Mapping the Cost of Owning a Home in CT

Last week, Patch began our series on the best places in Connecticut to buy a home by looking at the towns and communities with the highest paying jobs. In this second installment, we’re analyzing just how affordable those communities are using Census data on monthly ownership costs.

The ability to earn a living and the costs associated with maintaining a home close to work are two important factors in determining whether a community is truly affordable.

“When the data [on monthly costs] is used in conjunction with income data, the information offers an excellent measure of housing affordability and excessive shelter costs,” according to a report from the American Community Survey, a division of the U.S. Census Bureau. “The data also serve to aid in the development of housing programs to meet the needs of people at different economic levels.”

Median costs range from a low of $514 a month ($420 without a mortgage) in Quinebaug — a village in Thompson — to over $4,000 in parts of lower Fairfield County.

Check out these lists of highest and lowest costs per month and click around on the interactive map above for more on each town and community in the state.

(Cities with multiple zip codes have been combined, however distinct communities within certain towns have been included separately, such as Quinebaug.)

The calculations for monthly costs take into account real estate taxes, property insurance, homeowner fees — including association fees, condominium or coop fees, and mobile home park fees — land rent, utilities and mortgages. (The data also shows the median cost with and without a mortgage separately.)

The median monthly cost — with half of reported homeowner costs falling above and half below — is calculated using a standard distribution of estimated costs over a 5-year average from 2008-2012.

(Going by the median, rather than the average, the data is less likely to be skewed by very high or very low outliers.)