Connecticut is a unique place and is almost never what people expect. With a gorgeous mix of white winters, colorful falls, and warm summers, you will experience all seasons equally and beautifully. With a rustic mix of coastal towns and rural havens, there is a lot to love about this area of New England. Being on the Atlantic Coast the weather can be harsh at times but when the sun shines over Connecticut it is stunning.

Moving Advice

• April and May bring rain and the winter snow can make moving a challenge, so your best option is summer and fall.
• Summer and fall also tend to be the busiest times of year for moving companies and moving truck rentals. Book your date early.
• Rural and suburban areas will likely not cause a problem with parking, but if you are moving to a city, you will want to apply for a parking permit as soon as possible.

Change your address online. To make your move from California to Connecticut easier, consider changing your address online. It is easy to do, inexpensive, and will ensure that your mail arrives to your new home with you.

Cities and Metro Areas

From New Haven to Mystic there is always something to discover in Connecticut. Mystic, for example, is famous for its Seaport museum which houses ancient sailing ships, and the Mystic Aquarium too which houses the Beluga Whales.

Simsbury and New Canaan record very steep housing prices, but the median income is high enough to accommodate it. If you are seeking a place to raise your family in a safe, clean and upper-class neighborhood then Old Greenwich is the place for you. House prices in Weatogue are far more affordable meaning it is an accessible rather than an aspirational area to live.

Other notable cities/towns include Weston, Avon, Glastonbury, Ridgefield and Greenwich.

Cost of Living

Connecticut ranks right up there with New York and California for a high cost of living, with Stamford (one of the more expensive cities in Connecticut) having a cost of living only 17 percent lower than Manhattan, New York. Connecticut ranks second in the nation for high property taxes, beyond New Jersey but ahead of New York.

Salaries tend to be in line with the higher costs of everything from energy to real estate. The cost of living and median salaries vary dramatically across the state, however, with wealthy suburbs surrounding very poor inner cities.

Home prices in Connecticut have appreciated at about the same rate as the national average from last year. Looking back three years at the median price in October 2019 compared to October 2022, prices have increased 36.3% in Connecticut VS 35.8% nationwide.

As of October 2022, the median price for a home in the state was $340,600, which is up 4.9% above last year’s median price. Comparing prices over the last three years, we can see they have decreased -14.1% from the peak of $396,300 in Jul-2022.

Highways and Public Transport

Highways and roads in Connecticut are as diverse as everything else the state has to offer.

Local commuters say traffic gets bad on I-84, a road that runs diagonally across the state from southwest to northeast into Massachusetts, largely due to construction delays or rush hour traffic and I-95 is one of the most congested roads in the world.

In addition to major highways, twisting, winding, naturally scenic routes with all the fabulous colors of nature await you. City traffic, particularly in Hartford and New Haven, is similar to other US city traffic, and parking may not be easy either. If you move to New Haven, Connecticut, for instance, expect to apply for a residential parking permit; you cannot park on many city streets without one.

Climate

As the New England expression goes, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will change.”

Stamford, Connecticut was ranked as number 10 on the list of the Top 10 safest places to live in the US to avoid natural disasters. The entire state rarely experiences hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes.

Summers are cool, with average temperatures in the low 70s, and winters are cold, but not intolerably so, hovering just below freezing, on average. Moving to Connecticut, you may expect anywhere from 25 to 60 inches of snow per year, with the highest accumulations in the northwest.

Education

Like many states, Connecticut’s public school system faces standardized testing for students in grades 3 through 8. Hartford is the largest school district in Connecticut; Bridgeport ranks second.

Current school rankings (elementary, middle and high schools), campus and district zoning/location maps, information and reviews are available online for parents moving to Ohio:

In addition to the state’s public school system, the state has a wide range of private schools, both secular and religious, charter schools, and magnet schools. Of the state’s high schools, Westport is consistently ranked number one.

Government

• The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles permits you to print out forms from the Internet, but you cannot take care of DMV business online, such as getting a new driver’s license. The DMV also does not accept credit cards.
• If you have a valid out-of-state license or one that has been expired less than 60 days, you don’t need to take a written test or a road test—just a basic vision test.
• Trash collection is decided by each city or town in Connecticut. Some areas do not have trash and recycling services offered by the government; instead, you’ll need to hire your own trash removal service. Recycling is the law in Connecticut, and the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection provides guidelines for recycling on their website.