Tony’s Top Ten List of Things You Buy When You Buy a Home in Fairfield, CT

Real Estate, Hopes and Dreams. Real Estate Observations on the Fairfield, CT Area by Tony Derbyshire

Last week, I asked people that I knew to share with me their list of ten things that they liked about Fairfield and appreciated even more once they moved here.  I got some very interesting responses, and I will spend the next couple of days sharing them with you.

My wife and I moved here in 2000.  I was a headhunter in midtown Manhattan at the time, and there were a few things that figured into my decision to move here .  I wanted to have a reasonable commute to New York.  I wanted to be walking distance to the train.   Finally, I wanted to live in a town that felt like a town, with a distinct center to it, that had a small town feel to it.  These, and other things, drew me here.  The top ten list that you’re going to see touches on things that I’ve discovered as well as things that have been reinforced.

So, without any further pontificating on my part, let’s begin…

Number 10. 50 Miles to the Center of Manhattan.  20 Minutes to the Center of New Haven

Let’s begin with the professional ramifications of this observation.  Since I’ve lived here, I’ve met people that have worked in New Jersey, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Stamford, White Plains, New Haven, Hartford, and all places in between.  My neighbor even worked in Boston for a while.  How’s that for range?  And, by the way, there are plenty of people that work here in Fairfield.  GE Corporate Headquarters are, literally, just up the street from where I sit as I write this!  When I was a headhunter, and someone that I was working with started talking about moving, I became evangelical.  To live here is to to be able to work in many places and not immediately have to sell your home if your job moves from Stamford to New York.

Here’s another point that relates to work, what people do, and where people do it.  Because we have people that work in so many different places, that do so many different things, there’s what I call a level of socioeconomic diversity here that helps ground the town.  Not everybody works on Wall Street, though we have our share of Wall Streeters.  There’s a nice mix of different types of people at all levels.  There are Directors at GE that live here and there are plumbers, masons and everything else in between.

Since I’ve moved here, I’ve told people that Fairfield is a big town with a small town feel.  I sincerely believe that one reason for this is the fact that Fairfield is not, exclusively, a bedroom community for people working in Manhattan.  The diversity of places that people work, what they do, and how they spend their time professionally, make for a town that many different types of people can identify with, be a part of and get happily involved.

What’s Number 9?  Tune in tomorrow!

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