Connecticut’s proposed ‘mansion tax’ won’t only hit the state’s Gold Coast. Here are the top 10 towns and cities in Hartford County that would feel the pinch
The controversial “mansion tax” proposed in the legislature this year — a state property tax imposed on homes valued at $430,000 or above — would clearly hit tony towns along Connecticut’s Gold Coast the hardest, but the tax would ripple into the heart of the state.
Home value data for Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities crunched by Irvine, Calif.-based ATTOM Data Solutions shows that tens of thousands of single-family houses and condominiums in Hartford County would be subject to the tax. An analysis by The Courant found the top 10 municipalities in the county with the most properties includes not only West Hartford and Glastonbury but Southington and Berlin.
Hartford, the poorest among all Connecticut cities, didn’t make the top 10, but it still had 627 residential properties that hit the value threshold.
Mansion tax may be a bit of a misnomer given the state’s hot housing market and rising sale prices, pushing more residential properties into the sights of the new tax. Last year, the statewide median sale price — where half the sales are above, half below — soared 15% compared with 2019.
The proposal is for a one mill — or $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value — tax on homes assessed at more than $300,000 or those with a market value of $430,000 or more.
In Southington, town officials say they aren’t surprised their town made the top 10. Southington, they say, encompasses 36 square miles, boasts easy access to highways and has a quintessential New England town center, complete with white-steepled congregational church.
But like many opponents to the tax, they see Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney’s plan as penalizing middle-class property owners. The idea, which Looney has raised previously, is to raise $73 million a year as part of a package to provide property for cash-strapped communities like Looney’s hometown of New Haven.
“I an not so surprised to see that people choose to live here no matter what size their home,” Republican Victoria Triano, chairwoman of the Southington Town Council, said. “But the idea of paying property tax only to be charged a state property tax is outrageous. It is punishing those individuals who choose to live in a larger home.”
The tax proposal faces an uphill battle in the legislature, especially when Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, says he doesn’t support new taxes, given an improved financial picture for the state even amid the pandemic.
Here are the top 10 towns in Hartford County with the most single-family houses and condos that would come up against the tax. The median sale price is for single-family houses and the percentage change is for 2020 on a year-over-year basis.
1. West Hartford
No. of properties: 13,461
Median sale price: $325,000, up 5%
Population: 65,278
Median household income: $95,298
One thing to know: The American School for the Deaf, located on North Main Street since 1921, is the birthplace of American sign language. The school, founded in Hartford, has operated for more than two centuries.
2. Glastonbury
No. of properties: 11,112
Median sale price: $390,000, up 8%
Population: 34,810
Median household income: $111,645
One thing to know: The J.B. Williams Soap Factory, founded in 1840, is believed to be one of the first commercial soap manufacturers. Shaving soap was its first product but was later followed by Aqua Velva and Williams ‘Lectric Shave.
3. Southington
No. of properties: 7,416
Median sale price: $295,500, up 8%
Population: 43,791
Median household income: $90,796
One thing to know: The annual Southington Apple Harvest Festival is among the largest and longest-running festivals in the Northeast and typical draws a crowd of more than 100,000.
4. Farmington
No. of properties: 6,090
Median sale price: $380,000, up 12%
Population: 25,422
Median household income: $94,785
One thing to know: The Winding Trails outdoor recreation area began its cross-country ski program in the early 1970s with just 25 sets of skis. Judy Shea, the mother of 2002 Olympic skeleton gold medalist Jim Shea, helped design the trail system and was one of its first instructors.
5. Avon
No. of properties: 5,367
Median sale price: $430,000, up 2%
Population: 19,795
Median household income: $125,536
One thing to know: Yung Wing, the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university — Yale, in 1854 — once lived in Avon.
6. Simsbury
No. of properties: 5,145
Median sale price: $328,000, down 0.4%
Population: 22,364
Median household income: $116,444
One thing to know: In 1944, as an incoming freshman at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, civil rights leader and icon Martin Luther King Jr. worked in the tobacco fields of Simsbury for a summer.
7. South Windsor
No. of properties: 3,222
Median sale price: $300,000, up 7%
Population: 24,871
Median household income: $105,986
One thing to know: In 2020, South Windsor placed 12th on Money’s annual “Best Places to live in the U.S.” ranking. Money’s editors highlighted the town’s historic neighborhoods, which “turn the north-south Main Street into a parade of Georgian and Greek-revival style buildings that will make you feel like a character in a period movie.”
8. Berlin
No. of properties: 2,898
Median sale price: $287,000, up 11%
Population: 20,245
Median household income: $93,328
One thing to know: Berlin has long staked out a claim as the geographic center Connecticut.
9. Suffield
No. of properties: 2,640
Median sale price: $325,000, up 7%
Population: 16,601
Median household income: $105,777
One thing to know: The town was originally called Southfield and was settled as part of Massachusetts. Later, Suffield was determined to be part of Connecticut and was annexed in 1749.
10. Burlington
No. of properties: 2,559
Median sale price: $352,500, up 21%
Population: 9,568
Median household income: $121,635
One thing to know: Silas Brooks, an early American aeronaut who made many pioneering trips in balloon aircraft (filled with various chemical gases, not just hot air), was buried in Burlington.
SOURCES: The Warren Group; AdvanceCT town profiles; glastonbury-ct.org; southington.org; windingtrails.org; connecticuthistory.org
Courant Staff Writer Russell Blair contributed to this story.
Contact Kenneth R. Gosselin at kgosselin@courant.com.
