Commutable to Wallingford (New Haven, Hartford, New Britain: to rent, houses, neighborhoods)
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Hi, looking at relocating to CT within this general area, the commute to Wallingford needs to be about a half hour give or take some weather, 50 plus couple no kids so don't care about schools. Looking for a single family home with 3 bedrooms plus and a big garage/workspace. I would like to be able to get out on my road bike and ride mileage on actual roads. Not really sure if we would like to live more country or suburban, will look at either (currently live inside the loop in Houston but only for a couple of years). Are there nearby towns with good walkability? Is snow driving really consistently an issue in winter? We lived in Salt Lake Valley for years but that is nice snow LOL. We have AWDs.
Budget, would like to be lower than 700K, 500K ish would be better. Would like to keep the home size not much more than 3.5K. Lot size is a wild card LOL.
Any advice would be great. It is a bit wide open, we really went for low maintenance, virtually no yard in HTX but those wooded lots look enticing.
I would look at Wallingford itself. You can get a lot of house there with your budget and there are both rural or suburban areas of town. There is a cute downtown area that is small but has some decent shops and restaurants. The town also has its own power company so electric rates are extremely affordable. There is a great YMCA with two branches and a good park and rec department. The town does a decent job plowing and with AWD you’d have no issues (same for all of CT if you are used to driving in snow in my opinion.)
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Originally Posted by Coffeequeen
Hi, looking at relocating to CT within this general area, the commute to Wallingford needs to be about a half hour give or take some weather, 50 plus couple no kids so don't care about schools. Looking for a single family home with 3 bedrooms plus and a big garage/workspace. I would like to be able to get out on my road bike and ride mileage on actual roads. Not really sure if we would like to live more country or suburban, will look at either (currently live inside the loop in Houston but only for a couple of years). Are there nearby towns with good walkability? Is snow driving really consistently an issue in winter? We lived in Salt Lake Valley for years but that is nice snow LOL. We have AWDs.
Budget, would like to be lower than 700K, 500K ish would be better. Would like to keep the home size not much more than 3.5K. Lot size is a wild card LOL.
Any advice would be great. It is a bit wide open, we really went for low maintenance, virtually no yard in HTX but those wooded lots look enticing.
Wallingford would work. If you want something that is more "country" than Wallingford, you would probably find a good value in Northford (North Branford). There is only a very small area that is walkable, and not much to walk to, but the very basics (post office, library, pharmacy, grocery, gas station, etc.) are all in one place. Northford is rural but is not very far from the action.
Edit to my post... Eastern Wallingford is very rural also.
Hi, looking at relocating to CT within this general area, the commute to Wallingford needs to be about a half hour give or take some weather, 50 plus couple no kids so don't care about schools. Looking for a single family home with 3 bedrooms plus and a big garage/workspace. I would like to be able to get out on my road bike and ride mileage on actual roads. Not really sure if we would like to live more country or suburban, will look at either (currently live inside the loop in Houston but only for a couple of years). Are there nearby towns with good walkability? Is snow driving really consistently an issue in winter? We lived in Salt Lake Valley for years but that is nice snow LOL. We have AWDs.
Budget, would like to be lower than 700K, 500K ish would be better. Would like to keep the home size not much more than 3.5K. Lot size is a wild card LOL.
Any advice would be great. It is a bit wide open, we really went for low maintenance, virtually no yard in HTX but those wooded lots look enticing.
Wallingford is nice itself. For a nice little walkable downtown look at Middletown which borders the CT river. Wesleyan University is in Middletown also. You will get a lot for your budget ($500,000) in the entire area.
Branford has a nice walkable dowtown area and the town is on the coast. You could find a nice house in between the coastline and downtown for your budget. You could ride you motorcycle along the coastline on Route 142/146. Route 142/146 in nice in a car so I assume it's great on a bike.
Off the top of my head, I'd suggest looking in Wallingford, Durham, Middlefield, and the southwestern corner of Middletown. I worked in Wallingford for about a decade, and I used to rent down by the Middletown/Middlefield line before moving to the other side of the Connecticut River.
Your budget should go pretty far in those towns.
Wallingford itself is quite nice. There's a cute little downtown area with some good bars and restaurants, great highway access, a commuter rail station, and plenty of retail and big-box stores nearby. One thing that's pretty unique about Wallingford is that they have their own electric utility company, so residents get cheaper electricity than the rest of the state.
Durham and Middlefield are the neighboring towns to the East, and they have more of a country feel to them than Wallingford. The southwestern corner of Middletown bordering those towns preserves some of that feel as well.
Downtown Middletown has a great walkable strip of shops and restaurants, and it's a quick and easy drive from the more rural areas I mentioned above.
You can't really go wrong with road biking in this area. There's plenty of backroads and nice rolling hills to ride through. When I lived in the area I used to ride to a nearby orchard (Lyman Orchards) all the time.
As the others already said, I would start in Wallingford. It’s a nice middle class town that has a lot to offer. It has good shopping and restaurants and it’s taxes and electric rates are among the lowest in the state.
If you want a more upscale town, you might look at nearby Cheshire. It’s a beautiful town with nice stores and restaurants. Taxes however will be higher because it is a very family oriented town with good schools.
Personally though, I’d head to the shore. As CTartist recommenced, Branford is a great town. It has a nice town center with great shops and restaurants. There’s a beautiful shoreline and lots of nice neighborhoods. I think it’s a great place to live. Jay
Wallingford could work, certainly a walkable downtown.
The next bike-friendly and walkable areas I would recommend within 30 min are Westville and East Rock in New Haven, Milford, Middletown, and Branford. About in that order of walkability. The only downside of New Haven is the property taxes but it’s the best place to live in for walkability. Next best would be downtown/coastal Milford.
I HIGHLY recommend Guilford!!! It is about a 30 min commute to Wallingford, and Guilford is a very nice town with some extremely pretty areas. The commute should be pretty consistent with little traffic because is just a good drive up Routes 22 and 150. Almost a straight diagonal line. Parts of Guilford are suburban while other parts are rural, and you'll definitely find a good sized house with a good workspace there. Fairly affordable town as well. It is also very bike friendly and unless you are on Route 1, you won't find too many cars driving back and fourth so you should be fine. It has a good downtown with a fair amount of shopping and some nice restaurants. Then there is also the coast and some of the coastlines are very scenic. Really Check out Guilford. It is a very nice town and not too far from Wallingford.
All of the towns mentioned are good options. Southington is also a good option. Only about 20 minutes from Wallingford via I-691 and either I-91 or the Parkway, and no major rush hour headaches other than a couple of blinding sun delays at certain times of the year. It also has a nice walkable downtown, a linear trail for biking and walking, and plenty of retail options. Plus property taxes are pretty manageable.
Not really sure if we would like to live more country or suburban, will look at either (currently live inside the loop in Houston but only for a couple of years). Are there nearby towns with good walkability?
Suburban and country in Connecticut are interwoven. Except in cities like New Britain, Hartford, New Haven, which were built up before cars were the thing, you'll find lot sizes are way bigger than in any suburban setting around Houston. Subdivisions run small--20 houses or fewer--and they're scattered around through otherwise rural-seeming country. Many of these developments will have municipal water but no sewer, but the septic tank works fine when lots are an acre or more. There are many many nice places to walk in natural settings but few towns are really walkable for everyday needs the way the inner loop is (unless it isn't). Things are pretty close together and it's easy to reach one of the more walkable spots in leisure hours when you want to, such as central New Haven and smaller places like Middletown and West Hartford. The road biking opportunity in Connecticut would be difficult to overstate-- gorgeous rural scenery east, west, north and south.
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