https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/17/realestate/connecticut-home-sale-prices.html

Two California transplants ventured east in search of midcentury design, lots of sunlight and space for guests.

After they met in early 2021, it didn’t take long for Rahul Barua and Winnie Wong to decide that they were in it for the long haul. By mid-year, they were already looking for a place to live.

“We met later in life and we just knew we were going to be a thing,” said Mr. Barua, 40, director of climate finance innovation at Salesforce. “After only like three or four months of being together, we started.”

The couple, based in Los Angeles, initially looked for a home in Southern California. But when a wildfire ravaged an area where they’d recently been camping, doubts began to creep in. That summer, they visited the East Coast on a road trip through the Hudson Valley, Vermont and Connecticut. It was Ms. Wong’s first time in Connecticut, but Mr. Barua had grown up in West Hartford, Conn., where his parents still owned a rental property.

The house was in rough shape, so Mr. Barua and Ms. Wong tackled the project themselves, living in the house while refurbishing it.

“For three to four months, we spent every single night, every single weekend renovating while we worked our full-time remote jobs,” said Ms. Wong, 41, a former freelance film producer and now the marketing and communications director for a nonprofit that supports contemporary artists.

When the work was complete, Mr. Barua’s parents gave them the house to manage. It wasn’t big enough for them to live in permanently, but it did give them a sense of what central Connecticut had to offer — bucolic surroundings, homes they could afford, and plenty of shops and restaurants to enjoy.

“We thought we’d be here for three months,” Mr. Barua said. “We’d renovate, get a tenant in, and move back to L.A. And then, during that time, we’re like, ‘You know what? This is great.’”

The couple began looking for a house with a light-filled, intentional design and plenty of space for guests — as well as for their German shepherd-husky rescue dog, Momo — on a substantial piece of land in a natural setting. They started with a wide budget range of about $400,000 to $700,000 and asked Michael Truong, a Realtor with eXp Realty, to help them match a number with their priorities. They also had the luxury of time — they searched for the better part of three years.

“Once I got a better feel for what they actually are looking for, then I could advise them better,” Mr. Truong said.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/07/17/multimedia/17re-Hunt-Barua-02-bztm/17re-Hunt-Barua-02-bztm-superJumbo-v3.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5751392&forum_id=2...id.#49108926)

its a bleak picture of the future

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5751392&forum_id=2...id.#49109018)