Stamford is a desirable, near-NYC city in southwestern Connecticut located on the northern banks of the Long Island Sound. Because it’s so often considered a commuter town, Stamford hasn’t made it to the top of many must-see lists in the United States. But being overlooked by the national spotlight doesn’t mean it isn’t a great place to live.
Here are 9 Things to Know Before You Move to Stamford, Connecticut.
- Stamford is the second largest and fastest-growing city in Connecticut, and it’s the sixth-largest city in New England.
- Nine Fortune 500 Companies are based in Stamford: Charter Communications, Philip Morris International, Synchrony Financial, United Rentals, Silgan Holdings, Gartner, Pitney Bowes, Crane Co. and ITT, Inc.
- As the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) corporate headquarters, business is a full-contact sport in Stamford. Don’t be afraid to wear a blingy championship belt to work.
- Stamford is less than an hour from Manhattan by train.
- Winters are chilly in Stamford! Your order of nor’easters, snowstorms and gale force winds will sometimes be served with a complimentary side of sub-zero temps.
- Stamford is sometimes referred to as the Lock City because the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company — lock-makers extraordinaire — was founded here in 1868. Does the swipe of a digital room card still sound like a tiny death knell for the bygone industry? Only new residents hold the key!
- Income levels are almost 30% higher here than the national average. The median household income in Stamford is $107,474, while the average American household earns only $78,538.
- Home values are also much higher in Stamford — the median is $614,000 and rising.
- Philip Johnson’s famed Glass House is just down the road in New Canaan, CT.
Stamford — The Fastest-Growing City in Connecticut
As the fastest-growing city in the Constitution State, Stamford has never given residents more reason to keep their rose-colored glasses on before now. This midsize city is now home to more than 136,000 people, an increase of nearly 14,000 since 2010. Between its industrial heyday and the turn of the 21st century, Stamford went through a serious rough patch. But the Lock City seems to have turned the key to a brighter future, and both commerce and culture in the Connecticut enclave have performed an about-face.
New residents flock to Stamford for its proximity to Manhattan, the robust job market, and the beauty of the water and surrounding woodlands. And while there are dozens of New England cities to consider living in, Stamford has consistently been ranked as one of the safest, taking the top spot in 2021.
If you’re looking for a nearby-NYC city that offers the convenience of the burbs but can still hold its own, you should consider moving to Stamford. Learn more about the city below, including the weather, the top companies in the region and the best places to have fun.
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Stamford’s Four-Season Weather
With mild, breezy summers and long spring and fall seasons, Stamford has a lot to recommend in the weather department. That is, until winter arrives. Frequent storms, icy roads and strong gale warnings can make this coastal city a harsh place to reside from December through mid-March. But intense snowfall is usually less of an issue here than in other New England enclaves.
Only 35 inches of snow a year fall in Stamford, on average, which is enough to necessitate owning a decent shovel but won’t earn you street cred in Buffalo. And, lately, the greater NYC region has gotten a pass on frozen precipitation entirely, prompting neighboring states to ask the barbed question, Are you even Northeasterners anymore? But the truth is, snow accumulations vary wildly by the year. More than 50 inches fell each season between 2012-2016, but less than 50 inches total fell from 2021-2024. Only time will tell, but it seems like Stamford is overdue for another record year for snow, like 1996, when nearly 76 inches accumulated across the city.
Winter temperatures generally range from the low 20s F to the 40s F, but the mercury often drops below the zero mark at some point during the season. From April through October, Stamford is reliably free of bitterly hard freezes. In the summer, high temps start to creep above the 80-degree mark by June, and they won’t usually fall below it until September arrives.
In addition to that winter puffer you already purchased, you’ll also want a reliable raincoat if you’re moving to Stamford. 52 inches of rain is the average in this seaside city, and the whipping winds off the Atlantic can make a few drops feel like a pelting.
It Has Easy Access to New York City
There’s no concealing Stamford’s most practical appeal — its proximity to New York City. The express train on the MTA’s Metro North Railroad makes it easy to zip in and out of the Big Apple, whether you’re commuting for work or taking advantage of all the cultural experiences in NYC. Using public transportation will keep your commute time to under an hour, while driving could take you more than 90 minutes if traffic is heavy.
When you want to reach farther-flung destinations, the Merritt Parkway and 1-95 will be your most frequented routes by road. Amtrak offers regular service in and out of Stamford, and you’ll also have easy access to airports across the NYC region: LaGuardia, JFK, Newark and the Westchester County Airport.
Stamford’s Living Expenses
The cost of living in this convenient coastal metro is not low. The median home value is a steep $614,300 and rents average more than $2,200/month. While NYC’s residential real estate prices have shot up above the $750K mark, the U.S. average is still $303,400, and prices in Connecticut’s other largest cities — Hartford and New Haven — don’t even crest the $250K mark. That said, Stamford prices seem like a steal compared to Greenwich, where the median home value is now roughly $1.5 million.
Other common household expenses in Connecticut will also cut deeper into your paychecks. While the cost of groceries and healthcare in the Constitution State run slightly higher than elsewhere in the nation, the real gougers are transportation and utilities, which run 12-17 points above the national average, according to MERIC.
Stamford’s Thriving Job Market
If anything proves that Stamford isn’t just a commuter town it’s its thriving job market. With nine Fortune 500s and a diverse array of corporate headquarters, you may be able to keep your work commute as short as a trip to your neighborhood grocery store. Charter Communications, Pitney Bowes, the WWE, Synchrony Financial, Philip Morris, Indeed.com, Henkel North America and even fashion fave Vineyard Vines are based in Stamford, and those dockside-friendly looks will earn you major points for prep when you’re dining out at Harbor Point.
Even as the U.S. unemployment rate has continued to rise, reaching 4.2% by November 2024, Stamford’s unemployment rate has steered well away from the nationwide trajectory. Unemployment in Connecticut city sat at just 2.8% in December 2024, a sharp decline from the previous year’s rates of 4.3%.
The nonfarm civilian workforce in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area now contains more than 410,000 workers. The largest single sector in the region is Education & Health Services. Stamford Health is the single largest employer in the city and Stamford Public Schools and the University of Connecticut-Stamford also support a significant number of jobs here. But trade, transportation and utilities and professional and business services employ a sizeable number of Fairfield County residents themselves, and leisure and hospitality and financial activities are also critical economic drivers in the area. No industry saw more than modest gains or losses between October of 2023 and 2024, keeping the overall shift in regional employment to a 0.2% increase.
Top-Tier Schools and Learning Opportunities in Stamford
Stamford is located in one of the nation’s hotbeds of higher education. Yale, NYU, Pratt, Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Fordham University, Cooper Union and Julliard are all within commuting distance, and UCONN Stamford is right in the heart of the city. This makes for a robust workforce in the region and also means that kids have the option of studying close to home when it’s time for them to enroll in college.
The public school system in Stamford has more than 16,000 students enrolled in its 21 schools, which offer numerous AP classes as well as the International Baccalaureate® (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). Magnet schools, technical academies and private schools abound, including the King School, the Long Ridge School, St. Luke’s, the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut and the Pinnacle School, which specializes in educating children with complex learning challenges.
Arts and Entertainment in Stamford
While the heart of the region’s cultural scene is certainly in Manhattan, there are plenty of places to enjoy the arts in and around Stamford. One of the favorite local spots is the Stamford Museum & Nature Center, which began as the private mansion of fashion mogul Henri Willis Bendel but now combines art, natural history, gardens and even a petting zoo — something the Met will never do. This is a place to see dinosaur fossils, feed the resident river otters, mingle with local artists and observe major celestial events. Truly, no place in Stamford is friendlier to families than this one.
Stamford’s performing arts scene is impressive for a city of its size. The Palace Theatre, a one-time vaudeville joint, will soon celebrate its centenary, and the Avon Theatre is still going strong as a film house, despite some bumpy years in the 90s. The Connecticut Ballet and the Stamford Symphony, now known as Orchestra Lumos, set a high bar for classical arts, bringing the world’s brightest stars — like Yo-Yo Ma — to the Stamford scene.
In the summertime, the Alive@Five concert series brings Downtown Stamford’s Mill River Park to life with performances by the likes of Wyclef Jean and Lil’ Kim. Stamford’s cold-weather fun heats each January for the Fire & Ice Winter Festival, where you can indulge in all the ice-sculpting, fire-pitting and skating to live music that you can handle.
Stamford is also close to several architectural wonders. In nearby New Canaan you’ll find the world’s least-private residence — Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House. This treasure of transparency was completed in 1949, but Johnson continued building on the 49-acre palette until the mid-nineties, adding the Brick House, the Studio, the Painting Gallery, the Sculpture Gallery and The Ghost House, among many other structures and singular moments.
If you’re up for a road trip, you can take a drive over to Sleepy Hollow, NY, to see the Rockefeller family estate, Kykuit, where you can tour the impressive (if foreboding) abode and sprawling grounds that are positively littered with important works of art. Sculpture nerds will only have a 60-90-minute drive to reach two other coveted upstate destinations — the Dia Beacon and Storm King Art Center — and you won’t have to fight city traffic to reach them as those unfortunate Manhattanites will.
Your Next Outdoor Adventures in Stamford
From woodland trails to Stamford Harbor, this coastal town has a lot to offer when it comes to the great outdoors. Sailing, fishing, hiking, kayaking and paddle-boarding are all popular activities in Stamford, but there are also plenty of beaches and parks to lounge and unwind in around the region.
Cummings Park stretches for 79 acres along the Long Island Sound, and the beaches are staffed with lifeguards during the summer months. Grab a bite from the snack bar or pack a picnic lunch and enjoy a day of surf and sun. Cove Island Park is a well-loved wildlife sanctuary, where the salty wetlands and diverse terrain make the park a refuge for more than 300 species of birds and 50 different butterflies. Humans can fly around here, too, on rollerblades, bicycles and ice skates, taking advantage of the beautiful trails and skating rink within this snug harbor.
Cove Island borders Holly Pond, a large lagoon off the sound, where you can rent kayaks and paddleboards or take a sunset cruise on a classic schooner. If you’re new to watersports, you can enroll the whole family in lessons through places like the Longshore Sailing School in Westport or the Stamford Yacht Club.
Stamford’s interior has plenty of treasures, too. In the heart of downtown, Mill River Park makes its home on the lush banks of the Rippowam River, where the annual kite festival, summer movie nights and breakfast with Santa events bring families out in droves. The carousel is a year-round favorite with the smaller set, while the skating rink and Holiday Market keep things lively in the winter months. Mill River is also strategically located on the East Coast Greenway, the bike and pedestrian pathway that extends from Key West to the Canadian border.
Further inland, Mianus River Park lies just on the border with Greenwich, and we’ll leave it to the two towns to fight over who gets to claim this 400-acre gem. Stone bridges, black bears and vernal pools are just a few of the delights you’ll find in this forested refuge. Geocaching and letterboxing are great motivators for getting reluctant kiddos out on the trails, and there is an easy, 2.6-mile loop for beginners and a more rugged 4.5-miler for the experienced adventuresome hikers.
Tree-huggers and flower-powers will never want to leave the Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens. This botanical center is an oasis of the naturally extraordinary, from the collection of pollarded trees to the bushy white pines known as witches’ brooms. The magnolias, rhododendrons, wildflowers and laurels at Bartlett are no less exceptional, but if you just need a little inspo and know-how for your kitchen garden, their fruit and vegetable collection will point you in the right direction (toward the sun!).
Stamford’s Dining and Nightlife Scene
Like everything else in this popular Connecticut city, Stamford’s food scene is growing. Dockside favorites offer views of the Long Island Sound and premium surf and turf, while international flavors and family-friendly dining can be found across town.
Prime, one of the city’s most elegant harborside venues, offers scrumptious (if spendy) steaks and fish. The 40-oz Tellers Ribeye will set you back a few doubloons, but this 35-day, dry-aged prime cut could easily feed a crowd. The seafood paella features all your New England faves — lobster, mussels, scallops and more — but the unexpected items on this splurgy menu, like the Japanese Cowboy Roll, really shine. Other places to dine on-dock include The Wheel, a great place for cocktails and new American favorites, and the Sign of the Whale, which excels at upscale, New England pub fare.
On the opposite end of the culinary and economic spectrum, Curley’s Diner has maintained its reputation as Downtown’s favorite greasy spoon for the last 75 years, despite efforts to oust the chrome stand-alone in favor of more high-rises. Pancakes and omelets are the bread and butter of Curley’s — though margarine is the actual shortening of choice, here — and you can get grilled cheese and crinkle fries for around 10 bucks. Curley’s is also one of the few places in America where you can still even order Jello or rice pudding. So, when your craving for souvlaki, triple-decker clubs and apple pie overtakes you, head to Curley’s and keep this good thing going for another 75 years.
Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company may have put Stamford on the map for their locks and keys, but Lock City Brewing Company has brought the spirit of suds bubbling up to the surface today. The tap room temporarily shuttered in 2024, but it’s scheduled for a grand re-opening in 2025, kicking off with the aptly named Launch IPA. Don’t miss it.
When you’re looking for food and entertainment, the Stamford Town Center is a paradigm of family fun. A full array of fast-casual to elegant restaurants complements an equally ambitious slate of activities, from pickleball to dance, theaters and comedy performances. Grab a basket of soup dumplings from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao — a Michelin-recommended restaurant — or a spicy fish taco from La Picante and treat yourself to a spa treatment while the kids tear up the indoor court at the Soccer Fun Zone.
Start Planning Your Move to Stamford, Connecticut
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