7 Underrated Hartford County Towns to Buy in Before Everyone Else

 

So you're thinking about moving to Connecticut and everybody keeps pointing you to West Hartford.

I'm Dave Jones with Dave Jones Realty, and today we're going through seven underrated Hartford County towns — none of them named West Hartford. The town at number one is the one almost nobody is talking about, and that's about to change.

Everybody knows the big three: West Hartford, Glastonbury, Simsbury. Great towns. But you're also paying for the name — higher prices, more competition, often a bidding war. This list is for the towns that hand you many of the same benefits for less money.

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#7 — Wethersfield: $415,000 median, 41.22 mill rate

Wethersfield isn't a secret to people already living in Hartford County, but if you're moving here from out of state it flies completely under the radar. That's a mistake.

Old Wethersfield is the largest historic district in Connecticut — more than 150 houses built before 1850, all in one walkable stretch. It's the kind of place people drive an hour to visit on a fall weekend, and you get to live in it.

You're also ten minutes from downtown Hartford — ten minutes to a Huskies game or a Yard Goats night. A 1700s village and a straight shot into the city, from the same address.

And it's not only the historic district. Wethersfield Cove sits right on the Connecticut River with a waterfront park, a boathouse, and walking paths. Old Wethersfield runs one of the larger farmers markets in the state. And the whole village is genuinely walkable, which in Connecticut is rarer than people think — most of our towns, you drive everywhere. Here you park once.

I had a buyer dead set on West Hartford whose budget just wasn't there. Everything they liked was going $20,000, $30,000, even $60,000 over. I took them to Wethersfield almost as a backup, and they bought. A year later they told me they were glad West Hartford fell through — they got the walkable village, the quick commute, and they can still visit West Hartford whenever they want.

That happens more than you'd think. The backup town is sometimes the right town.

Here's the catch, and I'll always give you the catch. The mill rate is 41.22, one of the higher rates on this list. You pay for the location and the history on the back end, every year. And the median jumped 14.3% last year, which tells you people are figuring it out. The window is closing on this one — but I think you still have time.

#6 — Newington: $355,000 median, 39.98 mill rate

Newington is not going to win a beauty contest, and I'll be honest about that up front. What Newington wins is the location contest.

It sits almost dead center in the Hartford metro area. Whatever you need to get to, you're close to it. It has its own downtown. The Berlin Turnpike runs through it — one of the busiest retail corridors in the state, so anything you need to buy is right there. And it's on CTfastrak, the dedicated busway that runs into Hartford on its own road, no traffic.

Here's where people mess this up. They rule out a town like Newington because it doesn't photograph well, and then pay $80,000 more for the next town over with the identical commute. Don't do that. Function is worth money.

There's more here than people give it credit for. Mill Pond Park sits right in the middle of town — a big green space with trails, ballfields, and a pond, and it hosts a waterfall festival every fall that pulls in the surrounding towns. The Newington rail trail connects into the regional network. There's a medical campus in town. And the housing stock is solid mid-century and colonial homes on generous lots — the kind of thing that's getting genuinely hard to find under $400,000 near Hartford.

The way I'd put it: Newington is the town you don't fall in love with from the photos, and then you live there five years and never leave, because everything you need is ten minutes away and you stopped paying a premium for a name. Boring on paper, great in real life.

The catch is the same shape as Wethersfield — the mill rate is just under 40. Newington is underrated on location and convenience, not on taxes. Know that going in.

#5 — Berlin: $425,000 median (+6.3%), 30.65 mill rate

Here's a fact about Berlin I love, because it's the kind of thing that makes a town stick in your head: Berlin is the geographic center of Connecticut. There's an actual marker. Everything in the state is measured from that spot.

That's not just trivia. Being in the center means you can get anywhere — Hartford, New Haven, the shoreline, Waterbury, Storrs — all in a reasonable drive.

I've had buyers where two people in the household work in two completely different directions, one toward Hartford and one down toward New Haven, and they're pulling their hair out trying to find a town that doesn't wreck one of the commutes. Berlin solves that problem more often than any other town in the county, because from the center, everything is fine. When you've got two commutes to solve, "okay in both directions" beats "perfect in one."

But here's the real reason Berlin made the list: it has its own station on the Hartford Line. You can walk onto a train in Berlin and ride into Hartford, or the other direction toward Meriden and New Haven, without touching your car. In a state where most towns give you nothing but a highway on-ramp, that's a genuinely big deal — and it's the kind of thing that quietly holds a town's value over time.

The mill rate of 30.65 is meaningfully lower than the last two towns. And Berlin delivers real small-town feel on top of it — a genuine town center, Timberlin Park with its golf course and trails, and housing that runs from older colonials to new construction, so there's an actual range depending on budget.

It feels settled and quiet, and you're never more than twenty minutes from a city. That balance is exactly what a lot of people say they want and can't find.

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If you're serious about this part of the state and want someone to walk you through which of these towns fits your budget and your commute — before you burn a Saturday driving around — that's exactly what the free Zoom consultation is for. Zero pressure, no obligation.

Call or text: 203-910-2638 | Dave@davejonesrealty.com | www.searchallcthomes.com

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#4 — East Windsor: $320,750 median, 24.89 mill rate

One of the lowest prices on this list paired with one of the lowest tax rates in the county. Sit with that combination. Low to buy, low to hold. That's exactly what everybody says they want, and then nobody goes and finds it — because East Windsor isn't a name that comes up at the dinner table.

Here's what it actually is. North of Hartford, up near the airport. Rural — real land, real space, real quiet. You're right off I-91, so getting into the city is easy, but you're living somewhere that feels like country.

It has genuine character too. The Broad Brook section has an old village feel. There are working farms and farm stands. The Scantic River runs through with trails and open space along it. This is tobacco and farm country — the same broad valley soil that built this part of the state — and a lot of the land is still open. You get sunsets over actual fields, which for somebody coming from a packed suburb is the thing they didn't know they were missing.

This is the raw value pick of the whole list. If your top priority is the most house and the most land for the fewest dollars, and you don't need a walkable downtown or a train, East Windsor is the answer and most people never look.

The trade-off — and there's always one — is that you're going to drive for things. Your big weekly grocery run, your real shopping, that's a couple of towns over. Fifteen minutes for errands. If that would make you crazy, this isn't your town. If trading it for space and a low tax bill sounds like a fair deal, this is the one.

#3 — Southington: $421,000 median (+9.4%), 33.21 mill rate

That kind of price move on strong sales volume tells you Southington is one of the most in-demand towns in the county. It still qualifies as underrated because outside Connecticut, nobody's heard of it.

Here's what Southington gives you that a lot of these towns don't: a real downtown. An actual Main Street with restaurants, a movie theater, and things worth walking to. The Farmington Canal trail runs right through, giving you miles of paved path for biking and walking through the middle of town.

And the location is sneaky good. Southington straddles I-84, which means the commute works in either direction — northeast toward Hartford or southwest toward Waterbury. Most towns lock you into one direction. Southington doesn't.

Here's where people get it wrong. They hear Southington, picture the highway and the shopping plazas along 84, and never actually go see the downtown — which is three minutes away and feels like a completely different place. Go see downtown. That's the Southington people fall in love with.

There's also real stuff keeping people rooted. The Apple Harvest Festival is one of the biggest town festivals in the state — they close down the whole center. There's a drive-in movie theater still operating, which barely exists anywhere else in Connecticut. This is a town with its own identity, not a bedroom community that empties out at 9 a.m.

The mill rate of 33.21 sits in the middle, and it's fair for what you're getting.

#2 — Suffield: $442,700 median (−2.3%), 23.41 mill rate

Here's the interesting part: Suffield's median actually went down 2.3% last year, while most of the county went up. That dip is the opportunity.

Most of Hartford County last year, you were competing — offers over asking, buyers waiving inspections, the whole ugly game. A town where median prices softened is a town where you can make a normal offer and get a normal answer. That's worth going out of your way for.

And you will be going a little out of your way. But look at the mill rate: 23.41, one of the lowest in the entire county. A soft market and a low tax rate at the same time is a combination that does not usually last.

What are you actually buying? Suffield is old tobacco country up along the Connecticut River, and it's beautiful. A real historic Main Street with the big old houses and private academies that have been there since the 1800s. The Windsor Locks Canal Trail runs four and a half miles right along the river — one of the best flat walking and biking trails in the state. Working farms and genuine agricultural history you can still see driving around, with a tobacco museum nearby in the valley.

You're not far from the Massachusetts line either, so serious Springfield-area shopping is a short hop north, along with Six Flags and the Big E once a year. You're tucked away, but you're not stranded.

This is a town for somebody who wants space, quiet, history, and a low tax bill, and is willing to sit a little north of the center of everything. If that's you, Suffield is one of the best values in Hartford County right now.

#1 — Windsor Locks: $315,000 median, 23.99 mill rate

The lowest price on the entire list and one of the lowest tax rates in the county, at the same time.

But that's not why it's number one.

Windsor Locks is the town wrapped around Bradley Airport — the second-largest airport in New England, right there. If you travel for work, or you've got family spread across the country, living ten minutes from a major airport is worth real money and most people never think about it until they need it. No hour-long drive at 4 a.m. No car service. You're there before you finish your coffee.

And here's what makes this a right-now story. There's a brand new train station under construction in downtown Windsor Locks on the Hartford Line, designed to improve access to the airport. Right next to it, the old Montgomery Mill — a huge historic mill building that sat empty for years — has already been converted into apartments.

That mill matters more than it sounds. When a developer looks at a beat-up old mill in a downtown and decides to put millions into turning it into housing, that's a bet. They're betting on a town going up, not down. And they made it because they knew the station was coming. That's how this works — one piece of investment pulls in the next.

So look at what's actually stacked up here: the cheapest median on the list, one of the lowest tax rates, a major airport, and public money pointed directly at the downtown. That's the definition of an underrated town. Cheap today, real bones, investment flowing in.

The people buying in Windsor Locks before the station opens are the ones who'll look smart five years from now. I've seen this movie before in other towns — the people who bought right before it became obvious are the ones sitting on the equity. The people who waited until it felt safe paid for the privilege.

I'm not going to tell you Windsor Locks is finished and polished, because it isn't. It's a town in the middle of becoming something. But that's exactly what the price is reflecting, and the price won't stay here.

The time to buy into a town like this is while it still looks like a question mark to most people — not after the station opens and everybody can see it.

Go drive downtown Windsor Locks. Look at the mill building. Look at where the station is going. Then look at what $315,000 buys you. Do it on a weekday when the crews are out and you can see the money moving. That's the whole pitch.

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All seven, side by side

Based on Connecticut's 70% assessment ratio. Estimates only — actual bills depend on the town's assessed value for the specific property, and mill rates are set annually.

Look at that last column, because it's the whole argument in one place. Wethersfield's annual tax bill at its median is more than double Windsor Locks' — roughly $6,700 a year, over $550 a month, on towns barely twenty minutes apart.

That doesn't mean Wethersfield is a bad buy. It means you're paying for the village and the ten-minute commute, and you should know that's what you're paying for. The mill rate times the assessment is the number that actually matters — not the sticker price. If you're looking at a specific house in any of these towns, I'm happy to pull the real tax figure on it.

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Call or text: 203-910-2638 Email: Dave@davejonesrealty.com Search every home in Connecticut: www.searchallcthomes.com

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Market data reflects the most recent reporting period available at the time of writing and changes continuously; mill rates are set annually. Contact Dave Jones Realty for current figures on any specific town. For school information, we recommend GreatSchools.org and visiting districts directly. Buyers researching any Connecticut community should conduct their own independent due diligence on all factors relevant to their decision.

 

Dave Jones Realty LLC | Serving New Haven, Hartford, and Litchfield Counties