My parents have lived there since 2010. Vero has plenty of room to grow, unlike a lot of South Florida.

However, my bet is on this data being skewed not by the home costs, but by the income number. There is a small but sizable contingent of HNW individuals who call Vero home. The area is known as the Treasure Coast for a reason. The barrier island has some super exclusive communities with multi-million dollar real estate; the mainland has places where you can buy new houses for $400K+ even now.

Plans canceled due to a friend waking up sick this morning -

a/k/a introvert heaven.

All of these answers are good, and add in pool fence requirements to explain why chain link feels like it's everywhere in Greenwich. They usually want an "endless lawn" effect with the pool floating in the center, which means having to fence the entire property or a major chunk of it.

Finally got to see Volcanos National Park and the open crater at Kilauea last year. Even had some tiny flows going at the bottom. The whole landscape there is otherworldly, and beyond captivating.

Thanks, yes that timeframe makes sense per their email. I guess my thinking reading these other peoples' stories is now... when that end of December date comes, are is Constellation just going to come up with an "issue" and move to the then-current rate? Only time will tell.

I only received one email on 11/21, late in the night after I signed up, entitled "Your request to enroll with Constellation has been received." It has the documents attached and states the 13.1 cent rate. From anyone who's been through this, what is supposed to be the next step?

If you're really trying to get away from the vibe of NJ/Fairfield County, and you have this much flexibility, I would definitely go Madison or Guilford. There is just an entirely different vibe there, with lower population and a more beachy feel.

Personally I find the Farmington Valley area just as complicated and crowded as any NYC suburb. Think "the one road with every big box store on it that backs up every Saturday by 10 AM." Which, is not a bad thing at all, but it sounds like your goal is to find somewhere different.

It was actually Kia. He ordered in May and picked up in August.

Exactly! The thing about "rules" is everyone has their own.

Anecdote: this summer, my friend from LI ended up buying his car at a dealer in Wallingford and driving it back because they were the only place anywhere close by that was not charging a markup over MSRP. LI was $5k over minimum, which is remarkable on a $30k car.

I totally get that view, yet therein lies the problem. Greenwich (and others) wouldn't survive in its current state if not surrounded by towns that can feed it workers. So in my estimation the economic system crosses many town's boundaries... yet due to the structure we have, Greenwich isolates the benefits of that system for itself and can have the best schools, resources, etc.

It's an interesting problem but one that seems solvable through some kind of resource sharing or perhaps the "council of governments" idea.

I don't expect the wealthy to just buoy everyone... nor do I think it's fair to look at a place like Bridgeport with zero available to it and say "you fix all your problems; they're not mine."

In a way, yes.

I'll compare here to where my parents live in Indian River County, Florida. Like here, there are extremely wealthy areas on the barrier island, there are middle-class suburban areas, there are really poor areas, and there are rural areas. Yet the entire county is one school district. Everyone shares various municipal services and resources. All the houses pay in in proportion to their value to create a school system.

I 100% agree, all I'm pointing out is that unless and until the various towns group together and sort out the housing issue, it will never go anywhere. If the wealthy towns just sit back and wait for the cities with far less resources to figure it out, it will never happen. We need to work together since as you said, both parties benefit.

Ha! That's a good joke. Teenagers are definitely cleaning, cooking, chauffeuring, plumbing, wiring, and teaching in all the wealthy towns.

That would work for me if we had county- or state-level resource sharing here. It's unrealistic for wealthy towns/people to point at the cash-strapped cities and say "you deal with all the problems."

The irony of course is that the wealthy towns rely fully on people from the poorer cities - to staff their homes and restaurants, do construction, mow their lawns, etc.

Until we stop "othering" the problems and work on mutually beneficial plans, the cycle will continue.