FAA

I am pretty sure we will be moving to Connecticut shortly, we are British but have been in USA for 3 years. We have 2 kids aged 10 and 7 so looking for a good town for families with good schools but with not too long a commute to Norwalk (off Merritt Parkway end). I have looked on Greatschools and there seem to be a lot of towns with good school districts that aren't too far from Norwalk but I am not sure how busy the traffic will be for my husbands commute to work? We are currently living in an excellent area with great schools and very safe so I have to get this next move right for the kids. The areas I have come up with so far are Darien, New Canaan, Westport and Wilton but they are all SO expensive. We are not looking to rent not buy. All I have heard about Connecticut so far is how expensive it is and how wealthy everyone is who lives there!!

Nutmegger

All the towns you have mentioned so far are lovely areas with excellent school systems. I'm afraid that Fairfield County is indeed an expensive place to live -- but most places have good schools. Within easy reach of Norwalk you will also find Ridgefield and Redding have two of the best school systems in the state; Bethel is a little less expensive, but has good schools; you could head further up the coast to Milford -- there are some nice places on the water, but it is generally not as nice as the inland places. Have you decided against actually living in Norwalk? South Norwalk is a very hip place, and there are some nice residential areas on the water in East Norwalk.

Is your husband's company located at Merritt Seven? If so the train stops there from Danbury, Bethel, Redding, Ridgefield and Wilton. Route 7 is the main route down to Norwalk from those areas, and can be a bit clogged in the morning.

Bob

Welcome to BE

Have a search of past threads about CT, there's about 2 or 3 that are pretty current from the last few weeks that have quite a lot of info.

Check out city-data.com for more areas...and then just expect to pay a lot for a place unless you want to live in a dump like Hartford.

FAA

Thank you I will search back on past threads. I had ruled out actually living in Norwalk as the schools don't seem as good as other areas but I will check this again. Our rent will be paid for us as part of our expat contract which is good but we are expecting to have to live in a much smaller house that we currently have rented for us in the midwest! That was great information on the trains, thank you for that. I think Merritt 7 is the train station my husband was talking about.

dinosaur

Redding, Ridgefield, Weston etc have (allegedly) fantastic schools, but also fantastic property prices similar to Darien, New Canaan etc. Bethel and Newtown (where I live) are a bit cheaper, and their schools are perhaps just very good, rather than excellent.
Norwalk is perhaps 30 to 40 mins drive from Newtown - you avoid Route 7 at all costs and take backroads during rush hour.