New Haven Neighborhoods, Real Estate and Cost of Living, Department of Laboratory Medicine at Yale

New Haven remains a small city with a real neighborhood orientation. Visitors generally spend their time in the downtown, upper state street and wooster square areas (the latter being New Haven's justly well-known "Little Italy" area). It is likely that in the near future, development of the waterfront (known as the Long Wharf area) which already houses a fine theatre and several restaurants will create another popular site for visitors. In the past few years, the city has been "re-discovered" and articles on its livability have been appearing in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York Times and other media - a brief summary of some of those articles may be found by clicking here . Residential areas surround the University and also blend into the surrounding towns. As opposed to most larger cities, the suburbs and exurbs of New Haven tend to have their own character rather than functioning as bedroom communities.

The cost-of-living in New Haven is the same or lower than most East Coast and West Coast cities but higher than that in the midwest. Based on information from Sperling's BestPlaces, if 100 is taken as the mean cost-of-living for all cities in the United States then New Haven has a cost-of-living of 122 as compared to Boston with 144, New York 225, Philadelphia 122, Washington, DC 123, St Louis 98, Chicago 105 and San Francisco 173. Looking at just housing costs, New Haven on a relative scale is 146, while Boston is 201, New York 443, Philadelphia 145, St Louis 97, Chicago 133 and San Francisco 310. For the one hundred largest metropolitan areas in the country, New Haven is in the bottom 1/3 for overall crime, sandwiched between Indianapolis and San Francisco. If you believe in the methodology used to determine the most and least stressful places to live in the United States, then New Haven falls within the 15% least stressful areas in which to live.

Some convenient apartment complexes in New Haven with web sites:

Residence Court and Others in Wooster Square
Cambridge-Oxford and others by main campus
University Properites (owned by Yale & very close to campus)
Urban Family Properties newly renovated townhouses close to campus

Map of New Haven Neighborhoods

Information on realtors and some suburban town information:

Realtors:

Suburbs: