[Dslater]

Hello all I wanted to get some advice and see what people can tell me about the area. My wife is finishing her teaching degree and we would really like to relocate from Iowa to CT. We have a 2 year old and a newborn the plan is to move around January 2010. I am trying to locate a place for us and do some reasearch.

What I am looking for is quite simple.

Would like a 30 minute or so commute to Hartford.
Willing to rent an apartment first then find a home once we are settled in
Would love to live in a smaller town like Washington Depot, Waterbury.
Someplace that is kid friendly with some top schools..

So any ideas on the cost of living and such for example what are you currently paying in gas whats an averga e grocery cost for a family of 4 things like that. Any help would be appreciated. Also whats a good place to visit to get a feel for CT is it worth just taking a road trip around the state?

Thanks again for the help.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Dslater

Hello all I wanted to get some advice and see what people can tell me about the area. My wife is finishing her teaching degree and we would really like to relocate from Iowa to CT. We have a 2 year old and a newborn the plan is to move around January 2010. I am trying to locate a place for us and do some reasearch.

What I am looking for is quite simple.

Would like a 30 minute or so commute to Hartford.
Willing to rent an apartment first then find a home once we are settled in
Would love to live in a smaller town like Washington Depot, Waterbury.
Someplace that is kid friendly with some top schools..

So any ideas on the cost of living and such for example what are you currently paying in gas whats an averga e grocery cost for a family of 4 things like that. Any help would be appreciated. Also whats a good place to visit to get a feel for CT is it worth just taking a road trip around the state?

Thanks again for the help.

Cost of living in CT will be much higher than in Iowa.

That said, Washington Depot is a very affluent, pricey town. On the other side, Waterbury is a larger depressed city in CT that has cheap housing, but for a reason. Also for top schools in CT, you will pay top dollar.

If you're living in Hartford, I might suggest West Hartford, Newington, Bloomfield, Vernon or if you'd like more rural, Burlington or Canton. I'm not sure how much you are looking to spend however.

[skytrekker]

Washington Depot as KY764 said above is a small little New England Enclave in southwestern CT that is exceedingly expensive- with celebs, Wall Street Financiers, and some professional inheritors.

Look in greater Hartford, west, north, south and east of Hartford. Prices here though higher then Iowa will be far less then Toney WD.

East of the Connecticut river into Tolland and Windham county have the cheapest real estate- Vernon has some nice rentals.
Consider Vernon, South Windsor, Bolton, Ellington, Tolland, Stafford Springs and Willington- all East of Hartford in Tolland county, except S. Windsor in Hartford County.

median home price all of greater Hartford around 250K. 2 bedroom rents in a nice area, in a newer upper end apartment $1100+ Month in greater Hartford.

Cost of living here is high- property taxes can be a big burden, depending on the town/ and the size of home (for home owners) The sales tax is 6% - this excludes groceries, prescriptions ..... State income tax around 5%

Autos/trucks are taxed- by the town you reside- new and larger vehicles will be more. No other local or county taxes except real estate and vehicles.

Food will be about the same- meat higher, fish/seafood lower. Gasoline currently as low as $3.64 a gallon. Utility rates, especially for electricity- high. If oil is used for heating- $3.80+ Per gallon.

Teaching jobs demand higher for secondary ed- special ed- math, science, ESOL....

[bethec1972]

Also thought I'd mention that elementary ed. teaching jobs are very, very hard to come by.

[Dslater]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I realized quickly from my research it would be higher end for us espcially coming from Iowa. I would love a rural community definetly see I am going to have to pay for that however.

but over all cost looks to be close to what Iowa is so thats good. Best option it looks is to buy ahome instead of renting. So are there any places I should really avoid?

[ctcoldplay11]

I would avoid Waterbury, Hartford and New Britain in the case of your interests. Check out Burlington, Bolton, Marlborough, Hebron and Colchester. All beautiful towns!

Hope this helps!

[pmeek2309]

Originally Posted by Dslater

Thanks for the feedback so far. I realized quickly from my research it would be higher end for us espcially coming from Iowa. I would love a rural community definetly see I am going to have to pay for that however.

but over all cost looks to be close to what Iowa is so thats good. Best option it looks is to buy ahome instead of renting. So are there any places I should really avoid?

Cost of living in Connecticut is much higher. We were a bit shocked at the prices even coming from a rural area near Seattle, which is still quite expensive. Home heating is outrageous in CT and gas prices are among the nations highest. A lot of things are taxed higher here than in other places...vehicles, gas, cigarettes if you're a smoker, property taxes are high due to no county government (not a bad thing). One good thing is you don't have to worry about flood, hurricane or earthquake insurance. CT doesn't get much extreme weather except for the occasional thunderstorm in summer. And we'll see what winter brings! But CT can't really compare to IA in terms of cost of living.

For housing...when we were looking, all of the steals were found in eastern CT. It is the most affordable area and some towns looked very quaint and woodsy. A little far out for my taste but beautiful nontheless. In this market I would say to go ahead and buy. You can find some great deals under 300k most especially in eastern CT where it seems that can but you a new home.

[KH02]

I'm assuming with two kids you're looking for a 3 bedroom.
You could rent a 3 bedroom single family home in a Hartford County town with good schools for about 1500 a month and up. Less then that would be a challenge unless you compromise on having less then the BEST of schools.
Our heating bill last winter was about 750 a month or so... YIKES!!
We are a family of four and our grocery bills are about 500 a month
Gas for our two cars (we dont commute far) runs us about 100 a week or so....though we do have SUV's..

Property taxes are also high!! FYI and we do pay Car tax which is unkonw to many out of state..

[brasscitybluenwhite]

Originally Posted by ctcoldplay11

I would avoid Waterbury, Hartford and New Britain in the case of your interests. Check out Burlington, Bolton, Marlborough, Hebron and Colchester. All beautiful towns!

Hope this helps!

Thats like saying "I would avoid Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, and check out the hamptons or westchester." Lets be serious. Have you looked at the average house in these suburbs and compared it to the price you'd find in Waterbury? C'mon,

To the person that originally wrote this post,
Taking a road trip around Connecticut may be a great idea. In my short life, I've had the pleasure of going on bike rides in Roxbury and going to eat at their breakfast shop. I was treated like family. South Britain has still has a General Store and Heritage Village's residents are snotty. During the summer, you can still smell the stench of horse crap while driving through the towns of mansfield and coventry. I remember as a child going to Marcus Dairy in Danbury and having their fresh milkshakes. In Waterbury, Nardelli's has the best grinders in the state and Frankie's has the best hot dogs. Hartford has good Jamaican food and New Haven is the place to be on fridays. In Waterbury, everyone hops on the Metro North to go school shopping in New York City. We even use the railroad to go to the Puerto Rican Day Parade. If you get off at 125th St, you can catch the subway to Yankee Stadium, which is very popular among waterburians. Have you ever heard of the UCONN Huskies? Blue and White are the colors of choice on game days..

Connecticut needs more 24 hr diners though, lol.

[RHB]

Salem