do anything--get your driveway plowed, grass cut, household cleaning, etc.

Anything that requires skill, like carpentry, is expensive beyond belief. If you can get anyone to return your call, that is.

You may not like it here in the northeast but MANY people do and are willing to pay a premium to live here. This begs the question, why are you still living here if you do not like it? Also I hate to tell you but finding good qualified people to work on your home is hard and expensive pretty much everywhere these days. No different here than out west or down south. Jay

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by NHartphotog

Agreed--CT stinks, like most of the northeast. Southern NH is VERY similar in terms of cost of living, ridiculous taxes, and the absolutely impossibility of being able to hire help to do anything--get your driveway plowed, grass cut, household cleaning, etc.

Anything that requires skill, like carpentry, is expensive beyond belief. If you can get anyone to return your call, that is.

Sorry but even southern NH (except maybe one or two towns) is an absolute bargain in comparison to most areas of Connecticut.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Sorry but even southern NH (except maybe one or two towns) is an absolute bargain in comparison to most areas of Connecticut.

I lived in Portsmouth for a decade. $350 per square foot average price. Err... nope. Southern New Hampshire is a metro-Boston suburb. There are a lot of $200+ per square foot towns.

Simsbury - $165
Avon - $156
Glastonbury - $171
West Hartford - $172
Branford - $210
Guilford = $202


Sure, lower Fairfield County is off the charts but the rest of the state is cheap by southern tier NH prices. Statewide, CT is $167 per square foot. New Hampshire is $157 per square foot. I don't see how a state wide spread of 7.5% is "a bargain". If you back out lower Fairfield County, CT is cheaper than New Hampshire.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by NHartphotog

Agreed--CT stinks, like most of the northeast. Southern NH is VERY similar in terms of cost of living, ridiculous taxes, and the absolutely impossibility of being able to hire help to do anything--get your driveway plowed, grass cut, household cleaning, etc.

Anything that requires skill, like carpentry, is expensive beyond belief. If you can get anyone to return your call, that is.

That's a broad brush statement. Not sure where else you've lived but I can tell you that the Northeast has a high standard of living compared to most regions. While you will find individual states within other regions like the Midwest or South and areas within those states that offer a comparable quality of life to New England and NY or PA, in most cases, you won't find as large a percentage of those states offering a good quality of life like you will find in most of the areas within the New England states.

Try moving to some areas of the Midwest for a while. You may change your mind. Granted the high cost of living and taxes and also fiscal irresponsibility shown by the CT State Government and also some of the cities like Hartford does stink and creates problems for all that live and work there. And that is the reason I left CT but the only reason. If I had the money I would gladly trade living in middle America for a home in CT again. But that won't happen any time soon.

Move to the Midwest for a while and if you pick the wrong place, you will run into a myriad of screwed up places. Backwards mentality where if you don't conform with their way of life, they will label you as something unsavory and try to run you out. Plenty of weirdo's, creepo's and wacko's abound too. Actually had a young woman from California once tell me that there were more crazy people in the lower Midwest than back home. LOL Like over bearing, overly aggressive women and people in general? Plenty of them in many areas of the Midwest. Like people getting into your personal life and business where they don't belong? Plenty of it in many areas of the Midwest. Sub par schools which breeds ignorance and delusional or deranged and twisted views of reality generation after generation.

This is not meant to be a hit piece on the rest of the country either. But people that think the quality of life in CT and the Northeast stinks need to live in some other regions like I have. In most cases, you won't find that many comparable areas in terms of the quality of life when compared to most areas of the Northeast. There are exceptions like Minnesota which has a good quality of life thoughout most of the state. But that is the exception to the rule.

If CT can find a way to fix its fiscal problems and also offer more affordable housing and a reasonable tax rates for average wage earners, it will become a attractive state again in which to live.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

If CT can find a way to fix its fiscal problems and also offer more affordable housing and a reasonable tax rates for average wage earners, it will become a attractive state again in which to live.

I liked your entire post. Here is some intersting. I can't put the link but it is "point2homes".

Hartford County
Spending in Hartford County (includes housing food etc). 100 is national average.
Hartford County is in the 105 to 117 range.

Fulton County (Atlanta is part of it)
Fulton County is in the 107 to 131 range.

Hartford County looks pretty good, right?


CT has a progressive state tax so the wealthy pay more. Don't buy into everything you are being bombarded with.

Look at the "tax mecca" of many on here being Tennessee.
Congratulations Tennessee: You’ve Got the Most Regressive Tax System in America
https://www.theatlantic.com/business...ressive/411547

"According to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve, Tennessee, Mississippi, and West Virginia have structured their tax codes so that middle and lower-income families pay a bigger share of their incomes than wealthy families do."


"That ends up hitting people like Joseph Mitchell, 62, pretty hard. I spoke to Mitchell outside of a Kroger’s grocery store in Nashville, where he was unloading a few weeks’ worth of groceries into his trunk. His total taxes for the grocery trip—$10.97."

[SAE72]

I live in North Central Connecticut. Very affordable. Decent schools, easy access to nearly everything and anything. I couldn't ask for much more.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by NHartphotog

the absolutely impossibility of being able to hire help to do anything--get your driveway plowed, grass cut, household cleaning, etc.

Anything that requires skill, like carpentry, is expensive beyond belief. If you can get anyone to return your call, that is.

Hmm, that hasn't been my experience in CT. I get my lawn mowed very cheap ($28 a cut), everything else is reasonable and I haven't had any issues finding people.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I lived in Portsmouth for a decade. $350 per square foot average price. Err... nope. Southern New Hampshire is a metro-Boston suburb. There are a lot of $200+ per square foot towns.

Simsbury - $165
Avon - $156
Glastonbury - $171
West Hartford - $172
Branford - $210
Guilford = $202


Sure, lower Fairfield County is off the charts but the rest of the state is cheap by southern tier NH prices. Statewide, CT is $167 per square foot. New Hampshire is $157 per square foot. I don't see how a state wide spread of 7.5% is "a bargain". If you back out lower Fairfield County, CT is cheaper than New Hampshire.

Ha. Let’s not get stuck on housing prices. Cost of living includes property taxes, utility rates, etc - all of which are staggeringly high in comparison to New Hampshire. There is nothing “cheap” in CT compared to New Hampshire, except maybe a few cherry picked towns in your list above.

Edit to add: the COL calculator shows New Haven is 6% more expensive than Nashua area with a 75k difference in average home prices. This doesn’t even take into account property taxes, which would greatly widen this gap even more.

[JGBigGreen]

Most of New Hampshire, outside of the seacoast region and a few towns like Hanover, is not expensive relative to Connecticut.

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I lived in Portsmouth for a decade. $350 per square foot average price. Err... nope. Southern New Hampshire is a metro-Boston suburb. There are a lot of $200+ per square foot towns.

Simsbury - $165
Avon - $156
Glastonbury - $171
West Hartford - $172
Branford - $210
Guilford = $202


Sure, lower Fairfield County is off the charts but the rest of the state is cheap by southern tier NH prices. Statewide, CT is $167 per square foot. New Hampshire is $157 per square foot. I don't see how a state wide spread of 7.5% is "a bargain". If you back out lower Fairfield County, CT is cheaper than New Hampshire.