A lot of comments about "trumpy Italians" but that's softening the issue a bit-- East Haven has a lot of racists. I’m an Italian-American and I love the culture and all that but I would never live in East Haven because I'm not a racist and I don't want to live with that many racists.

If racism doesn't bother you, I'm sure it's a fine place to live. Otherwise, I'd second the suggestion to look elsewhere.

>he east haven school system is not good

yeah, traditionally the trumpy Italians send their kids to Catholic school. if you do private school there's nice parts of east haven to raise a small child. Momaguin or Cosey Beach if you can afford it gets you in a quiet area to walk, ride bikes and swim.

East Haven has some of the best saltwater kayaking in the north east though. There's a maze of tiny islands that goes from east haven through branford and a bunch of accessible rivers

i'd avoid east haven public schools if that's your plan

I wouldn't recommend it if you're a BIPOC. My family experienced a lot of racism during our brief time living there. They're so good at being racist, they even made national news several times!

Don’t forget Tolli’s!

Nothing wrong with "Trumpy Italians ".

It's definitely an Italian town and I love it and I'm not Italian. Great food and bakeries!

I live in Foxon in East Haven. Having moved from milford (born and raised) and Branford.

It's not a fancy town. There are a lot of nice small restaurants. People , for the most part are friendly. The beach is beautiful year round. The green is getting more and more beautiful. Don't listen to nay sayers. Everyone's experience is different.

Look up “Christmas in East haven.” The video will give you a good view of locals’ perceptions of East Haven.

I looked at houses there and here are my several pettyish reasons I chose somewhere else:

-trumpy Italians as someone else said. This only resonated with me because the mindset has bled over to a hesitance to embrace what could be a great opportunity for the town in being more accommodating to the airport and income that could be garnered from it, if done correctly. Aka NIMBYs. Also anti vaxxers.

• proximity to small airport and recent plane crashes, one of which killed a family’s two children as they were in their own house
• swampy mosquito-ey areas
• schools leave a lot to be desired if you have a child that has an iep. These are anecdotes but I know of one family who is suing the school system bc of this, one family that is going into debt to put their kid (who needs accommodations) in a private school to avoid EH public, and another family who is pretending to live at their in-laws in another town, also to have their kid, in need of accommodations, avoid the EH public schools.

I grew up in East Haven. Now in New Haven, but in terms of East it is quite nice. A lot of old Italians who are VERY used to their way of living (translated: there’s a decent amount of biggotry), and a lot of it was passed down to the next generation. Pretty safe and very family friendly, plus if your kid eventually likes baseball we have 4 fields ! Education system is okay, I know two people from my middle school who went to East Haven High and wound up going to Ivy league schools. Overall pretty quiet and people keep to themselves. Main Street is loaded with good, family owned food from various cultures. Some reccomendations as a native: Aniellos, John & Marie’s Pizza, Papas Wings & Seafood, Foliage Chinese Food, and Taqueria la Frontera. We now have a farmers market too, its small but there are some really kind vendors and great businesses that come through!

Depending on what you can afford, I’d look at orange/Woodbridge. Excellent quiet towns bordering New Haven, with the best school system near New Haven

After those two north haven, Milford and Wallingford are also great towns.

All those are likely more $ than east haven tho. The east haven school system is not good

I live in New Haven. East haven is fine. It’s safe and cheap. Lots of trumpy Italians. Only town on CT shoreline that voted red in 2020. If that’s your thing, you’ll like it. If not then move before your kid(s) get older

I have never worked in east haven personally but I know a few people that have lived there and I’ve always heard good things! Depending on your price range you can also find affordable homes in Milford, Hamden, north haven and west haven, not too far from the beach too!

For sure! The library does a lot of young kids events, and the town green is a fun space as well- my daughter love playing on the gazebo.

The beach is one of the best on the shoreline- not in terms of the actual water, but the playground is DOPE, and right across the street in a water-pad play area, large pavilion, and a restaurant

I also love the local diner "Twin Pines Diner" it is a year round staple for when my daughter is being a pickle and I need to bribe her into behaving.

This is very helpful to know, thank you! When we move to the area we can maybe set up playdates! (We are nice lol). My "1" year old is almost 2... time flies...

I live in East Haven and commute to work at Yale daily. We have a 2.5 year old, and live right off the town center/mainstream.

I have never had a car broken into, never been mugged, never even seen a "sketchy" thing really.

And my commute to work even in heavy traffic is about 15 min.

NOA is done by the same folks as September in Bangkok. Went a couple weeks ago, and I gotta say, it was damn tasty.

Same it’s ridiculous

My electricity is my heat as well - The delivery service and fees etc are the same as your bill so it’s literally double it’s ridiculous ( united illuminating )

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Oh really that’s disappointing

Holy shit, you made me very happy to have gas heat in a modern house build. Almost 3000 square feet and my absolute max bill in winter is $200 a month.

If you’re renting an apartment look for a newer building with gas heat. That will be the cheapest. Old building with electric heat will be very expensive. I paid almost 300/month dead of winter for electric/old building.

No worries! Tons of variables. Happy to talk more or answer any other questions you might have.

The average electricity cost in Connecticut is about 21 cents/kWh. That includes delivery (the service your utility provides, plus hidden taxes and fees) and supply (the cost of the electricity itself, which is paid to third parties).

The actual rate varies depending on your electric utility (UI in most of the New Haven area), and which generation supplier you choose. Check EnergizeCT.com for competing supply rates.

Typical Connecticut residential usage is 700 kWh/month, so if you do the math that comes to $147 a month, plus a monthly fixed fee of $12.84 for UI customers, bringing it to about $160 a month. Obviously, if you use a lot of electricity you're going to pay more. So if you plan to have a grow room in your basement, or if you're a big gamer, expect a higher bill.

Thank you so much, this is so so helpful!! Exactly what I was looking for.

As you already know its going to vary greatly. But I can try to get you in the ballpark.

I live in a 2100 square foot ranch and I expect to burn 700-800 gallons of oil this winter, but again this could vary. So at the current lovely price of ~$5/gallon around $3500 this year for heat.

My electric bill is fairly consistent around $170/month and I do run AC in the summer...However I have seen people talk about much higher electric bills so this one is super variable because the electric companies seem to just do whatever they want.

If you have city water its going to depend a lot on how many people are in your home but I would say budgeting for 30-45/month is reasonable...highly dependent on how many people are showering, how much laundry, watering gardens etc. If your home has well water it will be a very small bump to your electric bill.

Sorry I can't be more specific. I'm not sure if you already have a home in mind but something I've done for clients is had the sellers provide historical utility bills...especially when dealing with houses with solar because I've seen so many cases of the solar not actually saving the homeowner any money (crazy solar leases).

This is unrelated to utilities and again not sure if you have a home or town in mind... but one thing to keep in mind when working on budget is how variable property tax can be from town to town in CT. This is going to be a massive part of your monthly payment depending on where you land. And is why I encourage clients to shop by monthly payment and NOT purchase price... saying you are preapproved for 300k means almost nothing because 300k in one town could have the same monthly payment as a 400k home in another town purely because of property tax. Happy to delve more into this if you have questions.