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Funny thing about CT I know people who love it, and a few people who want to GTFO. Maybe being a native helps?




There was a small story on the mews the other day about younger people leaveing the state in droves.





Jack, no worries there, Gov. Rell got on TV about 2-3 weeks back at a press conference and flatly said that those statitics were WRONG, and that young people were indeed coming INTO Connecticut!!! Of course, she didn't mention that they were actually just passing through on their way to go skiing in Vermont or New Hampshire, but that's kind of a insignificant little detail to argue over...


I can only talk from my personal perspective. I love/hate Connecticut. I moved here primarily to be closer to family, and initially (until I looked at houses) it seemed possible, since I took at $16,000 pay increase to come here! Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good jump in income, so surely I can make it work. Then reality hit me in the face:
1. A bag of 8 O'clock coffee costs $1 more in the grocery store than in South Carolina.
2. I have to buy a $32 punch card 1-2 times a month, from which they take money off of it for me to dispose of my household garbage.
3. Gas is about 16-30 cents a gallon higher than SC. Actually, the 87 is 16, but in SC, 89 is usually 10 cents a gallon higher, while in wester CT at least, I often find a 30-40 cent per gallon difference. And I can easily find a horde of gas station that will double or triple that 16 cents a gallon difference, even for the 87 octane.
4. My utility bill (full electric heat, and central a/c) was max. about $120 a month in summer/winter, and down to 80 in fall/spring. Here, for a 750sq. ft. cabin, it's $172 for electricity (no major appliances beyond furnace, fridge, water heater and stove), and another $135/month or so for heating oil.
5. If I were to buy my house in SC (3BR/2BA, 1400 sq. ft, 0.6 acre lot), I would pay approx. $118-125,000. To do the same here where I want to live, without a 50 mile commute from the other side of Waterbury (where housing is a little more affordable) or Torrington, I will not touch the same house in the same condition, for under $260-$300,000! Therefore, to live in a nice town, in a nice area, where I WANT to live(not where I can AFFORD to live, which was anywhere except certain parts of Charleston in SC), I will have to rent for at least 2 years, probably more (one guy has been renting here at work for 20 years!), and will most likely not find a house for under $1600/month (double my mortgage, and now I no longer own, but am a tenant!!!).
6. Property tax on that house in SC, $710 a year. Here, between $2500-4000 a year depending on towns. Thankfully, no property tax as a lowly tenant, but then no tax deduction either since I'm no longer a homeowner!
6. My phone service somehow is actually a bit cheaper, but I have faith that this will be corrected soon!
7. Property tax should be a wash, we'll see....
8. License, registration, and plates all cost me less than 40 bucks if I recall right in South Carolina. Here it cost about $230.
9. No matter where I'm driving, unless it's all interstate, it takes approx. 2 minutes for every mile. I commute 25 miles to work, takes 50 min if all goes well (which is why I'm not going to even consider commuting in from the other side of Waterbury.

I've already let my wife know up front that it's a very good possibility that we'll move in 2 years if the housing market doesn't do a major adjustment downward, which is a shame, cause I do love it around here, lots of pretty towns, the hills, valleys and rivers, great riding roads with covered bridges, all that stuff, and snow, which my kids never really got in SC. And, at the same time, while I'm in the foothills of the Litchfield Hills, and just down the road from the Adirondacks, and so on, I'm only 45 minutes-1hour from Long Island Sound and the ocean in the summer (although CT has practically no public beaches, most of the shoreline is actually owned by private homeowners and there are no laws requiring public beach access like back in Florida when I lived there) And the schools so far (here in New Milford) are great. Not that SC was bad, even though it had a bad rating, but my oldest son is mildly Autistic, and there I have come to the conclusion (in SC) that they were just kind of coddling him along, not really challenging him, but here he comes home with homework, and they really seem to work with him to get him to learn. Not to mention, down in SC, we had to buy ALL school supplies, pens, pencils, notebooks, everything. Here, it's all provided by the school like it was when I was little. So big thumbs up so far for education in CT.
Just sucks that you have to have a TV show or be CEO of a large multinational to afford to live here, unless you are a native and bought your house years ago....

Last edited by Bayern710; 02/28/2007 9:18 AM.