[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by JayCT

You are smack dab in the middle of one of the wealthiest and most desirable parts of the country. Home prices are that high because people have the money and are willing to spend it to live there. That is what the free market is all about. This is the same as you would find in greater San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and affluent suburbs of major cities. Dare I point out that Chicagos more desirable suburbs are not significantly different. Since you have such disdain for the area and are planning to leave anyway, why bother buying. Just keep renting so when ready you do not have a house to sell. Jay

Was going to rep you on this one but it said "you must spread Reputation around before giving to JayCT again".

As you noted, we are not unique/alone. Take Manhattan out of the average and SF Bay Area housing is actually more expensive than here. And DC affluent suburbs come pretty close to us too.

[GeoffD]

The prices reflect the saturated transportation infrastructure. It's an enormous premium to live near a train station with good local schools that can get you to a high paid Manhattan job. It's the same math in the Bay Area, DC, Boston, and Seattle. The transportation problem drives up the prices of locations where highly compensated people can get to work without driving in a traffic jam and where their children have good schools.

The million dollar house in the woods is useless if you have a 2 hour car commute in a traffic jam to get to the office. Those homes tend to be occupied by people who work nearby. With building costs in the northeast, $1 million isn't a mansion. It's 3,000 square feet on a $350k lot if the house has premium level finish. The dirt the house sits on isn't as valuable as the high housing cost places.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Million dollar homes are selling in Trumbull at a far slower rate than they are down county. Trumbull also doesn't have the variety of housing Fairfield has, where many young singles reside (lowering the HH income, since most Trumbull homes are dual income). It's the same reason towns like Oxford and Monroe rank high in the HHI category. Don't get me wrong, Trumbull is a nice town, but Fairfield's wealthiest are far wealthier than Trumbull's, without a doubt. Re "out in the sticks", its not, but it's location simply doesn't command the high prices seeing in communities to the southwest.

I agree. For an affluent town, Fairfield has a surprising number of affordable housing units. Most of these are found in Tunxis Hill or Grasmere where more modest homes and some government subsidized housing was built during the World Wars to house Bridgeport factory workers. Today these modest homes are privately owned but still house working class families.

Trumbull has nothing like this. The lowest level of housing Trumbull has is more comparable to Fairfield's Fairfield Woods or Stratfield sections and those are solidly middle class. Trumbull also does not have a vast wealthy section like Fairfield's Southport or Greenfield Hill. That range of housing options makes Fairfield unique which is what the town planners planned for years ago. Jay

[GoPack2017]

Both Darien and Schaumburg are 30-40 miles from each city's major employment center; hence the reason I chose it as a basis for comparison.

Winnetka (one of the districts that is in the New Trier district) is about 15 miles from The Loop.

Originally Posted by NOLA101

That's nothing. 680k in my neighborhood (Brownstone Brooklyn) will get you a 400 square foot studio.

Darien is one of the most expensive communities in CT. Excepting Greenwich, Westport and New Canaan, basically everywhere else in the entire state will be cheaper.

So why not look elsewhere in CT? Darien is oriented to finance industry professionals, where 680k is nothing.

Also, Schaumburg is not remotely equivalent to Darien. Schaumburg is just a sprawly middle class suburb of Chicago.

There are some comparable Chicago-area towns to Darien, but they're mostly on the North Shore (Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth) and maybe Hinsdale. And they aren't much cheaper (even though the Chicago area is much less desirable and has worse career opportunities).

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by GoPack2017

Both Darien and Schaumburg are 30-40 miles from each city's major employment center; hence the reason I chose it as a basis for comparison.

Winnetka (one of the districts that is in the New Trier district) is about 15 miles from The Loop.

NYC is wealthier than Chicago. There's more housing demand. Not sure why that is tough to comprehend.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by GoPack2017

Both Darien and Schaumburg are 30-40 miles from each city's major employment center; hence the reason I chose it as a basis for comparison.

Winnetka (one of the districts that is in the New Trier district) is about 15 miles from The Loop.

Chicago can't compare to NYC in terms of wealth, power and influence. That, and COL in greater Chicago is far more affordable than greater NYC in general.

[NOLA101]

Originally Posted by Stylo

NYC is wealthier than Chicago. There's more housing demand. Not sure why that is tough to comprehend.

And the NYC area has 3x the population. Obviously you can't compare equivalent distances from the city center.

10-15 miles out of downtown Chicago is roughly the same as 30 miles out of Manhattan, in terms of development patterns. The urbanity in NYC goes on forever out into the tri-state area. You can be 25-35 miles out of Manhattan and still very urban (places like Port Chester, Paterson, South Norwalk and the like). In Chicago you reach suburban sprawl pretty quickly.

[Raider111]

Originally Posted by CTartist

A developer built a bunch of mini-mansions on the border of Easton. They all sold within months not years.

https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/...ne/pid_8731688

https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/...ne/pid_2796726

https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/...ne/pid_2434838

These are about 10 minutes from my house and I kept an eye on how long they would take to sell. Not that long. I could not believe someone would build these kinds of little mansions in Trumbull right after the crash of 2008, but they all sold in the million dollar range.

Sorry to go off topic but if some posters on here are going to paint a unflattering image of my town (and do it in a disparaging way) I must counter it with facts.

Big deal, we have a newer development right around the corner here. They're double the price.

What's really disparaging is posting apples to oranges data without providing any insight or analysis. Probably 70% of Fairfield is stay home moms. (My whole street except for 1 for example). In Trumbull you have teachers married to hairdressers, etc.
I disparage everything by the way, except for Danbury because it's cool.

[Raider111]

NoPack,

680K in Darien is 2 things - either a teardown for investors, or bottom feeders who don't want diverse schools. That's about it, nothing wrong with either.

[jxzz]

OP is too much into comparison. Chicago is no comparison to NYC.