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The OP asked nothing about politics so I’m not sure why we’re bringing up specifics on the past presidential election. There’s a separate forum for that.
I’d recommend the OP seriously consider Guilford, Cheshire and Orange. All are great communities with lots of parental involvement and friendly residents. Madison is further out and, while beautiful, has a larger percentage of second home residents, which can affect the community feel. Still, it’s a wonderful town, just not as close to shopping and larger cities as the other three.
The OP asked nothing about politics so I’m not sure why we’re bringing up specifics on the past presidential election. There’s a separate forum for that.
I’d recommend the OP seriously consider Guilford, Cheshire and Orange. All are great communities with lots of parental involvement and friendly residents. Madison is further out and, while beautiful, has a larger percentage of second home residents, which can affect the community feel. Still, it’s a wonderful town, just not as close to shopping and larger cities as the other three.
Someone mentioned that Madison voted conservative and I put up stats to show that it really isn't.
I am looking into the area east of New Haven for retirement and I ASSUMED Madison was conservative. There are stats right on this City-Data site that shows that info. That info is important to me* so I am thinking it might be important to others looking into the area.
In fact I was impressed with how liberal Guilford votes. I thought Guilford voted the same as Madison. That now changes my PERCEPTION of Guilford for the better.
Just because you don't care about voting of the residents doesn't mean other people don't.
*I will stay away from conservative voting towns no matter how beautiful the beaches are.
We’re somewhat new residents of Guilford with a elementary school age child and are very happy with the town. I can’t really comment on the comparison but this town has a great community feel, good schools and a lot of things for young families to do.
I’ve been close to families in both areas and prefer the overall aesthetic of Madison. You’d have train commute options from Madison region you wouldn’t have from Cheshire. Look at the neighboring towns as influences on the long term feel of the town. Plus as the others said Madison=beaches.
Depending on your price point, Short Beach is very fun for young families around Branford - I'd definitely pick any of those beach towns, town greens with concerts in the summer, more of a community feel, you can join the beach clubs, drive out to the other shore towns in the summer easily, up to the Cape in the summer, and RI / Block Island. If you save money on a house, you can send your kids to Hopkins in New Haven or another private school - sometimes public schools are over rated and making your life decisions based on them not worth it. All of these areas including Amity have excellent sports programs. Will your kids life in sports run your life? A lot of peoples lives are runs by their kids sports lives. Woodbridge/ Orange a better choice than Cheshire. I find Cheshire very isolated from everything, including trains to NYC, plus that prison always gave me the creeps. Woodbridge is where a lot Yale doctors decide to live. Woodbridge has very nice homes with a lot of character if you are into that. Very leafy and shaded in summer. Some people love that. I think a lot of the country clubs around there have closed though.
I might as well give me $.02. I am in a similar situation to the OP. I'm relocating with my family from Boston and I'll be working in New Haven. I grew up in Old Saybrook and have family in Ivoryton, Old Lyme, and Waterford. Ultimately, we focused on Madison and Guilford because of my commute. We ended up buying in Madison. The main reason why we chose Madison over Guilford was the house. We found a house in Madison that checked all of the boxes below our budget. We were willing to stretch our budget for a house in Guilford that we LOVED, but it went under agreement before I had an official job offer. I probably had slight preference for Guilford, but it wasn't strong enough to leave the house we liked in Madison on the hope we would find something we liked as much in Guilford.
There are things that I love about both Madison and Guilford. The pros for Madison (other than the house) were proximity to my family to the east, the Surf Club, and a mill rate of 28 (vs 32 in Guilford.) As much as I love Guilford Green, the cute little downtown is Madison is great. Hand also seemed to offer more clubs and activities. For Guilford it's a little closer to New Haven and has more shopping, restaurants, etc. I feel like it's more connected to New Haven. Coming from city living, I felt like it would have been less culture shock, but it probably doesn't matter. Growing up in Old Saybrook, we always saw Madison and Guilford as both being kind of snobby (yeah, coming from a Saybrook kid, it's so silly) with Madison being a little more so. That was a plus for Guilford.
So, that was my process. At the end of the day, they are all great towns with great schools.
I grew up in Cheshire and have lived in Branford for many years. I still have family in town. Maybe Cheshire has changed a bit over the years but when I was growing up it was a boring place. There is very little to do in town. We went to friends' houses and that was about it. Few restaurants, youth programs were a bit underwhelming. We left town to do nearly everything (movies, shopping, dining, etc.). There are plenty of friendly people and of course it's a safe and well-educated town.
The shoreline is amazing. It's classic New England living with plenty of charm. We chose Branford over Guilford or Madison due to a strong preference for city water vs well/septic. The town greens, beaches, dining, better sense of community (maybe Madison lacks this a little bit vs Guilford/Branford), ammentities (brand new Community House in Branford), and rail access trump anything Cheshire has to offer.
The only downside to living on the shoreline is that 95 is two lanes and summer traffic can be a bear. Besides that, it's by far my favorite part of CT.
I grew up in Cheshire and have lived in Branford for many years. I still have family in town. Maybe Cheshire has changed a bit over the years but when I was growing up it was a boring place. There is very little to do in town. We went to friends' houses and that was about it. Few restaurants, youth programs were a bit underwhelming. We left town to do nearly everything (movies, shopping, dining, etc.). There are plenty of friendly people and of course it's a safe and well-educated town.
The shoreline is amazing. It's classic New England living with plenty of charm. We chose Branford over Guilford or Madison due to a strong preference for city water vs well/septic. The town greens, beaches, dining, better sense of community (maybe Madison lacks this a little bit vs Guilford/Branford), ammentities (brand new Community House in Branford), and rail access trump anything Cheshire has to offer.
The only downside to living on the shoreline is that 95 is two lanes and summer traffic can be a bear. Besides that, it's by far my favorite part of CT.
The city water vs well/septic comment is a good point. A lot of people don’t realize that there is a good amount of communities in CT that have mostly septic and well. I always try to encourage people to do their homework on it.
For me, I’d never buy a home with a well/septic again. For that reason, we prefer the denser communities closer to population centers.
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