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I'd suggest you look at coastal Connecticut east of New Haven. All the towns are classic New England, with good schools and strong communities. Prices vary by town. Between Branford and the RI border, really the only two places that won't quite fit your criteria are New London and Groton. With all the other towns, keep in mind that most of the coastal towns are more settled in their southern halves (closer to the beach, highway, and railroad) and get more rural on their northern sides. Prices tend to get cheaper as you go north, including into the neighboring town to the north. So, from your criteria consider the northern portions (or northern neighbor) of Branford, Guilford, Madison, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, East Lyme, Waterford (this is a little more suburban than the others), and Stonington. All these towns are only minutes from the beach and you wouldn't need to use highway to get there. The RI beaches are also relatively close.
I agree. Connecticut is sort of a great secret that offers so much at surprisingly affordable prices. The shoreline east of New Haven is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. The towns have a great beach vibe and are just beautiful. The only thing is they kind of lack in retail area since there are no major shopping malls nearby. The nearest are in Milford, Waterford or Meriden. The area does have two great outlet centers though which really help.
Since you are willing to be a hour from the shore, I’d also suggest considering the truly wonderful suburbs of Hartford. The top ones are West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, Simsbury and Glastonbury. These towns all have excellent schools, among the best in the state. They have great restaurants and shopping, wonderful parks and open spaces and are surprisingly affordable (single family home prices start under $300,000).
If you want a town that is more dense and very walkable with one of the best town centers anywhere and some of the best restaurants and shopping (including one of the best malls in the state, Westfarms, consider West Hartford. It’s a great diverse community with all types of housing from modest apartment to stunning mansions. About the only negative is that property taxes are high but many feel it is worth it.
To the west of West Hartford, over a line of small mountains is the beautiful Farmington River Valley. Because there are no highways into the valley and you are separated from metro Hartford by the mountains, the valley has a sort of Shang Ra La feel to it. The towns of Farmington, Avon and Simsbury have excellent schools and very good shopping and services. It’s truly unique.
Then there’s Glastonbury. I live there and love it. It’s a great diverse and beautiful town with excellent schools and a nice town center with great stores and restaurants. Unlike the Farmington Valley though Glastonbury has good highway access with Route 2 bisecting the town and being close to both I-84 and I-91. This makes it pretty easy to get into downtown Hartford or up to Boston or down to New Haven or New York. Depending on where you are and want to go, the beach is anywhere from 35 to 60 minutes away.
Also don’t let people tell you that taxes are very high here. Its true taxes aren’t low but Connecticut does not have any county level of government, just towns and the state. Because of that, when you compare state taxes or town taxes to other states or towns, of course they are higher because they must assume the duties that counties have in other states. But the lack of county taxes more than compensate for it IMHO. Also note that this year the state has cut taxes which hopefully will continue as we meet or exceed our obligations.
Also there is the old argument that the state has among the highest state debts and worst funded pension systems in the country. First of course the state has more debt when you consider there is no county government to assume debts counties have in other states. That means more state level debt. As for pensions, for several years now Connecticut has had a well received plan to meet its pension obligations over the next 40 years. So well received was it that four major Bond Rating companies have upgraded the states bond ratings. In addition over the last three years the state has made $5.4 billion in advanced pension payments that will net the state over $400 million in savings starting next year. It hopefully will mean more tax cuts in the future. I hope this helps. Jay
Thanks everyone! We appreciate all the suggestions. Seems that Connecticut is the most recommended location given our list of wants. We’ll be looking into every where that was recommended and hopefully be able to start planning visits!
Edit: A question about the beaches in Connecticut. Are they like the beaches we find here in NC? From the photos they all seem very rocky and like you wouldn’t be able to go lay out on the beach and swim in the water.
Thanks everyone! We appreciate all the suggestions. Seems that Connecticut is the most recommended location given our list of wants. We’ll be looking into every where that was recommended and hopefully be able to start planning visits!
Edit: A question about the beaches in Connecticut. Are they like the beaches we find here in NC? From the photos they all seem very rocky and like you wouldn’t be able to go lay out on the beach and swim in the water.
I think the beaches between Stonington, CT and Narragansett, RI are supposedly pretty nice.
It's ocean waves that crush rocks into sandy beaches, and most of Connecticut's coast faces Long Island Sound... except for the very eastern edge. Also why the Chesapeake and Delaware bay coasts of the Mid-Atlantic (and heck, the sound side of NC's coastal plain) have lots of boating, fishing, etc. but basically no beach.
Water temperatures are much cooler in New England than North Carolina because the Gulf Stream pushes offshore - see the plume of red on NOAA's sea surface temperature map. The water from the Chesapeake up to Cape Cod is still somewhat warmed by the Gulf Stream, but north of Cape Cod it's much colder.
What about Long Island towns? I have several colleagues who live in towns in the 20-30k or so range and are about 15-30 minutes from the Long Island beaches.
Super close proximity to NYC, small town vibes with good schools and amazing beaches with 4 seasons.
Housing costs are a bit higher, but depending on the town you can snag one for a surprising amount.
It's ocean waves that crush rocks into sandy beaches, and most of Connecticut's coast faces Long Island Sound... except for the very eastern edge. Also why the Chesapeake and Delaware bay coasts of the Mid-Atlantic (and heck, the sound side of NC's coastal plain) have lots of boating, fishing, etc. but basically no beach.
Water temperatures are much cooler in New England than North Carolina because the Gulf Stream pushes offshore - see the plume of red on NOAA's sea surface temperature map. The water from the Chesapeake up to Cape Cod is still somewhat warmed by the Gulf Stream, but north of Cape Cod it's much colder.
Those are really good points. I hadn't considered the effect of Long Island on the coastline of CT. And you're right, the sound side of NC is very much like that. That also makes sense about the temps. Thanks!
You can swim comfortably at Connecticut's beaches between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Because of the Sound, waves tend to be smaller at Connecticut beaches than ocean beaches. The general consensus is that the beaches get better the further east you go. My personal favorite is Hammonasset in Madison. That beach has plenty of sand to set a towel on (as do all the others). A benefit of having a rocky coast is also that there tend to be little pockets of rocks and trees between or alongside the sandy areas of the beach. It means that if you get to certain CT beaches early enough, you can claim a spot on beach sand that is shaded by trees. And kids love wandering around the rocks because you get to see quite a lot of interesting wildlife and shells there. Personally, I think all these factors make CT beaches unique and more stimulating. At a single beach you can walk less than a mile and see sand (almost) like NC, rocky coast like Maine, and coastal forest. Connecticut beach state parks actually have hiking trails, and grassy/shady picnic areas with views of the water. They're very family friendly.
Another very popular beach for people in Connecticut is also Misquamicut, just over the border in Rhode Island. That beach is the ocean and not the Sound. If you prefer larger waves, go to that beach.
It's ocean waves that crush rocks into sandy beaches, and most of Connecticut's coast faces Long Island Sound... except for the very eastern edge. Also why the Chesapeake and Delaware bay coasts of the Mid-Atlantic (and heck, the sound side of NC's coastal plain) have lots of boating, fishing, etc. but basically no beach.
Water temperatures are much cooler in New England than North Carolina because the Gulf Stream pushes offshore - see the plume of red on NOAA's sea surface temperature map. The water from the Chesapeake up to Cape Cod is still somewhat warmed by the Gulf Stream, but north of Cape Cod it's much colder.
The ocean temperature at the NOAA Woods Hole station is typically only a couple of degrees colder than Cape May NJ. Once you get to the elbow of Cape Cod at Chatham, the ocean temperatures drop significantly. The coastal climate from southern New Jersey to at least Falmouth MA on the Cape is pretty similar. I’m in coastal Massachusetts near the RI line, my beach typically gets to 68F by mid-June. It’s in the 70s until October.
Here, if you go inland, the weather is more extreme. I was running an errand 20 miles inland yesterday and saw 100F on the car thermometer. It was 87 at my house close to salt water with the prevailing southwest sea breeze. The same in the winter. My rose hedge is usually doing fine at Thanksgiving. The grass usually stays green all winter. It snows but it’s more common to get rain here or a few inches of wet slop while 20 miles inland gets a significant snowfall. It’s unusual to have sustained snow pack here. The down side is that spring is cool until the ocean warms up. May is pretty chilly on the boat.
I often point people at Marion/Mattapoisett MA. They’re small white collar bedroom towns with a shared regional middle and high school. A ton of coastal vacation homes. An hour from Boston though an impossible commute. Barrington and East Greenwich RI have strong schools. My mom used to live in Guilford CT a couple of towns east of New Haven. That has good schools.
Warwick RI and Fall River MA are about 90k in town. Housing median in low to mid 300s.
Salisbury might feel like a town to some. I dunno.
I grew up in the Fall River area. It is a fairly densely populated old industrial city and it's unlikely that the OP will get what they're looking for in terms of land there (minimum 1 acre) since it's so built up. It's also terrible in terms of schools and has more crime than most people would want to deal with. It's economically depressed and there's very little influx of people from outside of the region.
Warwick is mostly generic working class suburbia with cookie cutter homes on postage stamp lots, big box retail, and an airport. There is a nice section of town in Warwick Neck, but it's pricey. The schools are mediocre. I'd take it over Fall River, but there are far better options in Rhode Island.
I agree with GeoffD on Mattapoisett or Marion for Southeastern Massachusetts. I'd also consider Rochester, North Dartmouth, or Lakeville as slightly more affordable alternatives with decent enough schools and reasonable drives to the beach.
Population numbers are misleading when comparing such a broad area. Salisbury does feel like a relatively small town to me (my father's not far away in the Eastern Shore of VA). It's a small built up center in a very rural region. On paper, Mattapoisett and Marion are both smaller than Salisbury by a good margin, but they feel like they're part of a bigger region than Salisbury with New Bedford, Wareham, Plymouth, Cape Cod, and even Boston a relatively short distance away. Someone in Marion/Mattapoisett has better access to a multitude of hospitals, shopping, dining, transportation, etc. than someone in Salisbury.
Try Philly. It is about an hour to AC on the expressway. And you be in same state as family in PBurg. You get all four seasons.
edit, oh you wrote smallish town. Well do you mean smallish town away from City?
Then try like Easton PA. Its right on the Delaware Water Gap so equal distance from Jersey Beaches as Philly.
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