[roxatwist]

Hi everyone. My husband is currently in the military. We are considering moving to CT based on the public education system there. We have a baby boy and when DH gets out we want him to get the best education possible. I will be teaching elementary and my husband will also be a teacher. My question is: Where should we consider moving in CT? It must, must have excellent schools, but housing costs can't be outrageous. Thank you so much.

[Uconn97]

Well, for housing affordability I would look possibly in Hartford County. I think we would need more info - like what do you consider outrageous for housing costs?

[usmcfamily]

Will he be retiring? Would you want to be close to MTF's or a commissary? If so, I would look at towns outside of New London Sub Base such as Madison, or Danbury (West Point) such as Bethel, New Fairfield. If you don't need to be near a base, then your options are greater.

Unfortunately, a lot of the towns with the best school systems are very expensive. Darien, New Canaan, Westport, Wilton, Weston, Greenwich etc. have top schools and million dollar housing. There are a lot of great schools districts all over the state where housing is less expensive.

What is your budget? What additional amenities are you looking for in a town?

[KH02]

best school systems = high cost housing....sorry.

But if you can afford 350K and upwards you could find something in Avon, Simsbury or west Hartford.. but just know you wont get as much house for your money as in other places of the country

[JayCT]

There are many nice towns with very good to excellent schools here in Connecticut. It all depends on what you want. It will take a bit more information to determine where would be best for you.

You should first kind of figure out which metropolitan area you want. If you want to be near the shore, the New Haven area would be best. Towns along the coast are a bit pricer but you can find some reasonable homes in towns like Branford, Guilford and even Madison. Other possiblities include Milford, North Haven and Wallingford.

Hartford is a great area too. It has many wonderful suburbs to live in. The top towns for schools are Avon, Simsbury, Farmington, West Hartford and Glastonbury. These are upscale towns and a bit pricey but generally have at least some reasonable priced homes available. Other towns to consider are Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Newington and South Windsor.

The links below will give you information on the schools in different towns in the state. Generally I look for towns that perform above the state average on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance tests. I also look for towns with class sizes around 20 students or less. I hope this helps. Jay

Strategic School Profiles by District

Strategic School Profiles by School

[minna]

You may want to consider Tolland County. It's not metro, but there are some very good schools in many towns here, and housing costs are very reasonable. You can find decent entry level housing in the 200 k range.

[Jessica Beganski]

Connecticut may be a small state but there are 169 more or less distinct towns, where the quality of schools and price of housing varies significantly. Median home sales price ranges from about $190,000 in Windham County to $575,000 in Fairfield County.

Based on your likely combined income, I'd guess you're looking at spending no more than $300,000. In the Greater Hartford area, look at West Hartford, S Windsor and Newington - you'll get more value for your housing dollar in Newington but West Hartford has the best schools in the area.

JayCT also made some suggestions and those towns have great schools but finding a house under $300,000 will be much more difficult - not impossible but harder.

Other things to consider - small town, suburb or city? Do you want a lot of activities, restaurants, nearby? Where will you be working and how far will you be willing to commute? Do you need to be near anything (beach, family, church, shopping,etc). What size house would you want?

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by minna

You may want to consider Tolland County. It's not metro, but there are some very good schools in many towns here, and housing costs are very reasonable. You can find decent entry level housing in the 200 k range.

But it IS part of the Hartford Metro.

[roxatwist]

I'm guessing 300k sounds about right. We're not looking for anything big, a 2 - 3 bedroom maybe. I really like the sound of glastonbury right now. What's around there?

[njohnson]

Glastonbury is a pretty expensive area to live but it does have some of the best schools around. Depending on what you are looking for you can probably find a house for around 300K-400K. I included Glastonbury in my recent home search but have been unable to find a decent 3BR 2.5BA home there for under $350K.

It's a really nice area with some good shopping however being on the "other side of the river" makes it slightly more inaccessible to parts of Western CT, which you may not care about. The North parts of Glastonbury are much more highway accessible than the South which would require a drive to get to route 3 or cross the portland bridge to get to route 9.

East of Glastonbury it gets very rural with good outdoor activities such as hiking and state parks.

West across the river you have Wethersfield which has a nice old area with a large kids park and some decent shopping along the Silistine Hwy.

I would say the further you go North the less desireable the areas in general, mostly due to the proximity of East Hartford and Manchester.