[masssachoicetts]

Hi Guys. My parents are actually really interested in the Hartford/New Haven area. I'm in New Jersey now so proximity would be great honestly. The weather and New England climate is the main attractant, alongside being less than 120 minutes from Boston. If I list some of the Wishlists, could you guys tell us the best areas from Greater Hartford to Greater New Haven that would fit the bill? Anywhere in Hartford or New Haven county is fair game.

Wishlists:
-Close to a nice walkable downtown with good shoppes and restaurants.
-Relatively safe
-Close to Parks and recreation.
-Townhouses and Condos below 250k, like a 2 Bed 2 Bath, 1200-1400sqft.
-Close to Amtrak or Commuter Routes. Ideally it would be nice to have direct service to Boston or New York.
-Good Amount of things to do. BUt I see a lot of State Parks and attractants in Central CT, so Im not too worried at all.

Some areas we were looking at:
-Newington CT
-New Britian CT
-Meriden CT
-Manchester CT


Also if you live anywhere in New Haven or Hartford County could you tell me how it is? Also, there are alot of GREAT condos and townhomes in South Hartford, how is South Hartford overall? I understand the area wasn't the best in 2010, but how is it now? Barry Square has great units too.

Edit: is there something about New Britain we should know? Great units and housing stock, generally favorable reviews on Niche, and pretty nice looking community. There are tons of move in readys for $179,999

[JayCT]

Finding a townhouse or condo for under $250,000 should not be a problem. It’s just a matter of what area will serve them best and their tolerance of urban areas. Meriden and New Britain are small cities with some urban issues. I’m not sure they have the nice walkable downtowns they seek. Also check property taxes in them to be sure they are what they expected.

Manchester and Newington are more suburban. They have nice downtowns and Manchester has one of the state’s largest regional shopping districts with a major mall and every big box store. That is nice to be near. Manchester however is not near Amtrak however. They’d have to go into Hartford for that.

Other towns they might want to consider are Wethersfield and Rocky Hill. They don’t have the traditional downtown but they have a lot of the condos and townhomes they are looking for. Check them out. Jay

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Hi Guys. My parents are actually really interested in the Hartford/New Haven area. I'm in New Jersey now so proximity would be great honestly. The weather and New England climate is the main attractant, alongside being less than 120 minutes from Boston. If I list some of the Wishlists, could you guys tell us the best areas from Greater Hartford to Greater New Haven that would fit the bill? Anywhere in Hartford or New Haven county is fair game.

Wishlists:
-Close to a nice walkable downtown with good shoppes and restaurants.
-Relatively safe
-Close to Parks and recreation.
-Townhouses and Condos below 250k, like a 2 Bed 2 Bath, 1200-1400sqft.
-Close to Amtrak or Commuter Routes. Ideally it would be nice to have direct service to Boston or New York.
-Good Amount of things to do. BUt I see a lot of State Parks and attractants in Central CT, so Im not too worried at all.

Some areas we were looking at:
-Newington CT
-New Britian CT
-Meriden CT
-Manchester CT


Also if you live anywhere in New Haven or Hartford County could you tell me how it is? Also, there are alot of GREAT condos and townhomes in South Hartford, how is South Hartford overall? I understand the area wasn't the best in 2010, but how is it now? Barry Square has great units too.

Edit: is there something about New Britain we should know? Great units and housing stock, generally favorable reviews on Niche, and pretty nice looking community. There are tons of move in readys for $179,999

Look at Branford which is a few towns away from New Haven and on the train line. I am looking at Branford for retirement and Branford is high on my list. I am looking at townhomes too in your parents price range. Branford has a lot of condos in that range for a 2 Bed 2 Bath, 1200-1400sqft. It's on the coastline too. Lots of things to do in the area.

Crime Rates 2018 (274 is average)
146-Newington
267-New Britian
202-Meriden
165-Manchester
91-Branford

They all look pretty safe.

[The_Quiet_One]

If they want direct rail access to NYC and Boston then the shoreline suburbs of New Haven would be best, however they won't be as affordable.

For towns in the Hartford area, consider Southington (not near transit but not far either), Windsor (checks most of the boxes), Middletown (I'd chose this over Meriden even though it's not on a transit line), and Kensington (a little sleepy, not much to walk to, but good for train).

New Britain is known for being a little rough around the edges so to speak, but if they don't care about schools then it's not a bad place to be. I find it much more interesting than any of the towns I listed above (including Middletown. New Britain is more authentic I feel). Prices are reasonable; taxes are a little high. Crime is an issue if you're outside in certain areas at night. The city has good diversity, amazing cultural attractions (stages and an art museum), and one of the best ethnic neighborhoods in the state (Broad Street). It's been steadily improving for years.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Manchester.

also Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Windsor, and Southington

Maybe Wallingford and Middletown are also options.

Id probably avoid New Britain and Meriden if I were your parents.

[missionhill]

Massachoicetts, there's no Amtrak service from the Hartford area going northeast toward Boston. Amtrak runs from New York to New Haven, then on to Boston via the Shore Line with stops in Old Saybrook, Westerly, Providence and a few others. Amtrak also runs from New Haven north through Wallingford, Meriden, Hartford, Springfield. There's no service to speak of between Springfield and Boston. You could take the train from Hartford to New Haven and transfer to a Boston train but I can't imagine anyone doing that. Connecticut has beefed up rail service between Springfield and New Haven with CT Rail or something like that. There's some long-term hope of Massachusetts restoring passenger rail from Springfield east but right now there's one Amtrak train a day between Boston and Chicago that stops at Springfield. OTOH, it's an easy drive to the Boston area from the Hartford area. That's what the Connecticut people were saying in trying to lure the patriots to Hartford from Foxborough, and it's true. Whereas the drive to Boston along 95 from Branford or somewhere east through New London and Providence seems like a long slog.

[BostonBornMassMade]

The drive from most of CT east of New Haven to Boston is easy in general. Hartford is exceptionally easy. A smooth hour and a half.

Hartford just has nothing for older folks though. West Hartford too expensive and East Hartford isn’t all that nice. That’s why those towns haven’t shown up in the suggestions.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

The drive from most of CT east of New Haven to Boston is easy in general. Hartford is exceptionally easy. A smooth hour and a half.

Hartford just has nothing for older folks though. West Hartford too expensive and East Hartford isn’t all that nice. That’s why those towns haven’t shown up in the suggestions.

I’m not sure why you Hartford has nothing for older folks. It has a lot of art, culture, food, sports and entertainment options that other towns don’t have. Of course you can patronize these if you live in the suburbs but you can’t say that Hartford has nothing for them. Jay

[nico7]

For <120m to Boston, I would recommend proximity to I-84 and not having to drive through Hartford, which can be congested. Manchester would be the best bet on your list.

On the Amtrak line, Old Saybrook to Boston is just about 2h.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I’m not sure why you Hartford has nothing for older folks. It has a lot of art, culture, food, sports and entertainment options that other towns don’t have. Of course you can patronize these if you live in the suburbs but you can’t say that Hartford has nothing for them. Jay

Mostly your last sentence. it just doesn’t make sense for order folks to be living in Hartford- it’s not even the demographic that they’re trying to attract. I think there are a lot of small uncomfortable nuisance things that I wouldn’t want to deal with later in life without some of the more obvious benefits of a NYC or Boston.