Potentially Moving to Hartford

Submitted by Das_Booooost_ t3_110nwxk in Hartford

Hello all,

My family and I are highly considering moving to the Hartford area in about a year and a half. I'll be getting out of Active Duty Air Force then, and my wife currently works for Travelers and wants a HQ job.

We've been looking around at home prices but since neither of us are from there we don't really know the area. What are the good areas? In terms of schooling, accessibility to shopping/restaurants, infrastructure, sense of community, etc?

Any sort of information about the area would be great. What would you suggest to potential incoming residents?

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noced t1_j8a7cao wrote

There’s been a lot of similar posts in r/Connecticut. I’d recommend a search there to get advice on local communities and their strengths/weaknesses.

tldr…check out West Hartford, Glastonbury, South Windsor and surrounding towns for “have it all” communities. If their prices are out of budget, check out Rocky Hill, Vernon, and some others. These other towns are more my speed in terms of having a more relaxed vibe.

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[deleted] t1_j8axtew wrote

West Hartford is fantastic. Very good schools, very close to Hartford, nice suburbs, and lots of shops and restaurants (feel free to look up Blue Back Square and West Farms Mall). West Hartford is pretty expensive though, but, it’s worth it to a degree.

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FinnbarMcBride t1_j8af8s3 wrote

When you say infrastructure, what specifically are you looking for?

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Das_Booooost_ OP t1_j8akufr wrote

Nothing in particular. Just trying to think of things that may make a certain area stand out from the rest.

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FinnbarMcBride t1_j8alye8 wrote

Gotcha. If you want a rural feel, I'd look at Granby, Canton, Burlington, Colchester. If you want a suburb, Avon, Simsbury, Windsor, Glastonbury are worth checking out. If you want a more populated area, West Hartford, Farmington, Hartford, East Hartford, Newington and Wethersfield.

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decorlettuce t1_j8aswpp wrote

I’d look Marlborough/Hebron/Andover as well for rural. Marlborough in particular. 20 minutes from downtown Hartford, very good public schools, and good access to health facilities and food. Pretty affordable for new families imo

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Das_Booooost_ OP t1_j8atqr6 wrote

I have seen a few homes down there and it does look more affordable for sure.

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chacifer t1_j8hkod7 wrote

Suffield, CT is a nice place that is easily commutable to Hartford. It's a smaller town, good schools, and Enfield is right across the river for all your shopping needs. It's also good proximity to Bradley Airport if you think you're still going to be involved in either the Air Nat'l guard base there, or you needed to be close to Westover Air Force base, it's not far.
Similarly, there are aerospace companies in this area: Collins Aerospace, United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney.

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mukundsarma t1_j8bmhrx wrote

Avon, Farmington and Glastonbury are the neighborhoods to consider. All three are great school districts as well

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mas90guru t1_j8al49s wrote

How old are the kids? I wouldn’t move into a town with a high tax rate to support the school system unless I had kids going through school.

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Das_Booooost_ OP t1_j8atttu wrote

We have a 4 year old daughter. She'll be 6 by the time school would start the year we move.

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Eincville t1_j8d21mn wrote

West Hartford has walkable neighborhoods where most of the elementary kids walk to a neighborhood school. This really builds relationships fast because you meet the other parents every morning and as transplants we were able to build a community of other families we could rely on when problems arose. We had many occasions to ask neighbors and friends to pick up our child from school or visa versa. Having moved from a more rural area that just wasn’t as easy to build relationships. It is expensive from an outside perspective but we made it work by renting for a couple years near the school we wanted, Morley, which is surrounded by higher density housing so less expensive. Until we found the right house which we also lucked out on.

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Adventurous_Ad_3415 t1_j8d81z2 wrote

Don’t know where are you living now. But my suggestion don’t move here. I did the same and it was huge mistake. The area very old and outdated, economically in hole, infrastructure pretty bad(roads, power poles, trash on streets, etc). Can’t wait to move out from here(unfortunately 2 more years). Live in West Hartford btw

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