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yudkib t1_itx3ryc wrote

Not sure you’ll find many rentals in Mystic, and not sure nice ones will be much below $2k for a 1 bedroom (though will likely be bigger). You’re probably better off toward Groton, which I’m pretty sure has more rentals and definitely be softer on your budget.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxeg9d wrote

Thanks, that’s important info.

We stopped into Gronton on a drive and went to a Dunks. The area wasn’t really notable, it actually felt pretty sprawl, but it’s possible we were in the outskirts of town. Is it the kind of place that vibes with what we’re looking for based on the post?

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yudkib t1_itxikay wrote

Groton’s biggest draws are the sub base and mystic, which are on opposite sides of town. The closer you get to the sub base, the cheaper and less nice things will be (but also, more likely to find apartments). The closer to mystic you get, the more expensive they will be. There’s places like Noank that are in between geographically and price wise, but again, finding apartments may be difficult. Mystic is not the most self-sufficient downtown for errands as a local (especially by foot), and if your rent budget is under $2k I’m not sure how much time you’ll spend downtown anyways. All the other things you mentioned are within a short drive. 10 miles in CT is not like 10 miles in the Boston area. I think the areas that check more of your boxes will be virtually impossible to find a rental. East Hampton (in my experience) is this bizarre little enclave of extremely friendly but tight-knit artistic locals, but I cannot possibly imagine they have more than a couple dozen rentals for the whole town. Places that are super renter friendly is sort of at odds with sparsely populated towns with wide open areas. Either the towns allow a decent amount of multi-family housing and there’s more business (congestion) to support that, or they don’t. Sort of hard to have your cake and eat it too.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxj9zg wrote

Thanks. I’ve actually found places that have rentals and check most of the list, but they’re in Western Mass or farther north. It sounds like this doesn’t exist in CT which was my guess going into this already.

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yudkib t1_itxkumx wrote

I mean I just gave you two towns I thought would fit your bill… but anyways, western mass will likely be cheaper for a similar experience, but has worse access to water or cities (no one makes a day trip to Albany), fewer jobs and lower pay. Go to East Haddam, or Mansfield, or East Hampton, or Durham/Middlefield toward Wesleyan… there’s a bunch of places I can see appealing to you, but you’re not just going to waltz into a selection of 400 apartments on the market in those places.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxnjpq wrote

Yeah, I know that, it’s a search. You also gave a lot of reasons why the towns that ‘check the boxes will be virtually impossible to find rentals’, so that’s not the most encouraging thought going in, and makes me think that people similar to us will also not be abundant in these areas.

Noank is less than 2K people, 75% of people own, and the top age group is 65 and up. East Hampton’s age group is 45-65 and, like you said, extremely low on rentals as it’s more family focused. Neither town fits the bill or the community we’re looking for, which is the same story as other CT places I’ve looked at. Friend advised against Groton specifically. Thanks for the other suggestions, I really appreciate the advice, but as I said I do not think they’re right for us at this time and we should look elsewhere.

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yudkib t1_itxw6f2 wrote

Your friend is pointing you in the wrong direction too then. The average age in Mystic is older than Groton and Noank. You wanted similar ideas to Mystic but don’t actually want what Mystic offers. Which is fine, just makes it harder to match you to something. Look at Storrs (near Uconn) and around the Wesleyan campus which will be super liberal and artsy. Groton has a lot of open space and the sub base means they’re catering to 20-something’s. It’s not my vibe but I wouldn’t just write it off given what you’re looking for is a bit eclectic. The west Hartford side of new Britain might be good and has a lot of rentals. Or Newington. They’re more suburban but set up for renter and 20 something’s.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxwswc wrote

Thanks for the insight. I’ll check those out. Eclectic is a good word for what we’re used to and what we’re looking to find again. Not into retiree/family-skewing suburbs which makes it difficult because that’s what most reviews seem to consider when describing an area. I’ll check out those towns you mentioned, but my gut is telling me that CT may not offer the culture, finance, and built setting that best fits us. And that’s fine, not every state is going to offer what everyone’s looking for. Glad I have a better sense from this sub of what’s out there and what to consider.

Edit: I should mention that I have no idea what Mystic is like. Friend recommended it heavily, but I don’t know anything about the town except the facts I gleaned from the internet. Just trying to rule things in or out in the search which has not considered CT yet.

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yudkib t1_ity027f wrote

Mystic is going to be much closer in feel to Ipswitch than Easthampton. Closest thing we have to Easthampton is probably Middletown. You could also look in Westville, which is a neighborhood of New Haven. But it’s very green and hilly and borders Woodbridge, which has 2 acre zoning and tons of open area… but housing costs are much lower because New Haven schools ain’t that great.

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drfronkonstein t1_ityo9c6 wrote

In my personal opinion, as a New Londoner across the bridge, Groton itself is almost entirely unnoticeable.

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