Town Meeting Minute • Issue #13: Towns Are Taking Control of the Housing Conversation

Town Meeting Minute • Issue #13

Towns Are Taking Control of the Housing Conversation

Across New London County, Middlesex County, Washington County, and Newport County, the next real estate story is not just private development pressure. It is how municipalities are rewriting, refining, adopting, resisting, and redirecting the rules that determine what can actually be built.

Real estate value is shaped long before a listing hits the market. It changes when a town initiates its own zoning map amendment, when a follow-up text amendment appears, when a POCD moves to public hearing, when subdivision regulations are rewritten, when housing-growth…

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What a Home Actually Costs to Own in CT & RI: 208 Towns Compared

2026 Cost of Ownership Report · Connecticut & Rhode Island

Your lender quotes you a payment. That payment is not what the house costs. Across 208 cities and towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the real monthly number runs more than half again higher — and the gap is widest on the houses that looked cheapest.

The number you are quoted is not the number you pay

Every mortgage calculator answers one question: what is the principal and interest on this loan? It is a real number, and it is the number that gets repeated at open houses, in listing…

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Rhode Island 50% Rule: RIGL 23-27.3-106 Explained

Rhode Island · Renovation Limits

Rhode Island’s 50% Rule Applies to Every Building in the State

Not just homes on the water. It’s written into state law, it runs on a fixed twelve-month clock, and it has three tiers — not one line.

Most people first hear about the 50% rule in a flood context — renovate a house past a certain point and the whole structure has to be brought up to current flood standards. That version is real, and it comes from the federal flood insurance program.

Rhode Island has its own, and it is broader. It sits in the state building code rather than in a local flood ordinance, which means it reaches a farmhouse in Hopkinton the same…

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Connecticut 50% Rule: Substantial Improvement Explained

Connecticut · Flood Zone Renovations

The 50% Rule Isn’t One Rule. That’s Why So Many Renovations Go Sideways.

Three separate rules share the same number. Almost nobody separates them — and in Connecticut, the one that decides your project is written by your town, not the state.

A few days ago a group of us got into it over the 50% rule — the one that says you can only renovate a house in a flood zone so far before the whole building has to come up to current code. Everyone in the room knew the rule. Everyone in the room had a different version of it.

That’s not a knowledge problem. It’s that three separate rules share the same number, and almost nobody…

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Town Meeting Minute Issue #12: The Rules Are Starting to Move in Southeastern Connecticut

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The Rules Are Starting to Move

Over the past two weeks, Southeastern Connecticut towns have moved from planning language into real regulatory consequences: Groton approved a major open-space development framework, Waterford rejected a large housing rezoning request, Stonington advanced its POCD review, East Lyme continued housing-growth implementation, Norwich processed incremental infill, and Ledyard studied whether its land-use governance structure needs to change.

Real estate value is often shaped before a property ever hits the market. It changes when a text amendment passes, when a rezoning fails, when a subdivision hearing is scheduled, when a POCD moves to public review, or when a town…

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Community Calendar: July 13 – July 26 Events Across New London County, Middlesex County, South County RI & Newport County

Seaport Real Estate Services | Community Calendar

Community Calendar: July 13 – July 26, 2026

A coastal guide to events across New London County, Middlesex County, South County Rhode Island, and Newport County — including concerts, festivals, theater, beach events, farmers markets, art, family programming, food, and summer traditions.

A Wider Coastal Calendar for Mid-July

Welcome to the next Seaport Real Estate Services Community Calendar, covering Monday, July 13 through Sunday, July 26, 2026.

This issue expands beyond New London County and South County Rhode Island to include Middlesex County, Connecticut and Newport County, Rhode Island. The result is a broader coastal guide for readers looking for summer…

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Rhode Island’s “Taylor Swift Tax”: What Coastal Homeowners Need to Know

Rhode Island Property Tax · 2026

It’s nicknamed for a pop star’s Watch Hill mansion, but Rhode Island’s new second-home tax reaches far beyond the ultra-wealthy — all the way to century-old family cottages on the shoreline. If you own, or are buying, a coastal property in Rhode Island, here’s what you need to understand.

What is the “Taylor Swift Tax”?

Officially, it’s Rhode Island’s Non-Owner Occupied Property Tax (R.I. General Law § 44-72). It picked up the nickname because Taylor Swift owns a roughly $28-million oceanfront estate in Westerly’s Watch Hill — but the law itself has nothing to do with celebrities. It’s a new state-level surcharge, separate from and on top of the property tax you already pay your city or town.

The…

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2026 Rhode Island Property Tax & Mill Rate Report

2026 Property Tax Report · Rhode Island

The list price tells you what a home costs to buy. It says nothing about what it costs to own — and in Rhode Island, that second number swings hard from one town to the next. The same home can cost three times as much to hold depending on which side of a town line it sits on.

The number most buyers never check

Everyone shopping for a home watches the price. Far fewer ask the question that actually sets the monthly payment: what’s the property tax? In Rhode Island, that answer comes from your town’s tax rate —…

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2026 Connecticut Property Tax & Mill Rate Report

2026 Property Tax Report · Connecticut

The list price tells you what a home costs to buy. It says nothing about what it costs to own — and in 2026, that second number is where Connecticut buyers get surprised. The same home, one town line apart, can carry a tax bill that differs by well over a thousand dollars a month.

The number most buyers never check

Everyone shopping for a home watches the price. Far fewer ask the question that actually sets the monthly payment: what’s the property tax? In Connecticut, the answer comes from the town’s mill rate — the dollars…

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Who Is Your Agent Really Working For?

Changing Markets — Issue 13

Who Is Your Agent Really Working For?

The Quiet Cost of Pay-to-Play Real Estate

A Seaport Advisory perspective on lead-generation portals, misaligned incentives, and what it should actually mean to hire a real estate professional.

There is a business model quietly reshaping how most Americans meet their real estate agent, and almost no consumer understands how it works.

It deserves scrutiny, because the person you trust with the largest financial decision of your life may have been sold to you — literally — before you ever spoke.

The person you trust with one of the largest financial decisions of your life may have been sold to you before you ever spoke.

I want to be direct about my…

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