[BonaFamily]

Hello!

My husband recently got hired for a financial firm located in Waterbury, CT. He is there already renting a small place in Naugatuck. We currently live in Berks County, PA. I have been so overwhelmed trying to decide even where we should live! We have 3 children; one in 5th grade and preschooler (4) and a 2 year old and we would like to know if anyone has any suggestions are far as New Haven County goes. We would like to reside in a place that has excellent schools, plenty of parks and trails and has afforbale housing. We are considering Cheshire as it seemed very nice.

Where we live currently we live in the suburbs and have an excellent school district. We are within 6-10 driving minutes to shops, malls, stores, etc. We would like to find a town/area that is similar to ours.

My husband will most likely several years(5-6) from now be working in New York as his career progresses so we are considering that future commute as well.

Any advice you can give would be wonderful! I'm also just learned about the magnent schools they have in CT any info or thoughts that could be shared would be great.

[arielmina]

Honestly, especially if he might one day be commuting to NYC, i'd check out Ridgefield. It's not a terrible commute to Waterbury (30 mins with no traffic - never driven it in rush hour so not sure how much that will add) and it's going to be commutable to NYC as well. The schools can't be beat, great little town with lots of shops and convenience, close to Danbury mall etc. Or even the Newtown/Bridgewater area.

[JayCT]

What is your price range? Ridgefield is very expensive. There are many nice towns with excellent schools in Connecticut. It is just a matter of how much you can afford and how far from your husband's job you want to be. Jay

[BonaFamily]

Originally Posted by JayCT

What is your price range? Ridgefield is very expensive. There are many nice towns with excellent schools in Connecticut. It is just a matter of how much you can afford and how far from your husband's job you want to be. Jay

We'd like to try and stay in the $350,00 range or less. I was looking at some lovely homes online in Cheshire and the neighborhoods seem nice. We don't want anything real fancy...average middle/upper middle class housing. We are looking for schools that are in a surburban /rural setting as that is what we have here. What do you think of Milford? We'd like to keep the commute for the job he has now arounbd 30-35 minutes or less.

My husband looked at Waterbury and Naugatuck and he was not pleased with either of those two towns for our family to live.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by BonaFamily

We'd like to try and stay in the $350,00 range or less. I was looking at some lovely homes online in Cheshire and the neighborhoods seem nice. We don't want anything real fancy...average middle/upper middle class housing. We are looking for schools that are in a surburban /rural setting as that is what we have here. What do you think of Milford? We'd like to keep the commute for the job he has now arounbd 30-35 minutes or less.

My husband looked at Waterbury and Naugatuck and he was no pleased with eith of those two towns for our family to live.

Look into the towns between Waterbury and Danbury if you need access to NYC. Southbury is a great start, as are Oxford, Middlebury and Newtown. For $350k you can get a nice but modest home with a good sized yard. Once you go south and west of Southbury it becomes very expensive (Ridgefield, Redding, Easton, Trumbull). Cheshire is a beautiful town as well. You can't really go wrong there, either. I would still suggest you look into Southbury though.

Milford is very suburban, but is on LI Sound and has easy access to Metro North Railroad into Grand Central. Milford is more congested and not at all rural, but there is tons of shopping around. If I had to choose between Cheshire and Milford, it would be Cheshire, hands down.

[SailCT]

If that is your price range you should consider Monroe and Trumbull; both have excellent schools and sports programs; plus you can access the trains for a NYC commute and the beaches are just south of there. Milford is very dicey depending what part of town you move to; and I read a stat that only 60% of their HS students graduate? Which actually I have some trouble believing. If you want somewhat rural, not urban; and potentially commutable to NYC you might also want to consider Redding; it is also very nice with great schools. In general, in the current RE environment I would not buy right now unless you are very, very confident on values; I would rent for a year and then buy; it's worth it to store a lot of your stuff. This way you can learn about the area and not take any risks. If your husband may commute to NYC you may want the flexibility that renting first would give you. Ct is very different from PA.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by SailCT

If that is your price range you should consider Monroe and Trumbull; both have excellent schools and sports programs; plus you can access the trains for a NYC commute and the beaches are just south of there. Milford is very dicey depending what part of town you move to; and I read a stat that only 60% of their HS students graduate? Which actually I have some trouble believing. If you want somewhat rural, not urban; and potentially commutable to NYC you might also want to consider Redding; it is also very nice with great schools. In general, in the current RE environment I would not buy right now unless you are very, very confident on values; I would rent for a year and then buy; it's worth it to store a lot of your stuff. This way you can learn about the area and not take any risks. If your husband may commute to NYC you may want the flexibility that renting first would give you. Ct is very different from PA.

I'm not sure that for 350k, the op can afford Redding or Trumbull. If they can find a house they like for that price, I say go for it. Both are beautiful towns.

[JViello]

I think Monroe would be perfect for you. Monroe center is about 25 miles to Waterbury, has a decent range of homes for $350K, is somewhat rural, lots of state/town parks nearby, (Webb Mountain Park, Wolfe Park, Indian Well etc) plenty of shopping and/or access to it and it's very commutable to NYC when that time comes.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Monroe-Connecticut.html

http://www.8towns.com/monroe_ct.php

It almost reminds me of a Fairfield County version of Cheshire. A lot of folks seem to forget about the town.

Best of luck.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by SailCT

Milford is very dicey depending what part of town you move to

I'm personally not a fan of that town, but i can't remember anyone describing it as being very dicey in certain areas. I've always associated that terminology to mean a street that is unsafe to walk down, and i honestly can't think of any that fit that description in that town.

[Lowerdeck]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

I'm personally not a fan of that town, but i can't remember anyone describing it as being very dicey in certain areas. I've always associated that terminology to mean a street that is unsafe to walk down, and i honestly can't think of any that fit that description in that town.

My guess would have been the Devon area. But that is not even as bad as parts of Stratford or West Haven. Especially now considering every time I go through there, there's seemingly two more Kingdom Life buildings.