Favored by Fortune

Those of us in Connecticut real estate would like to thank Boston and New York.  If they weren't so expensive, we might not be seeing the spate of sales that we've had in the past few months.  Although Connecticut faces fiscal and policy challenges, its location between two major centers of growth means that it benefits from the rise in prices seen in the two cities that bracket it.

Investment property is clearly drawing attention from buyers priced out of the Boston and NYC markets.  We are starting to see the same dynamic in demand for user properties, distribution facilities, and land.  Even home prices are beginning to reflect first-time buyers who cannot afford New York, just as we used to see.

It's impossible to predict how far the sprawl of metro Boston will end up going, but Connecticut will surely reap at least some rewards.  Fairfield County is already considered a suburb of New York, and that will continue.  If rail is upgraded, which we are all waiting for, that spillover will explode.  In the meantime, we can just be happy to see a great increase in commercial activity.

New Assessments in New Haven

The new assessments have been mailed to New Haven taxpayers, and there has been a lot of talk about what that will mean for residential taxpayers.  What hasn't been touted as much is that the reassessment helps commercial taxpayers.  First of all, most of their building values have not gone up over the past ten years.  Secondly, commercial enterprises are taxed also on personal property.  Therefore, when real estate assessments go up, personal property taxes go down, making the commercial sector's share of overall city taxes go down.

Sometimes commercial taxpayers do get some breaks!