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Old 09-08-2007, 08:20 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
561 posts, read 1,915,841 times
Reputation: 257

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Hello,

My wife and I are originally from Connecticut. We've lived in Danbury, Oakville, and Ansonia. We are currently living in Central Florida and want very much to come back to CT. We would want to sell our house here and hope to break even with the sale. We would have to rent a 3 bedroom apartment and would want to be close to the waterbury area. Our budget is $1000.00/month. I know that this is not a lot, but we don't mind living in the boondocks. My question is, does anyone know about these apartments or the area they are in?

Summer Brook
35-CC Darling Street, Southington, CT 06489
Apartment Overview Summer Brook Greater Connecticut, CT

We have 2 little girls ages 2 and 9 months and just want a safe neighborhood with good schools. We don't care about being close to shopping, restaraunts, etc...

Thanks for any help.

Last edited by markhunt; 09-08-2007 at 08:59 PM..
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Old 09-08-2007, 09:22 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,651 posts, read 56,427,911 times
Reputation: 11151
Hi Markhunt - Welcome back to Connecticut. I can not comment on the apratments you listed but I can tell you that Southington is a nice town with good schools. The town's Connecticut Mastery Test scores are above the state average and the class sizes are under 20 students in the lower grades. I will tell you that the class sizes for the middle and high school levels are a bit high (over 20) and Southington High school is pretty large and crowded. This should not matter to you given the age of your children.

The apartments you depict look nice but there appear to be income limits which you should check into to be certain you qualify. Good luck, Jay
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Old 09-08-2007, 09:49 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
561 posts, read 1,915,841 times
Reputation: 257
Thank you for the reply Jay. If these apartments are income restrictive, we would probably qualify. We are in a tough situation here. We just bought a house a few months ago in a new community which still has an additional 200 homes left to be built. This is why I don't think we may even be able to break even because people can still buy similar homes brand new for the same price.

I am working as a Network Administrator earning $45,000/yr. I was extremley lucky to get this job because I have no college degree or any technical certifications. I started working where I am as a janitor making $8.00/hr doing computer work on the side. They gave me a shot because they know I had experiance with computers and everything has worked out since then.

The big problem is I know when we move back to Connecticut I am not going to find a job making even remotley close to what I make here simply because I have no college or any type of degrees. I know i'm looking at probably 15-20k per year. My wife is on social security disability in which she gets $8400/yr. I know all of us qualify for the CT HUSKY program in which my 2 kids as well as us will be covered for health insurance.

On the surface it may seem like we are taking a huge step back, which we are financially, but i believe there are more important factors to consider now with young children:

Crime
Sexual Predators
Good Schools
Good Healthcare

Florida ranks extremley high with the first two I listed, and extremley low with the second two. I tell my wife that we would have a better quality of life for our children being poor in Connecticut than being middle class in florida.

All this being said, we are trying to find any apartments within 30 minutes to Oakville (except in Waterbury), that are $1000.00 per month for a 3 bedroom. We were also thinking of Plymouth, Terryville, or Thomaston, but I'm having trouble finding anything online for these areas.
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Old 09-08-2007, 10:10 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,651 posts, read 56,427,911 times
Reputation: 11151
Hi Mark - It sounds like you have thought this through fairly well. You seem to be willing to give up a lot (your own home and a good job) to return here. Plymouth, Terryville and Thomaston are pretty small towns so finding an apartment there may be difficult. Check craigslist.com and the local papers. The Bristol Press covers part of this area, also the Waterbury Republican. Good luck, Jay
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Old 09-09-2007, 11:05 PM
 
Location: CT
5 posts, read 14,449 times
Reputation: 10
Default Darling Street...

Hi Mark,

I actually used to live on Darling Street a few years back. The street has apartments on one end and condos on the other (with an elderly home in the middle). I used to live in 1 of the condos on the very end and loved living there. The apartments you are asking about have recently been totally renovated and look great now. They were in desperate need of the renovations, and finally they got them inside and out - so at least you know that everything should be in working order. The street is quiet and sucluded (lightly wooded behind the apartments), with the exception of the occasional thumping stereos going by and the highschool band and football games during this time of year (Southington High School is directly behind the street). Honestly, it never bothered us, we got used to the music and the "noise" of the games - although we didn't have kids then either. If your kids are light sleepers, you may want to be as far away from that end of the street as possible - sometimes they played until 10 pm or so. The street is, in my opinion, in a great location too. There is a groocery store literally down the road (which is always a plus) and everything you may need is no more than 10 minutes or so in one direction of Queen street or the other. Southington is a great town IMO - I would love to return to that town (and may be one day I will - right now we are trying to get out of CT). It combines the feel of a small town (with the town green, concerts and the Fall Apple Festivle) with the modern day needs and wants. It gets 2 thumbs up from me.
Also, try looking at The Step Saver on line, thats the local paper that has lots of rentals in it. There are lots of duplexes in Southington too, and for $1000 you should be able to find some. But honestly, if you qualify for the income requirements for these aprartments, I would go with them. I think you will be happy there. Best of luck to you!! And feel free to DM me if you want more info.
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Old 09-10-2007, 08:28 AM
 
25 posts, read 101,042 times
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Hello,

We also took a step back when we moved to CT from Quebec, Canada but we did it for the kids. I am orginally from CT. When we moved we rented my father's condominim in New Haven so we wouldn't have to worry about where we wanted to stay. We had to send the kids to private school because New Haven schools are not so great. We were completely broke and we wanted to live in a better town for our kids. We did a lot of research and ended up renting a house in Southington. We love it here. We love our son's school, the people are nice and we are just minutes from shopping. Here are the websites we used besides city-data (obviously you already know about this one)to make our choice:

GreatSchools.net
(the school that your children would be attending if you live on Darling street is the biggest elementary school in Southington, there are a lot of kids in there however I have only heard good words about it so far)

craigslist: san francisco bay area classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events & Reminder Newspapers & Yellow Pages (to look for apartments,however I have found that a lot of people dont put ads online or in the paper and just stick a (for rent) sign in the front yard)

You can also try REALTOR.com - Real Estate Listings & Homes For Sale for apartments

If you have any other questions about Southington, please feel free to give me a shout. I was in your shoes 3 years ago.

Mel
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Old 09-10-2007, 02:42 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
561 posts, read 1,915,841 times
Reputation: 257
ahtarl and melhuber,

Thank you both for your posts. Very good info ahtarl that helps me out a lot! I will be checking these apartments out when i go on vacation to see family in Jan.

melhuber, it's nice to hear someone who was in a similar situation that made it back. This gives me hope and inspiration. Thanks!

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