After virus response, no surprise state is looking better
Connecticut is hard. It’s prickly and expensive. And yet: A funny thing can happen when people leave, especially during this pandemic. With the state’s low positivity rate, its swift enactment of safety protocols and its generally decent quality of life, Connecticut has started to look downright attractive to some who left.
That’s not true for everyone, but data trackers are noticing a few small trends. Maybe they mean nothing, but last October, United Van Lines released a study that said Connecticut had become the thirdmost popular destination for people who were moving between March and August 2020. (The state ranked behind Vermont and North Dakota, and the top motivation for moving was “family health and well-being concerns.”)
That’s just one moving company’s results, but just a few months before, a survey from the same company ranked Connecticut fourth on the list of states from which people were moving.
For years, city planners have talked about brain drain, where Connecticut attracts top-quality students to its colleges and universities, only to lose them after graduation for brighter lights — or cheaper housing.
The U.S. Census said 29,517 more people left the state than moved here from other states between July 2017 and July 2018. A year later (pre-pandemic), the Census said just 15,199 more people left than moved here. We await 2020’s numbers.
It’s sad to measure success by gloating that we are losing people but more slowly than before. That’s like saying we are still bleeding, though not as much. Yet real estate agents are noticing a budding trend among retirees (particularly snow birds), who during the pandemic often found themselves pining for the folks — or medical care — back home.
Steve and Enza Dandeneau, Marlborough-based real estate agents with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, have clients who headed south upon retirement, and in the last few months have decided to return. In fact, housing developments that cater to the 55+ crowd recorded 348 sales to people coming from outside of the state in 2020. In 2019, there were 234, according to the MLS database.
Maybe that’s nothing more than a reflection of those developments gaining a toehold in the market, but maybe it’s a sign that Connecticut might not be so bad, after all.
“It’s surprising, because everybody thinks that living in Florida or someplace warm is kind of the panacea, and that may be true until you find you need help,” said Enza Dandeneau. “All of a sudden, your friends are your friends, and you need family.”
A health crisis has a way of crystallizing what’s important, and the pandemic has been just the kind of crisis that moved families back into each other’s bubbles — and sometimes into the same house. In Connecticut, where the positivity rate remains low, but deaths are rising, Gov. Ned Lamont has said that all pandemic restrictions will be lifted if infection rates remain low and vaccination rates increase.
“The older you get, the more you need help,” Enza Dandeneau said. “I don’t care how smart you are, one good medical crisis and all of a sudden you need people stepping in.”
In fact, she and her siblings have shepherded their parents through the pandemic, and at a recent doctor’s visit, when Dandeneau’s mother complained about their adult children “bossing them around” (which Dandeneau freely admits to), the doctor reminded the older woman that she was lucky, as many of the doctor’s other patients have braved the pandemic alone.
That better-in-the-rearview attitude isn’t restricted to the elderly.
For 10 years, Nichole Guerra lived in Hartford and worked for non-profits
that focused on creating affordable housing and alleviating homelessness. Her love of policy was deep, but her love of her boyfriend, who’d moved to New Jersey, was deeper. In April 2017, she moved to join him. They married, and eventually bought a duplex in Jersey City.
Forget the sticker shock, which was acute for Guerra, who knew housing prices from her work in Connecticut. Their 1,500square-foot condo includes a $10,000 a year property tax bill. When she and her husband were looking at property, they found that a parking space added $100,000 to the price.
Today, Guerra is director of development and communications at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, a program for the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan. Throughout the pandemic, the organization has not missed a meal. In fact, they expanded their programs through partnerships with other community-based organizations, Guerra said.
She frankly loves her job, loves the sense of purpose, but the challenges of living in New Jersey started with a reaction to the pollution that led to severe sinus issues. Though she
lives just a few miles from work, she spends two hours a day commuting back and forth. Big city life was supposed to include, Guerra catching up on her reading on pleasant commuter train rides, but her commute moves in fits and starts that include waiting, riding for 15 minutes, climbing off, catching another train, and then walking. That does not leave a lot of time for reading.
She still follows Hartford groups on Facebook, and laughs when people complain about parking. In New Jersey, on weekends she and her husband’s social life revolves around returning home by 5 or 6 p.m., or they lose the opportunity to find a parking spot, Guerra said. Where they live, socializing with friends involves thinking about what can easily be carried on public transportation. Connecticut just seemed easier.
The pandemic has taken so much, but it also moved some to rediscover their love for this prickly little state by the sea. If that’s strictly nostalgia and a desire to return to someplace safe, then these new numbers are a blip. Let’s see what happens as the pandemic — and let this be soon — abates.