Homes for Sale in New London

New London is the city from the eminent domain case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court — and twenty years later, 500 apartments are finally going up on the land they took. It's also the only renter-majority municipality in this county: 36.1% owner-occupied, in a region where the towns around it run 53% to 80%. Single-family homes sold at a median of $330,000 in 2025.

New London Home Prices and Market Data

Full calendar year, single-family detached. Source: SmartMLS Local Market Update, December 2025.

Read those four rows together, because one of them lies on its own. The median climbed 8.7% while volume dropped, days on market went from 19 to 27, and percent of list slipped from 102.4% to 100.8%. Price up & everything else softening usually tells me the mix of homes selling moved upmarket, not that the market got hotter. And on 119 sales, I'd treat the median as a direction, not a number you can hang a price on.

It's a City, and the Ownership Rate Is the Whole Story

New London isn't a town. It's a small, dense city — 5.62 square miles, about 4,927 people per square mile — with nothing around it that's remotely like that.

Nearly 64% of New London's housing is renter-occupied. Put that next to 2.04 persons per household and you've got a city of small households in older multifamily buildings. More than 25% of the homes across New London County were built before 1950, and nowhere is that concentration higher than right here.

Here's what that does to you as a buyer: the single-family market here is small, and it's competing with a much bigger rental market. Entry prices sit near the bottom of the county — only Norwich comes in lower. If you're buying a place to live in, the value is real. If you're eyeing the multifamily stock, know up front that I don't do rentals — but the ownership math in this city is still something you'll want to understand.

The 2020 Census counted 27,367 people. The estimate as of July 2025 is 28,003.

Fort Trumbull and Kelo — What Actually Happened

This is the thing New London is famous for nationally, and almost every version of the story stops in 2005. So here's the rest of it.

Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) — the Supreme Court said the city could use eminent domain to hand private homes to a private developer for economic development. It's still one of the most argued-over property rights decisions in American law.

The Pfizer development that justified the taking never got built. The land sat mostly empty for roughly two decades.

Susette Kelo's house was never demolished. They moved it to a different New London neighborhood. Still pink, still wearing its original street number.

Part of the site became a community recreation center. Then in 2024 the city granted $6.5 million in tax breaks to a developer with a housing plan for the condemned land, and RJ Development + Advisors is now building 500 apartments across two complexes plus a multi-story parking garage. The first one, 251 units, was set to break ground in 2025.

So twenty years after the taking, the site is finally becoming housing. Just not the housing anybody was arguing about in court. If you're buying near Fort Trumbull, that construction is your neighborhood for the next few years and your amenity after that.

New London Schools Are All Magnet, and That Flips How You House-Hunt

I'm giving this its own section because it turns the usual buy-a-house-for-the-school logic upside down.

New London runs an all-magnet district. Instead of assigning your kid to a neighborhood school based on your address, the district runs themed magnet schools with an application and a lottery.

What that means in practice: the street you buy on doesn't decide where your child goes the way it does in Waterford or Stonington. That's a real advantage if you want a shot at a themed program no matter what you spend on the house. It's a real uncertainty if you need a guaranteed seat in one specific building.

If schools are driving your search, call the district and ask about current application timelines and how placement works for a family moving in mid-year. Don't assume your address does the work.

The Institutions

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is here. One of only five federal service academies, and the smallest of them. It puts a permanent population of cadets, faculty and staff in the city, plus a steady flow of families visiting and relocating.

Connecticut College sits on a big campus at the north end of the city, with an arboretum that runs over into Waterford.

The State Pier got rebuilt as an offshore wind staging facility, a major public investment meant to make New London a hub for that industry. Ask about how much it's actually being used and where the offshore wind sector stands in 2026. That industry has been volatile and I'd rather you get a current answer than a stale one from me.

Ocean Beach Park is the city's beachfront on Long Island Sound. Boardwalk, pool, amusements.

New London is a ferry hub. Boats run from here to Block Island, to Orient Point on Long Island, and to Fishers Island. For a buyer that's an amenity and a seasonal traffic problem downtown, both.

Property Taxes, and a Correction to Something You've Probably Read

New London's mill rate is not one of Connecticut's highest. You'll see people say it is. They're wrong.

The city's rate is 27.20 on the October 1, 2024 Grand List. That's close to the statewide average and nowhere near the top of the state. It actually fell from 27.50 the year before, because New London completed a revaluation on the 2023 Grand List, which grew the grand list and squeezed the rate down.

What's true and a lot more useful: New London's rate runs above its shoreline neighbors Waterford, Groton, Stonington and Old Lyme, and its median home value is far and away the lowest of them. Do the math. A $253,300 house at 27.20 mills still writes a smaller check than a $483,400 Stonington house at 18.18. Mill rate by itself tells you nothing about what you'll pay. Always multiply.

There are two small add-ons: the City Center District, a downtown special services district at 0.99 mills, and the Neptune Park Association at 1.572 mills. Most residential property just pays the flat citywide rate. A downtown commercial property is probably in the City Center District.

Connecticut's OPM hasn't published FY2026-27 rates yet, so the figure above is the most recent one out there. Confirm the current year with the New London Tax Collector. New London's next revaluation is 2028, which is later than Groton's and Waterford's — both of those revalue this October.

The Regional Economy Underneath This City

New London sits in the middle of something big, even though the two largest employers are both across the river.

Naval Submarine Base New London is in Groton, not New London. The name is just history. Roughly 6,000 sailors and civilians there, 15 submarines homeported.

General Dynamics Electric Boat employs about 25,000 people across Connecticut and Rhode Island and is hiring 8,000 in 2026 alone, on the back of a $77 billion contract awarded in July 2026 for nine Virginia-class and five Columbia-class submarines, $5 billion of it earmarked for the Groton shipyard.

Meanwhile New London's own mayor has said the region needs at least 10,000 more housing units in an area that adds a few hundred a year.

That gap is the single most important thing to understand about buying anywhere in this county right now. And New London, with entry prices second only to Norwich's and a deep stock of existing housing, is standing right in the middle of it.

Practical Things I'd Tell You Over Coffee

New London is well outside the 20-mile crumbling-concrete foundation radius centered on Stafford Springs. The pyrrhotite problem that drives so much of my diligence work in Tolland and Windham County just isn't a factor down here.

Septic and well permits run through the Ledge Light Health District — though most of this city is on public water and sewer, which is one of the quiet advantages of buying in an old dense municipality.

The housing stock is old. Over a quarter of New London County's homes predate 1950, and the concentration peaks in the city. That means knob-and-tube risk, tired systems, lead paint disclosure, and inspection reports that a 1990s subdivision never generates. It also means construction and detail you simply can't buy new. Budget for a thorough inspection and then actually read it.

Thinking of Selling in New London?

Your buyer pool is bigger than you think. The regional housing shortfall is real and documented, and New London and Norwich carry the two lowest entry prices in the county, which makes this city one of the first places buyers priced out of Waterford, Groton and Stonington come looking.

Two things I'd get ready. If the house predates 1950, get out in front of the inspection. Systems documentation, whatever you've updated, a clear list of what's been replaced. That's what holds a deal together in week three instead of letting it wobble.

And be ready to explain the schools. Buyers from the surrounding towns assume their address assigns them a school and get confused by an all-magnet district. A seller who can explain it accurately kills a real objection before it starts.

Want a real number on your house? Call me. I'll walk the property, pull the actual comps, and tell you honestly what I think it brings.

Nearby Towns

New London borders 2 of the other towns I cover, and people looking here almost always look at a couple of them too. Same guide, same numbers, for each one:

• Groton real estate
• Waterford real estate

Or see how every town in the county compares side by side in my New London County real estate guide.

Sources and dates. Sale price, closed sales, days on market and percent of list received: SmartMLS Local Market Update, December 2025, single-family detached, full-year 2025 and 2024. Mill rate and district rates: Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, October 1, 2024 Grand List. Revaluation schedule: CT OPM Revaluation Schedule 2023-2037. Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005); subsequent site history, tax abatement and apartment development from reporting 2024 through 2025 and the New London Renaissance City Development Association. Owner-occupancy, income, home value, density and household size: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts and Census Reporter. County housing age and affordability figures: Regional Plan Association, New London County Housing Profile, October 2024. Submarine base personnel: reporting quoting base leadership, August 2025. Electric Boat workforce, hiring and contract: Connecticut Office of Military Affairs, February 2026, and July 2026 contract reporting. Regional housing shortfall: statements by the Mayor of New London. Health district: Ledge Light Health District. Crumbling foundations radius: Connecticut Department of Housing.

Last updated August 2026. Tax rates and market data change — ask me for current numbers.