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Old 03-12-2015, 11:47 AM
 
7 posts, read 8,029 times
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Hello,

My family and I will be relocating to CT for work and are considering New Milford, CT. We are originally from MA and CT so are familiar with the Northeast.

Originally we looked at properties in Brookfield and Newtown with a budget of 400k, however it appears there are new, larger homes and lower taxes in New Milford.

If you have experience with New Milford, would you characterize it as a desirable town? How are the schools and services within the town? Is there strong resale and or rental market, we will be moving again in 3-4 years.

Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
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Old 03-12-2015, 12:10 PM
 
Location: CT, New England
678 posts, read 847,077 times
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Hey, welecome to the forums! Guessing you will be working in the Danbury area?

New Milford belongs to Litchfield County which is characterized by a more rural setting. It's why you will see cheaper homes and lower tax rates compared to Brookfield, Bethel, and Newtown which are all part of Fairfield County. Litchfield County is a beautiful place overall. Very scenic. You could divide New Milford into two ways. Lower and Upper. Upper New Milford is more woodsy and less bustling. Feels more like the surrounding towns. Lower New Milford identifies strongly with the Greater Danbury Area. You can find all your commodities and amenities within the area. If not New Milford itself, then, definitely within Danbury.

The schools perform remarkably well and I know many people from their high school who have gone to great colleges and work at F100 companies. All in all, your kids' efforts will bottleneck them before the school can. The town, overall, is very safe. Houses prices tanked big time during the recession but they have been picking up since last year. I assume in the next 4 years they will bounce back strong.

Surprisingly, New Milford does have a better rental market than the towns you have mentioned. It's very cheap to rent in New Milford and many people do rent and work in Danbury area. It's a good choice if you are running economical.
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Old 03-12-2015, 02:02 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,933 posts, read 56,945,109 times
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New Milford is a typical small New England town. Set in the Litchfield Hills, it has a small charming downtown and a lot of nice areas. There are a number of shops and restaurants in town with some newer big box stores out along Route 7. Major shopping though would have to be done in Danbury. The schools in New Milford generally perform above the state averages on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance Tests. The link below will give you more information on schools in Connecticut. New Milford is the state's largest town in area so there is a lot of undeveloped land. The reason homes are less here has more to do with its distance from major employment centers. Up until a couple of years ago, the Route 7 Expressway ended in Danbury so it was a long trip on a narrow two lane road to get to New Milford. With the opening of the Brookfield Bypass section of Route 7, it has become a lot easier to get to New Milford for commuters. If you want a small New England type community and are not expecting a lot of excitement and entertainment options, I think you will like it there. Jay


State Department of Education - CEDaR
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Old 03-12-2015, 02:09 PM
 
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
2,636 posts, read 7,432,146 times
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New Milford is a large bedroom community to Danbury. The town is very spread out with several different neighborhoods. It's unsual in the fact that there are several planned subdivisions of single family homes. Depending on where you end up in New Milford, it could up to 30-35 minutes just to the eastern part of Danbury. The prices are determined by the location in town. Typically the further north you would go, the more affordable homes are. The bypass does save some time now but it is still regular route 7, with 2 lanes in each direction up to the bridge, but there is a number of traffic lights due to the newer box stores.
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Old 03-12-2015, 03:25 PM
 
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Where do you have to commute to? I would look at Southbury...
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Old 03-12-2015, 04:01 PM
 
Location: Northern Fairfield Co.
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Where are you commuting to? New Milford is (geographically) large -- actually so is Newtown. So when you are considering the two towns at the same time, just keep in mind your search can span many many miles (I.e southern Newtown vs northern New Milford = quite a distance, with one most likely being very inconvenient to where you need to be everyday.

Last edited by Lalalally; 03-12-2015 at 05:26 PM..
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Old 03-12-2015, 07:23 PM
 
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Thank you for the very informative responses. My office will be in Bridgeport, however I don't have to travel there everyday. I am fine with a 45-60 minute commute. My in laws are in Brookfield so we would like to be in lower New Milford.

Is there any indication that the town is becoming more popular because people are being pushed out of Fairfield county because of the high taxes?
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Old 03-12-2015, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Northern Fairfield Co.
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New Milford has a comparable mill rate to the northern FFC towns, values might be a little less though, but overall no real property tax savings IMO . The only real outlier in northern FFC is Newtown which has a High mill rate for this area. That's a rough commute though.... NM to Bridgeport. I'd focus on Bethel if you really want to be in the Danbury area, or as SeaDoo mentioned -- check out Southbury. Not sure what the commute to Bridgeport is like, but it has to be a LOT better than New Milford. Schools are great, and it's a really pretty, family oriented town (Southbury that is). Monroe, Trumbull are easy commutes and great communities - check them out too.

PS, Southbury is not far at all from your in laws in Brookfield. Could be best of both worlds for you. Definitely worth exploring....

Last edited by Lalalally; 03-12-2015 at 08:00 PM..
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Old 03-12-2015, 08:28 PM
 
Location: Northern Fairfield Co.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brgunder1 View Post

Is there any indication that the town is becoming more popular because people are being pushed out of Fairfield county because of the high taxes?
The parts of FFC which border/are near NM still haven't fully recovered from the housing bust, so no I don't think anyone is currently being priced out of the Danbury area. If someone was able to afford a northern FFC town 8-10 years ago, they certainly can still afford it now. Lower FFC market is more stable and handled the downturn and recovered from it better than up here. Plus, NM mill rate (tax rate) is similar to nearby FFC towns, except Newtown's which is higher.

Don't take this the wrong way,because there are some really nice sections of NM, but for a long time New Milford has seemed (to me at least) as being on the verge of having some really great things happen, but for whatever reason they never materialize. Maybe now with the route 7 expansion they will, but I honestly haven't seen it yet. It's a shame too because its downtown has such good "bones" and so much potential. But something, for whatever reason, never fully clicks... Overall a very nice town, but a little more than its fair share of not so great parts, if that makes sense? Not dangerous AT ALL (though there are some pushy panhandlers in downtown) - just not consistent enough all around for me to make a blanket positive statement about it. Just my opinion though

Last edited by Lalalally; 03-12-2015 at 08:58 PM..
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Old 03-12-2015, 09:11 PM
 
Location: Coastal Connecticut
21,752 posts, read 28,086,032 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brgunder1 View Post
Thank you for the very informative responses. My office will be in Bridgeport, however I don't have to travel there everyday. I am fine with a 45-60 minute commute. My in laws are in Brookfield so we would like to be in lower New Milford.

Is there any indication that the town is becoming more popular because people are being pushed out of Fairfield county because of the high taxes?
Why would you be looking so far up for a Bridgeport commute? New Milford is at least an hour, more from northern sections with traffic. It's a frustrating commute down Route 25 too with tons of traffic lights.

There are great towns much closer to Bridgeport: Shelton, Milford, Orange, Seymour, Oxford, etc. Depending on the town you will get similar value as New Milford with a much shorter commute.

New Milford is OK but there is nothing "special" about it to make that kind of commute worth it. I don't see New Milford growing/appreciating significantly. Northern FFC isn't that expensive like Lower FFC, so the displacement just isn't there. People are moving from Lower FFC to eastern FFC/NHC and northern FFC, but people from northern FFC aren't being pushed out into New Milford. The demand just isn't there.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see the part about your in-laws. How close do you really need to be to them? Shelton and Oxford are not a bad drive to Brookfield at all, are good values, and are much closer to Bridgeport than New Milford. I live in Milford, which is further than Shelton and Oxford, and visit family in Brookfield often. It's about 40 minutes from my place.
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