[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

Almost all of West Hartford is on natural gas - fail.

Went through a list of the 80 homes on the market in WH going a little above & below your 450-650 price range - 70 have natural gas heat, two have propane, two have electric heat and a whopping 6 have oil.

I wish this were true as we've been wanting gas for years. We have oil, as does a big chunk of the neighborhood. Hard to assess the coverage just by looking at what's for sale.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

Almost all of West Hartford is on natural gas - fail.

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

I wish this were true as we've been wanting gas for years. We have oil, as does a big chunk of the neighborhood. Hard to assess the coverage just by looking at what's for sale.

You can look up whether or not a particular street has a gas line by searching through individual properties(tedious to do though) to see what heating system they use:

Vision Government Solutions.

FTR, C-D's WeHa stats page lists the town at 52% NG. I don't see who the source of the info is though.

Edit to say that the source should probably be good, as i know that the numbers on New Canaan's stat page are correct.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

You can look up whether or not a particular street has a gas line by searching through individual properties(tedious to do though) to see what heating system they use:

Vision Government Solutions.

FTR, C-D's WeHa stats page lists the town at 52% NG. I don't see who the source of the info is though.

Edit to say that the source should probably be good, as i know that the numbers on New Canaan's stat page are correct.

That sounds a lot more accurate...thanks

[kidyankee764]

I spent a period of time in the Woodland Hills area of CA, and moved back to CT a few years ago. The lifestyle in CT and the northeast is far different.

First, you'll find people here to be more intelligent. I hate to say it, but when I moved to LA, I immediately noticed a difference in intelligence. In general, people here are more practical problem solvers. I didn't find that to be the case there. I did find people in the LA suburbs to be uber pretentious, but that's not much different than in CT. Pace of life in Hartford will be more laid back (think Orange County or Santa Barbara pace) but once you get to the southern half of CT, it's the NYC/Boston rat race with LA style traffic complete with a good amount of road ragers.

Next, re:cost of living, both places are among the most expensive in the country to live in different ways. It depends on where in LA you're coming from, and where in CT you're moving to. If you're moving to southwestern CT, you'll find COL to be higher than in LA. If you're moving to the Hartford or New Haven areas, the COL will be slightly less than LA, but not significantly less. You're moving to an area that is similar in cost to the San Bernardino area. When I moved back east, I lived near New Haven, which is similar to Hartford in COL, and my costs were similar to when I lived in LA. Now I live in southwestern CT and everything is higher than what I remember prices to be in LA. You will definitely pay more in income tax in LA, but what makes LA prohibitive over other metros in the US is the home prices. Other than that, property taxes, groceries, and utilities were less in CA - MUCH less, actually. What you're saving on a mortgage by moving to Hartford, you'll make up for in property tax, vehicle tax, and utilities (and, no, NewJeff, most homes in West Hartford are NOT on natural gas). Vehicle registration in CA is high for the first year for out of state vehicles, then after that, renewal is similar to here. The incomes in CT are also higher than in LA, so people here will have more expendable cash.

I think you'll enjoy CT, especially West Hartford. As I said, there's an intellectual element here you just don't find in LA away from the campuses of UCLA and Pepperdine.

I also want to suggest to a few posters - if you don't know anything about the area where an OP is moving from, don't start spouting about what you think you know. That comment about tolls in the city of Los Angeles was laughable. Yes, there are some tolls near LA, but definitely not anything like the Northeast - and certainly not enough to justify using it as ammo to push your cost of living opinion. /rant

[NewJeffCT]

Actually, kidyankee, I went back over the last several years of sales in West Hartford (2009-2013). Not counting condos, about 2/3 of the homes in West Hartford that have sold have had natural gas heat. There were a handful of homes that had propane, electric, geothermal or "other" heat, but less than 30% had oil heat. (This was for over 5,000 homes sold)

Now, that's certainly not definitive - you can say that homes with oil heat don't sell, or that people with oil heat don't want to sell their homes - but for closed sales of single-family residential homes in West Hartford, the homes that have sold have had natural gas as their heating source 2/3 of the time.

I'm guessing condos would probably be a higher percentage on natural gas, as most of the condos are in more centralized locations.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

Actually, kidyankee, I went back over the last several years of sales in West Hartford (2009-2013). Not counting condos, about 2/3 of the homes in West Hartford that have sold have had natural gas heat. There were a handful of homes that had propane, electric, geothermal or "other" heat, but less than 30% had oil heat. (This was for over 5,000 homes sold)

Unfortunately your research only included a small sample of homes in West Hartford, as the numbers show nearly half of all homes in the town use oil. Period.

[NewJeffCT]

Also, for the car assessed at $28,000, means you paid $40,000 for it. You will pay $3,600 in sales tax in LA vs $2,540 in Connecticut, a difference of $1,060.

The $1,000 in property tax you'd pay in West Hartford is tax deductible, similar to property taxes on your home. The sales tax in LA or CT is not.

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Unfortunately your research only included a small sample of homes in West Hartford, as the numbers show nearly half of all homes in the town use oil. Period.

source outside of City Data?

[NewJeffCT]

and, I say outside of city data because the last time somebody cited City Data for crime statistics on here, it was to promote Groton as a great place to live because they haven't had a murder in 10 years. Meanwhile, the state DPS website has Groton down for 10 murders over that time frame.

[BHuntsman]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

and, I say outside of city data because the last time somebody cited City Data for crime statistics on here, it was to promote Groton as a great place to live because they haven't had a murder in 10 years. Meanwhile, the state DPS website has Groton down for 10 murders over that time frame.

NewJeff, we lived in Santa Cruz for 7 years. CA sales tax is high, however when you trade in a vehicle or put a down payment on the new vehicle, you are only taxed only on the balance. One thing I realized in CT, is you are taxed on the negotiated purchase price before deductions.