[kellian1]

Hi,

My fiance and I currently reside in North NJ and are thinking of making the move to CT. The cost of living in Bergen county is just too crazy. We dont own a home but rent (2 bedroom as we have a little boy).

Specifically we are looking into areas near Torrington, CT (have some long lost family up there). I am not all that familiar with the area as ive only been up that way twice, but from what ive seen of it, its very scenic, nice and would be a nice change of pace from NNJ (not to mention cheaper).

Are jobs easy to find up in that area? How is Torrington overall? Currently we are actually getting a pretty nice deal on a 2 bedroom (really 1-1/2) in NNJ about $1150 a month, but have seen prices for 2-3 bedrooms in the torrington area that are crazy low compared to what the prices are in jersey.

I have already called the school district as my son has ADHD and they seem to have the same special programs that he currently has down here, so that doesnt seem to be much of an issue.

[mels]

Honestly, Torrington is cheap because it is kind of dumpy. It isn't dumpy as in dangerous and unsafe, but as in not terribly pretty. In that area I would rather live in New Hartford, Harwinton, Goshen, Barkhamstead....most other places besides Torrington. There are some jobs up that way, but many people commute into Hartford or down Rt. 8 into the Waterbury area. There are commuter buses that go directly from Torrington to downtown Hartford.

[bored2121]

First off I have to say the Torrington school have been amazing, my younger brother has a dyslexia and they've been so helpful. He was originally at an expensive private school but after we left we found out that the public schools were much more supportive and nurturing. He's actually been over to overcome his disability and now is over the state standards for reading.

As for jobs if you really want a decent job you'll probably be commuting, there are some jobs in the city but so many manufacturing firms are leaving and so far Torrington hasn't found much to replace them. Commercial development is picking up though so theres always jobs at one of the new mega-stores they are building (Target, Big-Y, 2nd Super Stop & Shop, Lowes, and Panera Bread) but I doubt you want to work as a cashier. So you'll most likely end up commuting but it all depends what kind of job you are looking for. It's only around 25 mins to Waterbury and around 45 mins to an hr to get to Hartford (lol although I do speed so that's a factor)

Torrington is a decent city but it all depends on what part of town you plan on living in. You have the range of homes from cheap apartments to Million Dollar Homes on the fringe of the City. Most people in Torrington believe that the East side is the nicest but thats only if you really want a raised ranch with a one car garage, well that might be a little stereotypical but most of the homes on the East Side are either small older homes from the early 1900's or the cookie cutter homes constructed by the old factories.

Now to the South End of town, this is one area you desperately want to avoid. It's pretty much all of Torrington's worst neighborhoods rolled into one. The Carvel down there is pretty good though.

The North End is decent you have a lot of older turn of the century homes and farms and there are some very nice homes on Mountain Road and around Still Water Pond.

The West Side of the town is where I live and it has both very nice homes and some slightly dumpy ones as well. If you look on the West Side of town you can find some amazing deals on real estate! We recently bought a 4,600 sqft house for only $430,000. It's beautiful and it was much cheaper than the smaller homes we looked at in surrounding towns. The houses on the outskirts near Litchfield and Goshen are usually the nicer ones. There is also Lakeridge which is a gated community of condos. I'm not sure what the prices are for them though.

[4mom]

We currently live in Torrington and although we love our house, we originally moved here because it was one of the few affordable pockets in NW CT and now we know why(!!!!) . . . . the schools STINK and the property taxes are outrageous (the MIL rate is off the charts because of the all the apartments and low income housing in Torrington). I am glad that bored2121 had a good experience with the schools and actually our daughter had a pretty good experience with her elementary school but the middle school and the high school are just awful. They are packed full and are much too large to do right by the kids. The ones who get the attention are the extremes - the extremely smart ones do good just by virtue of who they are and the other end get lots of attention too but the kids in the middle (the vast majority) are just left to sink or swim on their own. If you need good schools, check on greatschools.net and see what I mean - Torrington rates terribly - I wish greatschools.net was around when we moved here because we wouldn't have!!! We are moving out of Torrington school district (and tax district!!!) into Woodridge Lake in Goshen. The houses are more expensive but the MIL rate is much more reasonable and the schools rate much better. Torrington is a nice friendly town but the taxes and schools are ruining it. I hope that one day the Torrington taxpayers revolt. The amount of tax we pay for our home worth about $420k would blow you away!!!!! We will actually pay less tax for a $550 home in Goshen and get way better schools. It is really not fair to Torrington homeowners and parents or kids to expect them to pay all this money for subpar schools. Hopefully for Torrington's sake all the new business coming in now will start to level out the tax base so people can get relief. As far as improving the schools - I'm not sure how to do that - accountability is the only way I know how and unfortunately it is very very difficult to hold monopolies accountable - they are the only game in town and they can basically do what they want!!

[JayCT]

Torrington is a little isolated if you are looking for employment. You would be better off moving closer to Hartford which a lot more affordable than northern New Jersey (I know, I use to live there myself and left because of housing prices and the feeling that I would never be able to afford a home there). Hartford is kind of a secret gem located half way between New York and Boston. It is a nice small city with a lot of things to do near by. If you want the beach, an hour south and you will be on the Connecticut shore. If you want mountains, an hour north and you will be in Vermont. you want big city excitment, Boston and New York are two hours away. You want a nice home in a nice town with good or excellent schools, homes here a very affordable when compared to northern NJ.

I would first check employment opportunities for the line of work you and your fiance do and then decide where you would like to live. There are beautiful towns west of Hartford that are close to Torrington. Good luck. Jay

[LakeridgeLuke]

Torrington, a one time (very long time) promising city, is a pathetic example of an old mill town with a ton of potential gone very wrong.

This city made, and continues to make some very bad marketing and infrastructure "planning".

Neighbors Litchfield, New Hartford, Winchester, and even the modest town of Winsted put the backward town that is Torrington to a lose/lose mess.

The mix of mega lower class (meaning a hairline away from the middle class and the downright poor) is a long way from the "cultural diversity' that the town promotes.

Unconciable.

Torrington is a pit. The "cultural diversity" is the aforementioned poor population mixed in with one large gated community of which residents are so proud called--Lakeridge.

Lakeridge, in an of itself is a ("luxury", gated community itself on the skids--with a very uncomfortable 25% vacancy).

The facts are clear, Lakeridge, large in scope (apprx. 475 individual address') tries desperately to seperate itself from Torrington.

Lakeridge has gone to extemes such as requesting the town lines be restuctured so the mailing address for Lakeridge be in Litchfield, rather than the depressed old city of Torrington---a huge difference in Household Income. The city of Torrington, as anyone could predict, dismissed Lakerige's request (tax $$$$$).

Speaking of which, the prior dissertation cited Torrington's high taxes. Fact is, OH YEA, Torrington taxes are out of whack. We recently saw, the mill rate balOOnn---a complete injustice)---add to this the absurdity (or audacity, take your pick) of "The Lakeridge Tax District"---taxes that actually exceed those of Torrington.......are piling on and over. Both SAD and borderline criminal.

For good measure, the plethora of nickle and dimeing by unresponsive, uncaring "leaders" both in the municipality of Torrington, and the mismanagement of Lakeridge, equal RUN don't walk. There are great towns and communites in Connecticut------Torrington/Litchfield don't rate.

[TobinJ]

Would like to know what horrible things happened to the folks who were so harsh on Ttown.

My ol hometown has changed a lot due to changes in industry, blue class working town that lost its largest factory. As a result property values shifted so a good hard working town saw some deadbeats and drama move in.

Ditto on what some folks were saying about the high mil and the schools being in a rough spot.

That said if your son is on the younger side and schools aren’t an issue yet. There’s enough retail and similar work, still industry jobs. It’d be easy enough to find a cheap decent rent to transition you to CT, some driving around and you can transition to another place. I’d recommend joining the torrington Facebook group, people there will provide helpful resources for jobs/rent.