[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Raider111

And we have have friends in town who commute to the city who frequently ask or beg me if my company in Norwalk is hiring, they will kill to get out of that situation.

I agree with them. I could never do that kind of commute every day but a lot of people do. Jay

[AMSS]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

The animosity lately on this forum toward high performing school districts is comical. Like nothing I've seen before. Thankfully it's only a small few [vocal] posters displaying this.

Animosity toward high performing systems? No rudeness about struggling systems where people still manage to get into superb colleges? Not sure what your motive is here, but if you want to remind me over and over again that my son is in a failing school and must be a loser because of it (or that you're better....or my other kids must be better than him)...then go ahead. I know that isn't the truth.

[JayCT]

Please do not start bickering and return to the topic of the OP. JayCT, Moderator

[lvs2393]

Originally Posted by AllieG2013

Hey guys! I was hoping to get some insight into these two places. My husband and I want to move to the area- he has a job in NYC, so we don't want to move too far out to make the commute too long for him. We want to buy a starter home in either Stamford or Norwalk. We don't care about school districts too much, as we plan to move out to better school-district areas once we have kids that are old enough for schools, so thats not a factor. For us, its all about being able to re-sell the home when the time comes.

Obviously barring housing crashes and all that, for the 450-575k range, which town do you guys see/know having a better resell value? As a starter home, it would probably be a smaller home, 3 bed, 2 bath (thats what we are looking for at least).

I've lived in Stamford for a long time and there was a brief period of living in Norwalk few years back.
That essentially doubled my commute (though not to the city but towards it) from 30 min to an hour.
Just for sheer commute to the city I'd go with Stamford. Otherwise your husband would only come home to sleep.
Then also if he is to take the train - getting to the train station is "fun" in itself lately with all new rentals around train station which increased traffic in the past year. So if you were to move into "house area" - High Ridge road, North Stamford, Springdale - further from downtown you should also figure out how would you get to the train station and how much time it would take on top of that.
Anything close to downtown and within walk-able distance of restaurants, shopping, train station has been converted into condos/apartment buildings.

But of course you can take a car to NYC via Merritt parkway. It is a beutiful ride in fall. But you get to pay for that with any rain/snow slowing down to the crawl with no escape like I-95 has.

[AllieG2013]

Thanks everyone! It seems like Stamford is the clear vote (which is honestly what we are leaning towards) so its good to know more people would look there- it makes it easier for the resale.

As for everyone else who talked about schools and all that- doesn't matter. Based on my job, we will either be moving to London in 5-7 years, or will be making enough to move to a 'lily white' town with better schools, so either way we will be in Ridgefield, Westport or somewhere in Westchester 5-7 years from now, but thanks for the heads up.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by AllieG2013

Hey guys! I was hoping to get some insight into these two places. My husband and I want to move to the area- he has a job in NYC, so we don't want to move too far out to make the commute too long for him. We want to buy a starter home in either Stamford or Norwalk. We don't care about school districts too much, as we plan to move out to better school-district areas once we have kids that are old enough for schools, so thats not a factor. For us, its all about being able to re-sell the home when the time comes.

Obviously barring housing crashes and all that, for the 450-575k range, which town do you guys see/know having a better resell value? As a starter home, it would probably be a smaller home, 3 bed, 2 bath (thats what we are looking for at least).

I live in Trumbull but I was born and raised in Stamford and I give the edge overall to Stamford. In your price range I would say the best resale would be the "mid ridges" or Newfield. The mid ridges comprise of High Ridge Road and Long Ridge Road area between Bull's Head and the Parkway. My brother and I bought our houses around the same time for the same price. He in the mid ridges and I am in Trumbull. His house has gone up much more than mine.

I think the value of a house going up is in relation to it's proximity to NYC. I believe Stamford would go up overall a little more than Norwalk.

[Nu2Stamford]

Originally Posted by CTartist

I live in Trumbull but I was born and raised in Stamford and I give the edge overall to Stamford. In your price range I would say the best resale would be the "mid ridges" or Newfield.

I'll agree with this. I bought in the midridges/newfield area 2 years ago and I commute to the city every day. I had a lot of concerns about the commute and while it's obviously not ideal, it really isn't that bad. I however am grateful that I live in Stamford and not Norwalk. Not only do I not want an addtional 15 minutes train time tacked on, Stamford has the benefit of being an express stop and a high volume of trains coming and going. It's nice to not have to worry about getting out of work at a specific time to not miss a specific train or wait an additional half hour for the next one. There's so many trains stopping at Stamford that if you miss one there is generally another within 10 mins and that alone for me gives Stamford the edge.

I'll also say that I find the midridges/Newfield area to be perfect in terms of having a nice suburban feel but being convenient to downtown and other amenities, including the train.

[FairfieldCountyPal]

I would look at both Stamford and Norwalk and get a feel for the different neighborhoods to see which you like better. Do you need a list of neighborhoods; great shopping and restaurants you want to come see for yourself? Just let me know.