As one of the oldest cities in the United States, Hartford, Connecticut, offers big-city amenities with suburban charm just minutes outside the city proper. Hartford is only a short drive from the Massachusetts border and easily accessible by train from New York City. But its centralized location and access to historical and cultural gems comes at a big cost.
U.S. News & World Report ranked Hartford No. 1 in its Most Expensive Places to Live in the U.S. list, ahead of Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. The analysis considers income as well as housing, particularly the percentage of income spent on median gross rent and annual housing costs for mortgage-paying homeowners. The ranking compares 150 top U.S. cities.
— Why is Hartford so expensive?
— How much do you need to make to live comfortably in Hartford?
— Hartford’s cost of living.
— Will Hartford become more affordable?
[Read: The 25 Best Affordable Places to Live in the U.S. in 2024-2025]
Why Is Hartford So Expensive?
Hartford’s median home price in 2024 is slightly lower than the national median — $214,546 in Hartford versus $281,900 nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best Places to Live analysis. However, daily expenses, such as groceries, transportation and utilities, are higher than the national average. The high cost of living has residents spending 42.63% of the city’s median annual household income on housing.
And Hartford isn’t the only expensive location in the state — New Haven is ranked No. 4 on the most expensive cities list. A report from the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) referred to a study ranking Connecticut the ninth most expensive state in the country when it comes to the general cost of living.
“It’s very expensive overall, between utility costs, housing costs, food costs,” says Robert Levine, broker/owner at three ERA HART Sargis-Breen real estate offices in West Hartford, Newington and Berlin. Levine has lived in the Hartford area for almost 25 years and previously lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, and Columbus, Ohio.
The city’s low incomes and high price parity, which is the comparative costs for all items (goods, housing, utilities and other) when you look across different cities, also contributed to Hartford’s ranking. According to U.S. News & World Report, the city’s median household income is $46,377, and there’s a high unemployment rate of 10.72% — about double the national average. But Hartford residents have largely adapted to the higher cost of living.
“Hartford is not considered expensive to people who live here,” says Kadesha Thomas, a real estate agent at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in Westport, Connecticut and a born and raised New Yorker. “They have higher taxes and lower priced homes, so people will choose to move to areas like Avon or Glastonbury, to get large beautiful homes with lower taxes.”
[Read: When Will Housing Prices Drop?]
How Much Do You Need to Make to Live Comfortably in Hartford?
How much you need to make to live comfortably in Hartford depends on your household and where you live in the city. For example, a single-person household will not need as much as a family of four.
“It’s lifestyle-based,” Levine says. “If you’re the typical family, you know, a married couple with two kids and a dog that’s going to have two cars and owns their house, I think the combined income of those two spouses probably needs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 or more to ‘live comfortably.’ But I’m sure comfortable means different things to different people.”
It can also vary by neighborhood. According to Thomas, places like Avon, Stamford, Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan — all towns surrounding Hartford — have some of the most expensive homes in the area and a generally higher cost of living.
“Our high-cost living areas in Connecticut are suburbs around cities. It is very rarely the city itself,” Thomas says.
The cost of living in the city itself is comparable to the national average, according to the Economic Research Institute, but West Hartford is 18% more expensive than the national average.
Hartford’s Cost of Living
Housing, groceries, utilities, taxes and more all impact the city’s high cost of living. Here’s a breakdown of the factors influencing Hartford’s high cost of living, which you’ll need to calculate into your budget if you plan to relocate.
Housing
Housing is by far the biggest expense for Hartford residents. “Everything we read about in the news right now is how housing costs are still inflationary and expensive whether it’s a rental or you’re helping a buyer purchase a house,” Levine says. “It’s just hard.”
The median home price in Hartford is $214,546, but some neighborhoods can be more expensive than others.
“The West End neighborhood of Hartford, ZIP code 06105, which borders West Hartford, had the highest-priced home sales during the last 365 days,” Thomas says. “The average sale price in that neighborhood was $580,700 and the most expensive sale was $2,500,000.”
Hartford’s median monthly rent is $1,193, U.S. News & World Report found, but Thomas says that she’s seen some places go up to $3,000 per month.
But Levine also says it’s not impossible to find something more affordable. “I wouldn’t say there’s an entire town that you would say, ‘Wow, it’s just impossible to get into there,'” he says. “There’s always going to be pockets where there’s a starter home inventory, and then there’s middle road inventory and then there’s luxury inventory.”
[READ: What Is a Starter Home?]
Income
Connecticut consistently ranks in the top three for income nationwide, Levine says. “But I think it’s weighted down by the ‘Gold Coast’ out in the Fairfield County area,” he adds. “If you cut that part of Connecticut off the rest of the state, it would probably be much more middle of the road, at least based on my experience in the Hartford area.”
A large share of the city’s population also lives below the federal poverty level. U.S. Census Bureau data revealed that nearly 27% of the city’s population lives in poverty. If wages are not increasing to match the rise in the cost of goods and services, the value of a consumer’s dollar won’t get them as far.
The Hartford area is home to major industries including insurance/financial services, aerospace/defense manufacturing and health care.
Taxes
Hartford residents pay more taxes than the average U.S. household. An analysis by real estate data company ATTOM revealed that the highest effective property tax rates among metro areas with a population of at least 1 million in 2023 were in Chicago, Rochester and Hartford, with a rate of 1.76% compared to the national average of 0.99%.
A report from personal finance site WalletHub also found that Connecticut has the third highest taxes nationwide. The study compared each state’s income tax, real estate tax, vehicle property tax and sales and excise tax.
According to the report, the effective total state and local tax rates on median U.S. households in Connecticut is 14.62%, and the annual state and local taxes are $11,052 — 33.84% higher than the national average.
Child Care
Child care in Connecticut is among the most expensive in the nation and one of the biggest expenses families face, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Based on their findings, Connecticut ranked fifth out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care. The average annual cost of infant care in the state is $15,501, or $1,292 per month — 10.9% more than the average rent and 25.5% more per year than in-state tuition for a four-year public college.
Care.com, an online marketplace that connects families with caregivers, estimates that Hartford residents pay even more toward child care. As of November 2024, the average starting cost of child care providers in Hartford is $19.21 per hour and the monthly cost is $2,497 for 130 hours of work.
Utilities
Connecticut has some of the highest monthly energy rates in the nation. CT.gov, Connecticut’s official state website, shows that on average, residents pay $166 per month for electricity, $76 per month for heating oil and $39 per month for natural gas.
In Hartford County, residents spend $341 per month on average on electricity, according to EnergySage. That adds up to $4,092 per year — 46% higher than the national average electric bill of $2,796.
Will Hartford Become More Affordable?
While certain expenses can be controlled, others could be addressed through state and local government interventions.
“You know it’s expensive, and you would hope that our public officials would do a more effective job at managing our finances so that they could bring down some of those expenses, whether it be sales tax, property tax or the cost of utilities,” Levine says.
People can feel locked into a certain expense level based on things out of their control, he adds. “Everybody can choose how they get a house or how expensive a car they want, but you can’t decide if you want to turn on your lights or gas tank or pay your taxes, and those things just seem to never go anywhere.”
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Why Is Hartford, Connecticut, So Expensive? originally appeared on usnews.com
