Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Connecticut
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 03-03-2012, 03:59 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,812 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

My husband and I are looking to move to Conneticut in the late summer. We are not familiar with the place what so ever, but I am going to school at the University of New Haven, and hope to also find a close place to work. I've heard lots of crazy things about living IN new haven itself like "bring a gun" and "don't go out alone at night". Not only is it now just my husband and I moving, but I'm also pregnant. So of course we naturally want a safe place for me, husband and baby to live.

I want to be decently close to the school, ideally only 15mins away, but i'm willing to drive a halfhour if that's what it takes to get a safe place.

We are on a low budget, and have no pets, hoping for rent to be around 900 for a two bedroom with heat and hotwater...but I dont know if that's stretching it?

I would love some help, as we want to start looking and being aware of good places and areas to live now so we arent scrambling in the end and getting a bad place.

If most places dont include heat and hotwater...how much does heat and water usually run people average? I live in Maine, so you can imagine, we use quite a bit


thanks for any advice and help!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-03-2012, 07:17 PM
 
Location: In a house
13,250 posts, read 42,708,910 times
Reputation: 20198
University of New Haven is actually in West Haven, on the New Haven border. It's near the VA hospital and Notre Dame High School.

Rents in West Haven are pretty reasonable; it's primarily blue collar, and lower-middle class, with a pretty varied diverse population. The crime rate is lower than in certain areas of the city of New Haven, but West Haven has its low points. The school system isn't much to write home about either but that won't be a problem for you for a few years anyway.

West Haven is very old, and it looks old. Parts of it really could use some serious renovating. But I personally love it there. I grew up spending a lot of time in West Haven because my grandfather was a dentist on Main Street and my mother grew up in the house where my grandfather's office was.

If your apartment is at least a full block away from Campbell Avenue, you should find a relatively safe area up and down the length of the main part of town. With street-side parking. Someone who lives there currently, might be able to get more detailed than that. The square I'm thinking of, if someone can chime in here..is this:

Southernmost would be Brown. On the west, would be Washington. The furthest east would be Second Ave, and north to Elm. It's racially and culturally diverse and varied, so it -could- be intimidating I guess to people who see it for the first time. But I used to work at the Community House and never had any problems at all and everyone who lived in the area was always pleasant and welcoming. I parked on Union near Smith, usually. And I often walked around running errands to Campbell.

Not the most upscale area, but I've seen a lot worse.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2012, 07:59 PM
 
Location: Coastal Connecticut
21,626 posts, read 27,921,884 times
Reputation: 6687
Yeah, West Haven isn't the most attractive area. The Downtown leaves something to be desired too. There are nice parts on the water, but they cost accordingly.

Unfortunately your budget is a little unrealistic in the area. You may have to stretch that a bit. Even in West Haven. You could also look in Derby and Ansonia, they may be a little cheaper than West Haven and are about 15-20 minutes away.

Other nicer areas like the best neighborhoods in New Haven (many are safe - but they come at a price), Orange and Milford will just be plain too expensive and you'd have to go over at least $1200 for a 2BR.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2012, 06:10 AM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,808 posts, read 56,697,113 times
Reputation: 11194
I don't find downtown West Haven to be that bad. West Haven is a blue collar town and you will find businesses that serve a mor eblue collar clientel. Nothing wrong with that. Jay
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2012, 06:52 AM
 
5,064 posts, read 15,869,517 times
Reputation: 3571
There have been robberies of students in the neighborhoods immediately surrounding UNH, so I wouldn't recommend looking at rentals in that neighborhood since you are pregnant. Odds are that you'd be fine, but why risk it. For that budget you should look into Derby, there are some safe neighborhoods near Rt. 34.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2012, 07:57 AM
 
21,588 posts, read 31,083,742 times
Reputation: 9712
Check out the Briarwood Complex in Branford. Branford is a very safe, nice community. I know small 2brs list there for about 900.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Connecticut
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:37 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top