My guess is that he chose Farmington as it was alot less expensive to buy land in sizeable lots there vs Greenwich/lower Fairfield County. The cost to build and develop in lower Fairfield County is so much more expensive as the land cost is higher vs Hartford County. To answer your question about those houses and their market in Hartford I have to say that his houses are certainly higher end for that market. Hartford area has industry, insurance companies and healthcare, and govt. Not sure how many individuals in any given year in these industries would be in the market for a $2-4MM house. MOO. Maybe folks from Hartford could chime in and help.
New Canaan avg house price I believe is in the range of $1.2MM or so, Wilton $800-900M, Darien $1MM and Greenwich has areas where the avg price is over $2MM+. Will look for current stats when I get to a computer.
I also wondered if he intentionally wanted to be based a little
distance from the in laws. Somewhere I read that he was tired
of living/working in NYC.
The Farmington area is beautiful and the picturesque little village itself is
still quaint and historic. My sister has a home there that's like
300 yrs. old near the center of the village. All the charming, old
houses have the date they were built over the front door.
Lots of history there. Jackie Kennedy went to school at Miss Porter's right in the center of town. Serious old money there.
The locals don't go for the new McMansions, they live in the
older parts of the village and are more conservative in their home choices. Re-locating executives new to the area are more likely
to buy the bigger more ostentatious new homes like FD built.
That would be considered 'new money'.