Recommended to move to Mystic, CT. What is it like as a resident?

Submitted by OldSweatyBulbasar t3_yebeng in Connecticut

I’ve found many posts about what it’s like visiting Mystic, Connecticut but honestly not that much info on what it’s like living there. This is a Boston-unfriendly post so I hope that scores some points with you guys.

My partner and I are trying to leave Boston for somewhere more affordable and more of a better fit for us. We met in Northampton and are trying to find small cities with a similar vibe. After a few years of trying I’ve accepted that Boston is just not the right fit for me, financially and culturally, and my partner feels similarly. We’re late 20’s.

I have a CT friend who is highly recommending Mystic, along with CT in general. I can’t find much info on the culture, community, and living conditions in Mystic, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth looking into.

Preferences:

• Environment: Forests, hills, and woodlands. Near the ocean or water.

• Housing: Anywhere is cheaper than Boston. We pay $2000 for a one-bed which is under market value; would be nice to get at least 2 beds and a yard. Renter-friendly, backyards ideal, nature proximity ideal.

• Community: Down to earth, crunchy, room for the arts and grassroots community/collectives. Left leaning, more friendly/open than Boston. A little crunch gaunt bad. It’d be really nice to smile at a new neighbor and not be glared at. Would like to live around other similar people in their late 20’s.

• Density: Not extremely dense. After years of Boston it’d be nice to breathe. Eastern MA is dense $$ suburbs up and down the coast and the traffic / people congestion makes going anywhere an ordeal.

Western Mass would be perfect based on this list, but we spent our college years and beyond there. I appreciate any thoughts as I figure out if CT is worth a look into. Friend seems to think so, hope the folks here in the sub can share honest thoughts.

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bbpr120 t1_itxdvsy wrote

Mystic is quiet in the winter, a bloody zoo in the summer with all the Touroids (seasonal pains in the ass) coming to downtown, the seaport and Aquarium/Village (shopping). What you see now, is nothing like it is in July.

Stonington/North Stonington/Ledyard (in descending order of things to do/population density) are worth a look, as is Westerly RI (abuts Stonington). Westerly has the beaches and a really nice walkable downtown (arts/restaurants/events in Wilcox Park) without the mass of Touroids in Mystic. They're still around but it isn't anywhere near as bad

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yudkib t1_itx3ryc wrote

Not sure you’ll find many rentals in Mystic, and not sure nice ones will be much below $2k for a 1 bedroom (though will likely be bigger). You’re probably better off toward Groton, which I’m pretty sure has more rentals and definitely be softer on your budget.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxeg9d wrote

Thanks, that’s important info.

We stopped into Gronton on a drive and went to a Dunks. The area wasn’t really notable, it actually felt pretty sprawl, but it’s possible we were in the outskirts of town. Is it the kind of place that vibes with what we’re looking for based on the post?

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yudkib t1_itxikay wrote

Groton’s biggest draws are the sub base and mystic, which are on opposite sides of town. The closer you get to the sub base, the cheaper and less nice things will be (but also, more likely to find apartments). The closer to mystic you get, the more expensive they will be. There’s places like Noank that are in between geographically and price wise, but again, finding apartments may be difficult. Mystic is not the most self-sufficient downtown for errands as a local (especially by foot), and if your rent budget is under $2k I’m not sure how much time you’ll spend downtown anyways. All the other things you mentioned are within a short drive. 10 miles in CT is not like 10 miles in the Boston area. I think the areas that check more of your boxes will be virtually impossible to find a rental. East Hampton (in my experience) is this bizarre little enclave of extremely friendly but tight-knit artistic locals, but I cannot possibly imagine they have more than a couple dozen rentals for the whole town. Places that are super renter friendly is sort of at odds with sparsely populated towns with wide open areas. Either the towns allow a decent amount of multi-family housing and there’s more business (congestion) to support that, or they don’t. Sort of hard to have your cake and eat it too.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxj9zg wrote

Thanks. I’ve actually found places that have rentals and check most of the list, but they’re in Western Mass or farther north. It sounds like this doesn’t exist in CT which was my guess going into this already.

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yudkib t1_itxkumx wrote

I mean I just gave you two towns I thought would fit your bill… but anyways, western mass will likely be cheaper for a similar experience, but has worse access to water or cities (no one makes a day trip to Albany), fewer jobs and lower pay. Go to East Haddam, or Mansfield, or East Hampton, or Durham/Middlefield toward Wesleyan… there’s a bunch of places I can see appealing to you, but you’re not just going to waltz into a selection of 400 apartments on the market in those places.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxnjpq wrote

Yeah, I know that, it’s a search. You also gave a lot of reasons why the towns that ‘check the boxes will be virtually impossible to find rentals’, so that’s not the most encouraging thought going in, and makes me think that people similar to us will also not be abundant in these areas.

Noank is less than 2K people, 75% of people own, and the top age group is 65 and up. East Hampton’s age group is 45-65 and, like you said, extremely low on rentals as it’s more family focused. Neither town fits the bill or the community we’re looking for, which is the same story as other CT places I’ve looked at. Friend advised against Groton specifically. Thanks for the other suggestions, I really appreciate the advice, but as I said I do not think they’re right for us at this time and we should look elsewhere.

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yudkib t1_itxw6f2 wrote

Your friend is pointing you in the wrong direction too then. The average age in Mystic is older than Groton and Noank. You wanted similar ideas to Mystic but don’t actually want what Mystic offers. Which is fine, just makes it harder to match you to something. Look at Storrs (near Uconn) and around the Wesleyan campus which will be super liberal and artsy. Groton has a lot of open space and the sub base means they’re catering to 20-something’s. It’s not my vibe but I wouldn’t just write it off given what you’re looking for is a bit eclectic. The west Hartford side of new Britain might be good and has a lot of rentals. Or Newington. They’re more suburban but set up for renter and 20 something’s.

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OldSweatyBulbasar OP t1_itxwswc wrote

Thanks for the insight. I’ll check those out. Eclectic is a good word for what we’re used to and what we’re looking to find again. Not into retiree/family-skewing suburbs which makes it difficult because that’s what most reviews seem to consider when describing an area. I’ll check out those towns you mentioned, but my gut is telling me that CT may not offer the culture, finance, and built setting that best fits us. And that’s fine, not every state is going to offer what everyone’s looking for. Glad I have a better sense from this sub of what’s out there and what to consider.

Edit: I should mention that I have no idea what Mystic is like. Friend recommended it heavily, but I don’t know anything about the town except the facts I gleaned from the internet. Just trying to rule things in or out in the search which has not considered CT yet.

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yudkib t1_ity027f wrote

Mystic is going to be much closer in feel to Ipswitch than Easthampton. Closest thing we have to Easthampton is probably Middletown. You could also look in Westville, which is a neighborhood of New Haven. But it’s very green and hilly and borders Woodbridge, which has 2 acre zoning and tons of open area… but housing costs are much lower because New Haven schools ain’t that great.

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drfronkonstein t1_ityo9c6 wrote

In my personal opinion, as a New Londoner across the bridge, Groton itself is almost entirely unnoticeable.

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Electrical_Toe2784 t1_itxdeal wrote

Mystic is great! Restaurants and bars are great! The summer season is extremely busy. Most of the ct shoreline grows in population by 20k each summer. Niantic is a nice and up coming town with a down town on the water as well.

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Squirts_Faygojizzer t1_itxqszc wrote

Just to clarify for those who might not know: Niantic is a village within the town of East Lyme

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OJs_knife t1_ity3cg9 wrote

You should look towards Stonington CT / Westerly RI area. Not far from Mystic. Stonington borough is pretty cool. Downtown Westerly should give you what your looking for. And the beaches in Westerly area are amazing, the best in New England.

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kayakyakr t1_ityivzv wrote

I like mystic, but I can't imagine what it would be to live there.

Groton is fine. It's not nice, per se, but it's livable. Bit crusty. New London is also a bit crusty, but also has some really cute neighborhoods.

Given the choice, I'd probably look at westerly/pawcatuck. Fewer tourists, still as very cute town.

Look, if you're willing to slum it up a bit, I think Norwich is worth a look. Places should be cheap, it's easy access to the coast and the forest and even Hartford is only 30 minutes away. Norwich seems to be coming out of its slump a bit, and so it's a good time to try it out.

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Few-Information7570 t1_itxgzpd wrote

It’s nice but I can imagine it’s pretty dead in winter.

I’m not trying to dissuade you but check out Danbury/Norwalk (east Norwalk even)/Fairfield? It’s an hour to mystic if you want to visit and all those towns have sizable lgbtq population and probably similarly priced. Also they have the benefit of being relatively close to Westchester and NYC for day trips. Also two are on the water.

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yudkib t1_itxj4b5 wrote

Norwalk and Danbury don’t really seem to fit the vibe here, and apartments for $2k a month in Fairfield are going to be much more Motel 6 than Bellagio.

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Few-Information7570 t1_itxjt8d wrote

Really? I know plenty of people who like both. Danbury is of course very land locked but I threw it as it has had a lgbtq population for decades.

Norwalk has the SoNo and the harbor front which always seems New Englandy without the mass holes to me. not to mention troupe 429.

I’d actually throw in black rock in Bridgeport.

I can’t speak to cost but I doubt mystic is cheap. Nothing is anymore.

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yudkib t1_itxwi7a wrote

I just spent 2 years in Norwalk and loved it, but OP specifically wants out of the city and the worst traffic in the whole state is 7/15/95 right around Norwalk, and 7/84 in Danbury. Mystic is not cheap, Blackrock is getting up there too. ETA: not a whole lot of open space in Norwalk outside of Silvermine, Danbury has a little more.

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Impossible_Watch7154 t1_itywiw1 wrote

Mystic is a zoo from mid spring to late autumn- traffic, hordes of people- Its charming for sure- especially in the winter when the tourists are gone.

Try Stonington , East Lyme, Westbrook, or Clinton. Save yourself the three ring circus atmosphere in Mystic in the warmer months.

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Agnaolds t1_itz5a3d wrote

All of those places are fairly "senior forward" shall we say in terms of population. The OP wants a heavy presence of 20-somethings. I think Middletown is the closest to their wish list of priorities with, but I'm still not sure it fits entirely

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No-Sun-7857 t1_itzbrck wrote

No one lives in mystic that frequents it . They live in towns surrounding it

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