[kdtrent]

Hi there! My husband is looking at a job in Wilton, CT. I am trying to figure out if it would be a practical move. We would need to be able to buy a modest house for under $400,000, within a half hour commute time of Wilton? I have been looking at Danbury and Bridgeport. Any info on traffic in that area and what the towns, schools, weather, etc. Any info would be appreciated.

[jdhall1]

Kdtrent,
Danbury is a lot better than Bridgeport. Bridgeport is full of crime, very high property taxes and the schools are not very good.I am a realtor in the Danbury area, and you can get something a lot nicer for $400,000 in this area than what you would get in California. The average 4 bedroom, 2 bath home with 1800 square feet and an acre of land is just about $400,000. Prpperty taxes would run about $4000 for the year. If a single family homes seems like too much work, there are plenty of a townhouse/condo options in the city. For $400,000, you could live in newly built (2000) 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath 2000 square foot condo in a community with a clubhouse and a pool.

Danbury is a good sized city of about 80,000 and is the regional center for the northern end of Fairfield county. It is one of the safest cities in the country and offers a lot of things cities of it's size don't. It has 250 store mall, a state university in town with 2 campuses, a 350 bed teaching hospital, a top 25 public golf course, a private country club, 2 state parks, 2 town beaches and a massive 750 acre city nature preserve less than 5 minutes away from city hall. There are stores that offers goods from around the world on Main Street. I guess I did forget to mention a small entertainment district just south of Main Street and an new Ice Arena next to the downtown restaurants. There are tons of places to shop outside of the mall. There are a couple of museums in town, one of them that I volunteer at, as well as a small operahouse. The public library downtown is very nice and wellstocked.

Wilton is a good 25-30 minutes from Danbury. Rt 7 is the main road down there, but it does have a reputation of having lots of cars, but no real traffic. There are also backroad options to Wilton (My shortcut is Old Ridgebury Road in Danbury to Ridgebury Road to Rt 116 to Rt 35 (main street Ridgefield) to RT 33).

The Danbury Schools do a great job on serving the needs of it's diverse student body and the kids that go on to college do well and get good jobs after they graduate. Since you want to live toward the south/west side of town for an easy commute to Wilton, if you haven't done so already, look for properties in the Mill Ridge, King Street and Park Avenue elementary school districts on the Danbury Public Schools. Mill Ridge and King Street are considered the most desirable ones in the district, but all of the ones in the district solid. There is a total of 14 public elemantary schools (k-5), including a regional. magnet international studies school that opened for this school year. There are two middle schools, both have been expanded in the last few years (6-8th grade). Generally, the people on the west side of town go to Rogers Park and the rest of the students would go to Broadview generally speaking.

Danbury High School is really special. Although it is the largest high school in the state, it does offer tons of programs that the other more suburban towns of Wilton and Ridgefield do not offer. To help make the school seem more personal, the incoming 9th grades get divided into 4 different clusters and then more different academic groups based on testing, each group then is about 25 students. Students then have their 4 basic classes (math, science, english and history) together and the teachers plan their activities together. There are several AP programs that score well well on the tests, most notably the AP Psychology and AP European History programs. Because of it's size, the high school does offer class selections that can match or exceed the offers of a small college. There are tons of class selections for electives in studies of Business, Computers, Culinary Arts, Industrial/Engineering, Theatre among others. They prepare students to do well in college (they always have lots kids that go on to NYU, Yale, etc listed in the local newspaper every June around graduation time) and provide skills that employers look for for those that choose not to go onto to college.

There are other schooling options if you can afford there. There are a number of private elementary and middle school options that serve the Northern Fairfield county as well as a private Catholic high school and a prep school. There is a small alternative high school for the region as well as a regional techinical high school.

It is New England so we do get some snow, but not any so this year. Tempatures range from about 85 to high 90s in the summers and 60s in the fall this year.

Jonathan Hall

[Mike from back east]

....a string of postings about Global Warming has been moved to the Politics Forum, as they were off-topic here...continue in either one, as appropriate.

[kdtrent]

Thankyou JOnathan. Your information is very helpful. What do you think of Danbury vs.Bethel - particularly schools, ammenities, etc. Is it farther to commute from Bethel to Wilton, or are there backroads that will popp you onto the highway without going back up to Danbury? You are a real estate agent. Do you specialize in that area?

[jdhall1]

KDtrent,
Yes I am a real estate agent in the Danbury area, which includes Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield, Brookfield, Newtown, Ridgefield, Redding and New Milford. Danbury and Bethel each do have their strong points. In terms of amenties and schools.

Danbury does have one of the largest public high schools in the state, but it does have more modern facilities than Bethel and has an almost college sized programs of studies. The only real complaint about the Danbury High School is that at times it can feel sometimes inpersonal , but what can you expect with a student population of about 3000 in the schools, but the
average class size is comparable to the other 'more suburban' towns. Danbury is a lot more diverse than any town in the area, and their schools have the classes to reflect that.

One thing that people do like about Bethel is that all of their schools are located in a central educational park. There is a total of 5 schools in their school system, opposed to the 17 in Danburys, which makes sense since Danbury is about 3-4 times larger. Bethel did approve an expansion to their high school, but it did take about 4 years for it to get approved.For
more information to compare the school systems from the words of actual parents, go to
www.greatschools.net

Both districts do have about similiar educational climates and testing results are pretty close, but Bethel scores are a tiny bit higher but it would cost you a little bit more money to buy in Bethel than it would in Danbury. In terms of amenties, Danbury does a lot more to do than Bethel. There are some stores in Bethel, like a Target store on Rt 6 on the Danbury line (because I always make fun that by saying 'bc Danbury didn't want it') and there is a Big Y (grocery store) and small shopping plaza under construction about 1.5 miles down the road from the Target store. There is a little downtown shopping
area in Bethel, including an 'artsy' movie theatre and a very nice ice cream parler. There are a few restaurants downtown as well. Danbury does have all of the shopping needs of the area, ranging but not limited to, 5 grocery stores, a 250 store mall, multiple car dealerships, tons and tons of restuarants, trader joes and a 16 screen mulitplex. Danbury is not just a
place to go spend your money, but also a place with lots of oppurtunites to enjoy nature in it's 700 acre city nature preserve, 2 state parks, 2 beaches and Hiking trails off of Ricther Park, a top 25 public golf course. Other things to do in town include Ice Skating at the state of the art ice arena downtown, taking it an opera at the Danbury music center and observing the region's past at the two local museums.

As I mentioned before, there is no highway going from Danbury to Wilton. The southern part of Bethel and the western part of Danbury would give you about the same amount a commute. If you live toward the Bethel/Redding line, it is not worth driving north up to Danbury to go the few miles west on the highway and about a mile south on RT 7 (while it is an expressway) before it ends and turns into a regular road. If you lived here downtown Bethel, I would take Greenwood Ave (CT 302) to Putnam Park Road (CT 58) to the Cross Highway (CT 107) south and to the west until you pick up Rt 7 in Georgetown.
To compare the two towns in terms of affordablity. For $399,000 you can afford a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath 1650 square foot raised ranch built in 1982 on a acre on the Danbury/Ridgefield border. A similiar home to that would is listed in Bethel for $412,000. The real difference comes down to the taxes. The home in Bethel would have them about $5500 a year, and it would be
about $1100 less a year in Danbury.

Jonathan Hall

[KathleenW2]

jd, your information is GREAT. But... you are talking like a realtor in that you're saying a lot but also leaving a lot out. Fair enough.

The fact is, Danbury is not the most desirable community. If I were to return to CT, the last place I'd look would be Bridgeport, next would be Danbury. If we were working in Wilton, I'd check out Ridgefield, Redding, Easton and Wilton itself; possibly Fairfield. We moved from CT to SoCal after living in Weston and Wilton for about 14 years. Someone coming from SoCal would be happier living in the towns I mentioned. The best option of course is to rent and scout around while looking.

[jdhall1]

Originally Posted by KathleenW2

jd, your information is GREAT. But... you are talking like a realtor in that you're saying a lot but also leaving a lot out. Fair enough.

The fact is, Danbury is not the most desirable community. If I were to return to CT, the last place I'd look would be Bridgeport, next would be Danbury. If we were working in Wilton, I'd check out Ridgefield, Redding, Easton and Wilton itself; possibly Fairfield. We moved from CT to SoCal after living in Weston and Wilton for about 14 years.

KathleenW2,
I see you left the county almost 15 years ago, Danbury has really improved in reputation since then is becoming a little bit more upscale, still affordable considering the surrounding towns. I can see why some people would see it as undesirable, since it has things other area towns don't but is needed to have the region grow. Is it so wrong to have office parks, stores, some industrial/technlogy jobs, a 4 year state univesity, affordable housing complexs for low income workers (clerks, hairdressers, waiters, cleaners), a regional municpal airport (so executvies won't have to drive to White Plains, NYC, or Newburgh) and a very large regional mall that provides millions in sales tax revenue to the state? Other towns say 'No' to these sort of things, but we see nothing wrong with these sort of things and we laugh all the way to the bank with these things helping create low property taxes, not a lot of wasted time and gas with things like not having to drive 25 minutes to the nearest grocery store and by having time for our families by not having to be forced to commute to Stamford, Norwalk, White Plains and NYC for jobs unlike more 'quiant' towns of Ridgefield, Wilton, Easton and Redding. I don't see anything wrong with having apartment complexes in town (because they are almost none in the others) since people that don't want to buy yet or can't afford to buy need to live somewhere. There is nothing wrong with a small mininum women's mininum security prison up by the Danbury/ New Fairfield border. The US government does own a good amount of land for it and it is wooded and if they didn't own it, the devolpers would buy the land, strip the land of it's natural beauty (it borders Candlewood Lake) and built a bunch of houses that the young people in the community can't afford. The subsidized housing complexes were going in the wrong direction until the city stepped in redid them and now are just as safe the more traditional suburban areas. Come t think of it, there is a new townhouse community right down the road from one of them and they are selling very well and the complex will continue to improve that area. The area does look a little iffy for about 1 mile in each direction of the highway, but once you get outside of that area it is just as nice as the the previously mentioned towns but for a lot less money.

You will be very lucky to find something under $400,000 in Ridgefield, Redding, Easton, Wilton and Fairfield. The single family homes I seen in the MLS in this price range are either tear downs, in needed a lot of work, or fine up only 1200 square feet. The condos I see after are 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 baths 1100 square feet, and they would go for about $180,000 less in Danbury.

The major thing that has been the closing and encapsulation of the dump off of Plumtrees road near where the Service Merchandise used to be on Danbury Newtown Road. It is all cleaned up and you can't even tell it's there expect where you drive by where is a man-made hill covered the old area in grass and it smells pretty fine and normal over there. With that area all cleaned up. there has been about 5 or 6 new condo/town-home developments that are nice and affordable for the AVERAGE WORKER, about $340,000 for a 3 bed 2 1/2 bath 1800 square feet. There has been at least Toll Brothers style developments and I know of plans for at least three more now that are under construction or very close to getting final approval from the city's planning and zoning committee. There are also construction of mid-high rise (4 story high buildings buildings) condos over-viewing Candlewood Lake with a resort like complex starting at about $500,000 going all the way up to about $750,000, depending on the size, upgrades, and how high up in the building they are. They would go over about double that in Stamford. There is also a huge, 1200 unit master planned community that is being built on the old Union Carbide complex and with the information I have about it could be a large post. It has been also about 10 years since another very large master planned community opened, and they resale starting for about $325,000 for a 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath 1300 square foot town-home and peak at about $500,000 for a larger unit.

I know this seems a little bit long winded, but I hope I got my point across.
J.H

[mstender]

kdtrent,

I just moved to the Danbury area from Orange County, CA, a couple of month ago, so maybe I can tell you a little bit about my own experience.
I think that living in Danbury itself is okay but I think you would probably want to live in one of the towns surrounding Danbury. All the towns (e.g. Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, New Milford, Ridgefield, Newtown) surounding Danbury are very beautiful, safe and family friendly. I think right now you probable get the most house for your money in New Milford, even though you would have a 1 hour commute to Wilton. I bought a house in the same prize range that you are looking at (around $400k) with 4BR, 2.5 Bath, 2200 sft and 1.4 acres (biuld in '85) in a very nice neighbourhood. It seems that the market is very good for buying a house right now and the prices are relatively soft, even thought the market tends to slow down in winter. Especially Ridgefield but also Newtown are on the pricey side and your $400k won't get you that far, even though Ridgefield is very pretty and fancy too. I had a temporary home there for rent before I bought my house.
It appears that the public schools are a lot better here than in California, but don't forget that you are paying higher property taxes in CT compared to CA. We actually decided to send our son to a private school and you will find plenty of good ones with reasonable fees here as well.
Shopping in Danbury is okay but not that great. The Mall is big but only average. If you like some more upscale shopping you can go to the Westchester Mall in White Plains, NY, which is about 45 minutes away from Danbury. Otherwise you can find all the stores for your daily needs in the Danbury area. All of the towns surrounding Danbury of very nice old downtown area with plenty of little stores like art gallleries of antique shops, which I just love.
You can find lots of pretty good restaurants around here even though I have to say that the asian food was probably better in Southern California.
Overall, I am very happy with my move to CT. I just love the area here and don't miss the OC a bit, except sometimes the weather but you get used to it. The fall was just beautiful and so far the winter has been pretty warm, 40-50's, though quite unusual.

Hope that helps a little bit!

Matt