Best Place in Connecticut to Buy a House
In college basketball-crazy Connecticut, remember of this list as the real estate version of the NCAA tournament's Elite Viii.
Merely as the NCAA tournament sets out to discover out which college basketball teams are the best in the land, nosotros wanted to detect out which Connecticut communities are hottest when it comes to the real estate market. To develop our listing, we looked at each of the state'south eight counties and their towns' and cities' annual median single-family abode price for each twelvemonth between 2022 and 2019. So we determined which customs in each canton had the highest overall per centum increment for those years. Communities with at least 50 annual sales were eligible to be crowned the hottest in the county. (You can find data on all 169 towns here.)
The viii communities that came out on top offer a mix of urban, suburban and modest-town opportunities for homebuyers. And the opportunities are not just alluring Connecticut residents, but people from neighboring New York state as well, co-ordinate to some existent estate agents nosotros spoke with.
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Fairfield Canton: Bridgeport
Bridgeport doesn't necessarily take the cachet of other Fairfield County communities, specially along the fabled Gold Declension, only since 2016, median sale prices for single-family unit homes here have outpaced the rest of the county'southward other cities and towns.
"Because the surrounding towns, like Fairfield and Trumbull, Bridgeport is much more attainable," says Steven Lage, a sales associate with the Trumbull office of Coldwell Broker. "In the North Stop (of Bridgeport), there'southward a lot of people buying homes for Sacred Center [University] purposes."
Lage says that New Yorkers take likewise taken observe of the Park Urban center'due south affordability. More than than half the people his office sells homes to in Bridgeport are from the Empire State, he says. Another draw is the walkable seaside neighborhood of Blackness Rock, with its trendy shops and restaurants.
Easy access to ferry service from the urban center to Port Jefferson, New York, is a plus for Bridgeport home buyers, as is the new outdoor concert venue that will open up this summertime at the site of the onetime Ballpark at Harbor Yard.
Bridgeport at a glance
Single-family habitation median price (2016-19): up 30.5 percent, to $196,000
Single-family home sales (2016-19): upward 24.6 per centum, to 724 sales
Condo median price (2016-19): up 35.3 percent, to $99,450
Condo sales (2016-nineteen): upwards 20.4 percent, to 336 sales
Population: 144,900
Median household income: $45,441
You should know: Bridgeport is Connecticut'south largest city.
Hartford County: Windsor Locks
If one town in Connecticut can make a legitimate claim to being the state'south transportation hub, it'southward Windsor Locks. And therein lies its entreatment to home buyers.
The town is all-time known equally home to Bradley International Airport, New England'south 2nd-busiest airport. But transportation options don't begin and end at the airport.
"Information technology's actually easy to get anywhere, both within Connecticut and out of state," says Bill Jones, sales managing director of the Due west Hartford office of William Raveis Real Estate.
Windsor Locks is about midway between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, with like shooting fish in a barrel admission to Interstate 91. And with a finish on the Hartford Line with its expanded commuter rail access, it's possible to leave the car at home.
Jones says that median auction prices in Windsor Locks have benefited from a state unemployment charge per unit that went downwards by one percent in the by 12 months as well as ascent apartment rental costs effectually the Hartford area. He expects domicile values to continue to grow in the coming years, now that the state has appear it has received a $17.4 million federal grant to build a new train station in the downtown area.
"When yous upgrade transportation infrastructure, real estate prices will follow," Jones says.
Windsor Locks at a glance
Unmarried-family abode median toll (2016-nineteen): up 17.5 percent, to $195,000
Single-family dwelling sales (2016-19): up 5 percent, to 147 sales
Condo median toll (2016-19): up 7.1 percent, to $142,500
Condo sales (2016-xix): up 42.nine pct, to l sales
Population: 12,876
Median household income: $66,846
Y'all should know: Windsor Locks is dwelling to the New England Air Museum, whose drove of everything from early flying machines to supersonic jets celebrates the region'southward role in aviation history, blueprint and manufacturing.
Litchfield County: Woodbury
Woodbury's just-under 10,000 residents enjoy quasi-rural living and easy admission to a charming downtown area that looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But it is also shut to Interstate 84, making information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to become to Waterbury, Danbury and other points in the region.
"It's just a quaint little town with lots of good restaurants," says Tim Drakeley, owner of Drakeley Real Estate, which has offices in Woodbury, Southbury and Bethlehem. "And it's a peachy location whether y'all're going to Boston or New York Urban center."
Woodbury is besides one of the stops on Connecticut's antiques trail, with more ii dozen stores where shoppers tin can peruse treasures to their hearts' content.
The median almanac income in Woodbury is $78,025, which is a little more $27,000 college than the median national income. And perhaps because of that, Woodbury has something many pocket-size towns don't: a highly regarded health food store, New Morn Marketplace.
The town also has plenty prestige that, for a few years, it was the domicile to musician, role player and screenwriter Rob Zombie.
Woodbury at a glance
Single-family home median price (2016-19): up xv.nine percent, to $365,000
Single-family unit home sales (2016-xix): down 4.8 percentage, to 99 sales
Condo median price (2016-19): upwardly ane percent, to $131,000
Condo sales (2016-19): up 54.three percentage, to 54 sales
Population: 9,537
Median household income: $78,025
You should know: Woodbury has many historic structures. Congenital around 1740 in the Georgian Colonial way, the Glebe House Museum features a classic English-style garden. It's as well said to be haunted.
Middlesex County: Essex
Bigger may be better when it comes to some things, only role of what makes Essex attractive to dwelling buyers is its modest-town feel. "My married man and I used to live in Simsbury and we'd come here on day trips," says Yolanda Tine Lowe, a existent estate agent who works for William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, which has a brokerage office on Principal Street in the town. "It's and then quaint and we simply fell in beloved with it."
Lowe says the boondocks has a overnice mix of immature and old residents who have a real sense of customs. "People are ever meeting to help others out," she says.
There'south plenty to do around Essex. Information technology is dwelling to the Essex Steam Train & River Boat, the Ivoryton Playhouse and the Connecticut River Museum. Other nearby attractions include Gillette Castle State Park in Eastward Haddam and Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.
So there is the lure of the Connecticut River, which empties into Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook. "We get a lot of boaters hither," Lowe says.
Essex at a glance
Single-family unit dwelling house median price (2016-19): upward 22.one%, to $386,500
Single-family abode sales (2016-19): down iii.4 percent, to 85 sales
Condo median cost (2016-19): downwards iv.7 percent, to $205,000
Condo sales (2016-19): downwardly 10.v percent, to 17 sales
Population: half dozen,674
Median household income: $87,000
Y'all should know: The maritime-themed Griswold Inn, "the Gris" for short, is one of the country's oldest continuously operated inns, opening its doors in the consequential year of 1776.
New Oasis County: Waterbury
Waterbury is a city on the rebound when it comes to residential real estate, and Linda Fercodini of Wolcott-based Fercodini Properties credits Mayor Neil O'Leary for the turnaround.
"It's coming back and I credit him for that," Fercodini says of the Autonomous mayor. "He is doing a lot to attract business organization downtown and he'due south washed a great job with his anti-blight entrada. There are a lot of investors that have started to come in."
Many of those investors are coming from New York state, she says.
"Not only are they coming to invest, they are besides coming here to live," Fercodini says. "Taxes in Waterbury are loftier, but not as high as in our neighboring country. And young people today like to live in cities where they can walk to stores and entertainment."
Two of the main attractions in downtown Waterbury are the Renaissance Revival-style Palace Theater and the Mattatuck Museum. A little farther from the city centre is the highly regarded Seven Angels Theater and the newly opened Continuum Distillery.
Waterbury at a glance
Single-family home median price (2016-19): up 33.3 percent, to $132,000
Single-family dwelling sales (2016-19): upwards eight.vi percent, to 782 sales
Condo median toll (2016-nineteen): upwards nineteen.three percent, to $65,000
Condo sales (2016-19): upwards 23.seven pct, to 219 sales
Population: 108,093
Median household income: $41,617
You should know: Waterbury earned its "Brass City" nickname in the first half of the 20th century by churning out more brassware than whatever other industrial center in the U.S. Information technology as well specialized in the production of watches and clocks.
New London County: Griswold
There'due south no shortage of means for people who live in Griswold to entertain themselves. The town is close to beaches in both Connecticut and Rhode Island, too as our country's two casinos and attractions in Mystic.
Perhaps that'south why the town was New London County'southward height performer in terms of growth in median single-family home sale prices betwixt 2022 and 2019.
"Information technology's a great boondocks," says Denise Robillard with Continental Realty Assembly. "It's a country temper with not bad schools. And you can become well-nigh anywhere in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island because Griswold is forth the I-395 corridor."
Another gene, according to Robillard, is that the town is an easy commute to some of southeastern Connecticut's largest employers, such as Electric Gunkhole, as well as Foxwoods and Mohegan Sunday.
"Housing is still quite affordable here," she says. "And natural gas mains are being extended here to attract more businesses to the town."
Griswold at a glance
Single-family habitation median price (2016-19): up 36.four per centum, to $191,000
Single-family dwelling sales (2016-nineteen): up 12.7 percentage, to 80 sales
Condo median price (2016-nineteen): up 12.seven pct, to $112,635
Condo sales (2016-xix): downward 33.3 percent, to iv sales
Population: 11,591
Median household income: $62,542
You should know: Outdoor options are plentiful here, with both the Pachaug and Hopeville state forests, besides equally the Pachaug and Quinebaug rivers.
Tolland Canton: Columbia
If you similar the thought of lakeside living, Columbia has it. The town is abode to a pair of large bodies of h2o: Columbia Lake and Mono Pond. The 281-acre Columbia Lake is maintained by the town, according to Enza Dandeneau of Dandeneau Team Real Estate, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate in Glastonbury. In addition to the boondocks embankment, many of the homes lining the lake have private beaches of their own.
Many houses were originally built equally summertime homes for people who worked in Hartford and its immediate suburbs, according to Dandeneau. Merely as Route 2 was developed over several decades, starting in the 1950s, people began to view Columbia in a whole new low-cal, she says. "Information technology's only xx miles from downtown Hartford, which makes information technology a very doable commute. So people who worked at Pratt & Whitney and other major Hartford employers began taking the steps they needed to live in Columbia year around."
Columbia is less than 10 miles abroad from Willimantic, dwelling house to Eastern Connecticut State University. And just 11 miles to the north is the University of Connecticut's main campus in Storrs. "You have a lot of people who work at both schools who live in Columbia," Dandeneau says.
Columbia at a glance
Single-family home median price (2016-19): up 22.4 pct, to $260,000
Single-family home sales (2016-19): downwardly xi.3 percent, to 63 sales
No condo sales in 2019
Population: 5,385
Median household income: $106,604
Y'all should know: The Mono Pond State Park Reserve, with the 113-acre Mono Swimming at its core, is a pop destination for all way of outdoor activities. It was added to the state park system in 2008. Besides, Columbia was once part of neighboring Lebanon and was called Lebanon's Crank until it broke off in 1804.
Windham County: Plainfield
Fifty-fifty though it's Windham County's third-most-populated town, Plainfield still has that small-town thing going for it. It could exist one of the reasons that domicile-sales prices have been ascension here at an impressive prune.
"Information technology's very affordable and is a not bad location right off of Interstate 395," says Mary Collins, a real manor agent with the Woodstock office of Berkshire Hathaway. "It's close to Rhode Isle and the beaches."
Collins says the toll of living in Plainfield is much cheaper than other parts of Connecticut and neighboring Rhode Island, which attracts a lot of Ocean State residents across the edge.
One of the draws of Plainfield is that it'south role of the Last Light-green Valley National Heritage Corridor, which stretches from part of central Massachusetts through much of eastern Connecticut. Another natural attraction is the 96-acre Moosup Pond, where Collins says she has sold several homes within the by year.
Plainfield at a glance
Single-family dwelling house median price (2016-nineteen): upward twoscore.7 percent, to $189,950
Single-family home sales (2016-nineteen): down 12.9 percentage, to 108 sales
Condo median price (2016-19): up 88.5 pct, to $120,500
Condo sales (2016-xix): up 200 percentage, to 12 sales
Population: 15,173
Median household income: $67,551
You should know: The town was incorporated as Quinebaug in 1699, and was changed to Plainfield a yr afterward. A Native American term meaning "long pond," Quinebaug is the proper noun of a village in the boondocks of Thompson, also in Windham County.
Source: https://www.connecticutmag.com/issues/features/real-estate-2020-the-8-hottest-connecticut-towns-by-county/article_b5ca79aa-6929-11ea-bd2b-57d284971dad.html
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