West Haven, Connecticut.
Typical home $362,817 (+7.8% in a year), asking rent $1,919 (+0.7%). New Haven-Milford, CT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,193 (+168%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $26,291 +8%
- $336,526$362,817 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $113,753 +46%
- $249,065$362,817 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- West Haven$1,904
- Connecticut$2,348
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in West Haven, CT rose 7.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in West Haven, CT rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in West Haven runs $1,075/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $2,994 a month against $1,919 rent: a $1,904 mortgage payment, plus $701 property tax and $388 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — West Haven
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,994
- Renting$1,919
- Mortgage only$1,904
Property tax · $701/mo 2.32% of value a year — the ACS 2017-2021 median bill over the median home value for New Haven County, CT
Insurance & upkeep · $388/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in West Haven, Connecticut
West Haven is a city of 55,584 people in . Half its households earn more than $74,382 a year and half less; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 51% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 49% are rented. Unemployment in West Haven was 5.7% in August 2026. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. West Haven is a coastal Connecticut city beside New Haven, and its residents are on the younger side. Incomes here run modest, and renting is nearly as common as owning, so many households rent rather than own. Winters are cold and summers warm, with a good deal of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in professional and business services, or in shops. Among the largest workplaces in town are the University of New Haven, the West Haven School District and Walmart. Unemployment has edged up compared with a year earlier, and most people travel a moderate distance to work.
Things to do. Savin Rock Amusement Park and Yale Bowl, a stadium, are in or beside town. A short drive away are the Yale University Art Gallery, a museum, and West Rock Ridge State Park, a protected area. Lighthouse Point Park, also a short drive off, is another protected area to explore.
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- 20,938households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey.
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 66°. About 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the New Haven Tweed Airport weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in West Haven
- University of New HavenUniversity or college1,287
- West Haven School DistrictSchool district1,007FTE
- Star DistributorsBeer merchant wholesalers305
- City Line DistributorsRefrigerated products trucking, local257
- WalmartDiscount department stores244
- Glanbia Nutritionals (NA) Inc. West HavenPowdered drink mixes manufacturing230
- MarrakechRehabilitation job counseling and training, vocational212
- Liberty Tire Recycling - West HavenTires, scrap, merchant wholesalers179
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,663 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Ice stormsVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across its planning region, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on and the New Haven-Milford, CT metro.
West Haven home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- West Haven$362,817
- Connecticut$447,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 West Haven listings, and the typical home goes pending in 12 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- West Haven21.49%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- West Haven12
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- West Haven118
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- West Haven47
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- West Haven$373,675
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- West Haven102.74%
Zip codes with a West Haven address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls West Haven — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.