I'm halfway between Hartford and Waterbury, a town over from Wolcott. Waterbury is not a place to look for a house. It's as bad as Bridgeport crime wise. Houses are cheap because property taxes, at least were, very high. At least to me, once you pass bridgeport, it pretty much becomes Westchester NY. It feels like a whole different planet from the rest of Connecticut. 3 BR, 2 bath, 2car garage raised ranches on 1/3 acre are going for 300K + currently. Your house budget will be tested. The good news is we have basements that dont count towards SQFT usually. My 1200 sqft ranch is actually double that with the basement. Good storage and a big man cave.
Route 8 south area might be OK once you get away from the highway a little bit.
On the plus side there is an Autocross scene, plenty of clubs run Lime Rock, Palmer, Thompson and some tracks in NY.
Connecticut has good healthcare, its close to NYC and Boston. Northern New England is a great vacation place. But, Stupid winter. I wouldnt say we get alot of snow or big snow, but they throw down the calcium chloride like it's going to be a blizzard for the threat of flurries.
golfduke said:
I'm not gonna tell you that that's impossible, but in this market, along the 95 corridor in CT, a 3+/2+ for $350k is gonna either be a super fixer-upper, in a poor neighborhood, way out in the woods, or some combo of all.
A friend just bought in Milford, and a run-of-the-mill 3br/2.5ba with small office, 2 car garage, on a 1/2 acre lot for $490k.
Geez. Here in Columbus, we've got a 90's construction 3br/1.5ba, finished basement, 2 car garage in a nice but not trendy neighborhood. I figure it's now worth ~$250-$300. Thinking about how much extra housing costs are going to be, and what that would mean for how much of a raise I would need. I don't want increased earnings to all go to housing.
Housing is very expensive here.
Just talked to an old GF in Trumbull. She bought a 50's, 2 bed, one bath, ranch with 2 car garage in Trumbull last year and was bitchin about the taxes so I got her to slow down and wrote them down.
$7,600.00 property tax
$254. 00 Fire
$150.00 property tax on one car a few years old.
$300.00 Sewer
No municipal garbage collection so you have to hire someone.
In reply to NOT A TA :
Is that for a year?
My annual property tax is $3760.
Looks like Ohio has a property tax rate of 1.57% and Connecticut is 2.14%. She'd be saving $2k/year here on property tax. The house would be less expensive though.
Edit: crunching numbers - if we sold this house for $275k and my wife puts in cash equal to what I did when I purchased this house, then we buy a $400k house in CT with a 2.14% property tax rate... it would roughly cost us an extra $800/month or $9,600/year in housing. So, I want to earn at least an extra $10k/yr above that to earn back the cost of moving in a year. So a $20k raise.
...actually, that's doable. That is within the salary range for this position.
A $500k house though... is an extra $1,300/mo or $15,600/year. That's still within the salary range given for this position, but would be the very top end.
...
I'm probably better off pursuing a position earning a bit less in Southeast PA or VA where I can buy a $300k house.
In reply to Beer Baron :
Unless you're in lower Fairfield County (south of Bridgeport to the NY line), $500 grand buys a pretty damn nice house in the rest of the area that you're talking about.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
In reply to Beer Baron :
Unless you're in lower Fairfield County (south of Bridgeport to the NY line), $500 grand buys a pretty damn nice house in the rest of the area that you're talking about.
I'd still rather spend less than that. Just crunching numbers on what I'd need to earn to be able to swing that. I'd rather spend under $400k and pocket the savings.
In reply to Beer Baron :
You should be able to get a very nice place in the Valley for less than $400k.
In reply to Beer Baron :
Yes, yearly taxes. IIRC property taxes vary by municipality in CT.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
In reply to Beer Baron :
You should be able to get a very nice place in the Valley for less than $400k.
Holy E36 M3. I went on Zillow and found my dream house for $390 in Ansonia. Down to the bar in the basement and the jacuzzi bathtub.
In reply to Beer Baron :
Google maps says that's currently 30 mins from the brewery to home. At 5:30 (rush hour) that doesn't seem bad.
As long as you're outside Fairfield County, $400k buys you a lot. Property taxes vary a lot by town, definitely check those out for anything you're interested in.
Our previous house in Sandy Hook sold for $258k back in '12. 3 bedroom, 2,000 square feet, all redone, 1.5 baths, .9 acres, no garage. Taxes were $5-6k per year. Zillow currently has it at $417k, I'd say something around $340k is more realistic. Our town saw a lot of appreciation during COVID, because we're still considered to be commutable to NYC (I wouldn't recommend that to my worst enemy). I'd expect to see similar results in Trumbull and Monroe, but although the towns in the Valley had some appreciation, I would guess not as much as the towns in our immediate area.
In reply to Beer Baron :
That's a good neighborhood. I lived near there on Clark St. for a couple years back in the early 80's. One nice thing from that area is quick access to Rt 8. The other side of Ansonia is more of a pain to commute to Bridgeport or Wolcott because traveling Rt 34 at rush hours sucks.
I lived in Ansonia about 30 years, owned 3 retail businesses in town and was an officer on the Zoning Board of Appeals, so I know the city pretty well other than recent changes.
Beer Baron said:
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
In reply to Beer Baron :
You should be able to get a very nice place in the Valley for less than $400k.
Holy E36 M3. I went on Zillow and found my dream house for $390 in Ansonia. Down to the bar in the basement and the jacuzzi bathtub.
I don't mean to be a dream crusher, but I was just in the area and did a drive by.
That's neither a $400,000 house, nor a $400,000 neighborhood.
You can do much better for the same money.
It's got a hydrant though, so that's a plus.
To put a positive spin on Woody's dream crushing message, if he's right in saying you can do better for $400k, then things only get either better for the same money or cheaper.
I mean, I don't even know if this job will pan out or not. At this point, was just asking to get a sense of whether or not it's worth continuing to discuss things.
If it ends up that I can buy something nicer than that for that price or cheaper, awesome. I mostly loved the basement with a bar and the big master bathroom. And that garden space in back is big and level enough to build a skate ramp.
If it's massively overpriced, and I end up taking the job, maybe it will still be on the month or two it would take me to transition, and I can swoop in with a more modest offer.
