Preston posted the biggest one-year price jump in New London County: the median single-family sale went from $355,000 to $417,500, up 17.6%. And it did that on flat volume, 46 sales against 47. So this wasn't a supply surge. It was buyers competing harder over the same small handful of houses.
I sell all over this county, so let me tell you what I'd want to know if I were buying here.
Metric | 2025 | 2024 |
Median sale price, single-family | $417,500 | $355,000 |
Closed sales | 46 | 47 |
Median days on market | 27 | 20 |
Percent of list price received | 101.9% | 102.8% |
Full calendar year, single-family detached. Source: SmartMLS Local Market Update, December 2025.
Line the four numbers up next to each other and you get a better story than the headline does. Price up 17.6%. Days on market up from 20 to 27. Percent of list down from 102.8% to 101.9%.
That's what it looks like when the mix moves upmarket. Pricier houses always take longer to sell and always clear closer to asking than starter homes do. That's true everywhere. Preston sold a more expensive set of houses in 2025 & the pace and the premium both softened right along with it. It doesn't mean Preston cooled. It means what traded was different. So if someone quotes you that 17.6% as straight appreciation on your house, they're overselling. And if someone points at the slower days on market and calls it weakness, they're underselling.
At 46 sales a year, this is a small market. Roughly four closings a month in the whole town. One weird sale swings the median. Read these as direction, not precision, and price off real comps.
Read this part slow. There's a wrong number floating around out there, and it's coming from a place that looks official.
Preston's mill rate for FY2025-26, on the October 1, 2024 Grand List, is 25.11. Two separate Connecticut Office of Policy and Management datasets confirm it, including the town's own filed adopted budget, which shows the budget adopted July 24, 2025.
You'll probably run into 23.14 somewhere. That's the fiscal year 2014-15 number. It's eleven years stale.
Here's how it happens. There's an undated page on the Town of Preston's own website, a First Selectman's message, that says the use of surplus results in a reduction in the mill rate to 23.14. Line it up against state records and that message is from spring 2014. Nothing on the page says so. Search engines and AI assistants scrape it, see an official town domain, and hand you an eleven-year-old tax rate like it's current.
I'm flagging it because this is the kind of thing that costs a buyer real money at pre-approval. Budget Preston taxes at 23.14 mills and you're low by about 8%.
On a $417,500 house, the town median, assessed at 70% of market value, you're looking at an assessment around $292,250. At 25.11 mills that's roughly $7,339 a year.
Straight talk on FY2026-27: Preston's rate for the current fiscal year (October 1, 2025 Grand List, billed July 2026) isn't published in any state source I can get to. The state's mill rate dataset is titled "FY 2014-2026" and stops right there, and the adopted-budget dataset doesn't have FY2027 filings for any Connecticut town yet. Call the Preston Tax Collector for the current figure. I'd rather tell you a number isn't public than make one up. Making one up is how the whole 23.14 mess started.
Preston has exactly one townwide mill rate. No separate fire districts, no special taxing districts.
I checked instead of assuming. That same state dataset does list sub-districts for towns that have them. Killingly, right up the road from me, shows nine separate district lines. Preston shows one. And the town's own tax portal only offers four bill types: real estate, personal property, motor vehicle and motor vehicle supplemental.
That matters because around here district taxes are a real trap. Under Connecticut General Statutes §7-328, a special taxing district's taxes are a lien on your property and they can foreclose on it, and buyers find this out after closing all the time. In Preston there's nothing to find out. One rate, one bill.
Preston last revalued on the October 1, 2022 Grand List. That's why the rate dropped from 27.88 to 22.87 that year, and why the climb after it to 23.37 and then 25.11 is actual budget growth and not assessment mechanics. The next revaluation is the October 1, 2027 Grand List, hitting bills starting July 2028.
What that means for you: buy in Preston in 2026 and your assessment holds for two more billing cycles before it resets. That's a longer stretch of knowing your number than most towns in this county can offer you right now.
Preston doesn't host either casino. It still takes in, per resident, about three times what Montville gets and fifty times what Griswold gets.
Town | FY2027 grant | Per resident |
Preston (hosts neither casino) | $1,165,290 | ~$243 |
$880,690 | ~$171 | |
Ledyard (hosts Foxwoods) | $1,391,000 | ~$90 |
Montville (hosts Mohegan Sun) | $1,446,162 | ~$79 |
$2,360,229 | ~$59 | |
Griswold | $55,478 | ~$4.87 |
That's money landing in a town of roughly 4,800 people, out of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund. In a budget that size it's a real chunk, and it's a big part of why Preston's mill rate sits under several of its neighbors. The formula follows reservation adjacency and historical impact, not which town the buildings happen to sit in.
I couldn't verify the statutory formula behind how it gets split up. The state's explanatory pages wouldn't load for me. The per-town dollar figures above come from Connecticut's own statutory aid data and those are solid.
The old Norwich Hospital campus on Route 12, 393 acres sitting on the river, is the biggest open question in Preston real estate. There's way more speculation about it than fact. Here's the part I'll stand behind.
What's confirmed:
In May 2016, the Mohegan Tribe entered an agreement with the Preston Redevelopment Agency to buy and develop the site after cleanup is finished. It's described as a non-gaming destination: outdoor and indoor attractions, hotel and retail space, restaurants, housing, a marina and an RV park.
The site isn't sovereign land and it isn't in federal trust. I ran that down myself against Connecticut's statewide parcel data. Query Preston for parcels held in trust and you get zero results. The control case works fine, too. Mohegan reservation land in Montville shows up clear as day in that same dataset under federal trust ownership. Preston has none.
Right now the site shows up as a cluster of parcels owned by the Town of Preston. So the honest framing is this: the property is still under Preston's assessment jurisdiction and still on Preston's grand list, but as town-owned land it's tax-exempt today and bringing in nothing. It goes taxable when it's conveyed to the Tribe. And the project being explicitly non-gaming is exactly what keeps it taxable instead of trust land.
What I won't tell you: whether the project is in remediation right now, or permitting, or actual construction. I couldn't find a 2026-dated source I trust. The Tribe's project page is static marketing copy still pointing at the 2016 agreement. Regional newspaper coverage wouldn't load. So if anybody tells you flat out that construction is underway, or that the whole thing is dead, ask them for their source and the date on it.
Why you should care either way: a 393-acre riverfront redevelopment coming onto the tax rolls of a town of 4,800 people would change Preston's finances structurally, and the town's parcel record puts the core parcels alone in the millions. Real possible upside. It's also been in progress since 2016. Don't pay a premium today for a tax outcome that hasn't happened. If a listing agent is pricing a house on Riverwalk hopes, that's speculation being sold to you as value.
Preston runs its own elementary and middle grades and has no high school. For grades 9–12 Preston students pick from several options, with the town paying tuition:
Norwich Free Academy, Ledyard High School, Grasso Tech, Norwich Tech, Griswold High School, Wheeler High School in North Stonington, and regional magnet schools.
For some families that's a real feature. For others it's a real headache, and almost nobody explains it to buyers before they're already committed. The upside is actual choice. A kid who wants trades has Grasso and Norwich Tech. A kid who wants a big comprehensive school has NFA. A kid who wants small has Wheeler. The headache is that choice means an application, transportation that changes depending where they land, and siblings who might not end up in the same building.
Norwich Free Academy is its own thing: it's a school of choice whose sending communities fund tuition, and Preston is one of its partner communities along with Norwich, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Franklin, Lisbon, Sprague and Voluntown. Whether partner-community status gets your kid a guaranteed seat is something I haven't been able to nail down. Ask NFA directly, ask Preston's superintendent's office, and get that answer before you buy if high school placement is what decides this for you.
Preston is well outside the crumbling-concrete foundation area. The 20-mile radius that defines Connecticut's crumbling foundation program is drawn around the former J.J. Mottes Concrete Company in Stafford Springs, way off to the northwest. It drives diligence up in Tolland and Windham County, where I do most of my work. Down here it's not a Preston issue.
Septic and well permits run through the Uncas Health District. Preston is mostly a well-and-septic town & Uncas holds the permit history on the systems that are already in the ground. Pull those records during your inspection period. A septic system's install date and its permitted bedroom count are two of the biggest items in a rural Connecticut purchase, and two of the most commonly skipped.
Town Hall is at 389 Route 2. I couldn't reach the town website to confirm current Assessor and Tax Collector hours and phone numbers, so I'm not publishing them rather than publishing them wrong. Call before you drive over.
The county's biggest price gain landed in your town, and at 46 sales a year yours is going to be one of a very short list of comps anybody can point at. That cuts both ways. The scarcity helps you, and it also means a mispriced listing has nowhere to hide.
Three things I'd get ready.
Get the tax number right in your marketing. If a buyer's agent pulls 23.14 off the internet and then finds 25.11 later, you look like you were hiding something you didn't even know about. Put the correct rate in the listing and you've turned a landmine into a credibility point.
Be precise about the high school. "Preston has school choice for grades 9–12" sells. A buyer who assumed there was a Preston High School and finds out in diligence is a buyer who starts second-guessing everything else you told them.
Don't price on Riverwalk. I've watched sellers in towns with big pending developments hold out for a value that shows up years later, if it ever shows up. Price the house that's actually there.
If you want a real number, call me and I'll walk the property, pull the actual comps out of a market that doesn't have many, and tell you honestly what I think it brings.
And if part of what you're weighing is whether you need me at all — some people genuinely don't, and I'll tell you so — I wrote a straight piece on selling your house without an agent in Connecticut. It covers where doing it yourself actually works, what AI is genuinely good at now, and why an automated price struggles in a town that closes 46 homes a year.
Single-family homes in Preston sold at a median of $417,500 in 2025, up 17.6% from $355,000 in 2024. That's the biggest one-year increase in New London County. Volume stayed basically flat, 46 sales against 47. Homes sold at 101.9% of list in a median of 27 days. Source: SmartMLS Local Market Update, December 2025.
25.11 mills for FY2025-26, on the October 1, 2024 Grand List. Watch out for 23.14. It's all over the internet and it's wrong. That's Preston's FY2014-15 rate, spread from an undated page on the town's own website. The FY2026-27 rate isn't published in any state source yet, so call the Preston Tax Collector to confirm what's current.
No. Preston has one uniform townwide mill rate and no separate district levies. I verified that against the state's tax levy data, which does list sub-districts for the towns that have them.
Next revaluation is the October 1, 2027 Grand List, hitting bills starting July 2028. Preston last revalued October 1, 2022. Buy in 2026 and your assessment holds for two more billing cycles.
No. Preston runs PK–8 in town, and for grades 9–12 students choose among Norwich Free Academy, Ledyard, Griswold, Wheeler, Grasso Tech, Norwich Tech and regional magnet schools, with the town paying tuition. If this is what decides your move, confirm the placement rules with the district before you buy.
The 393-acre former Norwich Hospital site isn't sovereign land and isn't in federal trust. I verified that against Connecticut's statewide parcel data. The Town of Preston owns it today, which makes it tax-exempt, and it goes taxable when it's conveyed to the Mohegan Tribe. Because the project is explicitly non-gaming, it stays on the tax rolls. I couldn't verify current construction status from any 2026-dated source, so treat confident claims in either direction with skepticism.
Preston gets $1,165,290 for FY2027 out of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund. That's about $243 per resident, more per head than Ledyard or Montville, the two towns that actually host the casinos. The formula follows reservation adjacency and historical impact, not which town the buildings sit in.
No. Preston sits far outside the 20-mile radius around the former J.J. Mottes Concrete Company in Stafford Springs that defines Connecticut's crumbling foundation program area.
Preston borders 5 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:
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 FY2025-26 and history: Connecticut Office of Policy and Management mill rate data and Summary Financial Information from Adopted Municipal Budgets, budget adopted July 24, 2025. Stale 23.14 figure: undated First Selectman's message on the Town of Preston website, dated to spring 2014 by cross-reference to state records. Absence of special taxing districts: CT OPM Tax Levy by Municipality and Special Tax District. District lien authority: Connecticut General Statutes Section 7-328. Revaluation years: CT Revaluation Years by Town, 2023-2037, and Preston's Vision Government Solutions assessment portal. Trust land status and parcel ownership: 2025 Connecticut Parcel and CAMA Data. Riverwalk agreement and description: Mohegan Tribe, Preston River Walk Project, citing May 2016. Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund grants by town: Connecticut statutory aid data, FY2027. Health district: Uncas Health District. Crumbling foundations radius: Connecticut Department of Housing.
Last updated August 2026. Tax rates and market data change — ask me for current numbers.
