Homes for Sale in Groton

Groton has eleven different property tax rates, and on the same $400,000 house the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive is about $1,240 a year. Nothing on the listing tells you which one you're in. Single-family homes here sold at a median of $435,000 in 2025 across 253 sales — the second-highest volume in New London County.

I sell all over this county, and Groton is the town where I spend the most time explaining things that should be obvious and aren't. So here's what I'd want to know if I were buying here.

What Homes Actually Sold For in Groton

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

Volume climbed 11% and the percent of list barely moved, still a hair over asking. Groton has more houses changing hands than anywhere in this county except Norwich, and that's the base and the shipyard doing it. People arrive & people transfer out, constantly.

Which Tax District Is It In? This Is the Money Question

This is the biggest thing about buying in Groton, and you won't find it on a single listing portal.

The Town of Groton contains nine separate fire and special districts plus a separate incorporated city. Whatever the headline town rate is, that's never what you actually pay.

Here are the FY2026-27 combined rates, on the October 1, 2025 Grand List:

The Town's own formula: Town of Groton base (25.29) + your fire district + the Groton Sewer District (0.37). City of Groton residents are the exception — they're excluded from the sewer district add-on.

That's a 4.4-mill spread inside one town. On a $400,000 house assessed at 70%, going from Mumford Cove to Poquonnock Bridge costs you roughly $1,240 every year you own it.

How you actually find out

Don't try to guess from the mailing address. "Mystic, CT 06355" spans two fire districts and two towns.

Look up the parcel in the Town of Groton Assessor's database — the district code is right on the property card — or call the Groton Tax Collector with the address. The Town publishes every district's office address and phone number too. Do this before you write the offer. Not after.

Why the rates differ so much: Poquonnock Bridge is the highest because it staffs full-time professional firefighters, established 1943. Noank sits at the lowest fire-district rate and has been volunteer with stipends since 1929. You're paying for a service level. The line isn't arbitrary.

The City of Groton Is a Real, Separate City

This one surprises almost everybody.

The City of Groton is an incorporated municipality inside the Town of Groton — the only city in Connecticut not consolidated with its parent town. It was a borough from 1903 and reincorporated as a city in 1964. It's got its own elected Mayor, a six-member council, a City Clerk and a City Treasurer.

If you live in the City you pay both Town of Groton taxes and City of Groton taxes. What you get back is stuff Town residents don't get:

A City police department and a City fire department. Its own sewer system and road maintenance. And Groton Utilities — municipally owned electric and water.

The utility angle is the buried part

There are only about seven municipal electric utilities in Connecticut. Municipal power usually runs cheaper than investor-owned service, so a City of Groton buyer pays a higher mill rate and a lower electric bill. Whether that trade works in your favor comes down to how much power you burn. Do the math instead of reacting to the mill rate on its own.

One caution: electric service in Groton is split. The regional power cooperative describes Groton Utilities as serving "all of Groton," but the Town's own GIS publishes an Electric Service Districts map showing the town divided between Groton Utilities and Eversource. Water and electric territories aren't the same shape either — Groton Utilities' water system serves roughly 30,200 people, way more than the City's own population. Check the specific address.

Groton Long Point Runs Itself, and It Has Rules

Call Groton Long Point a neighborhood association and you're way off. It's a body corporate and politic chartered in 1921, functioning as a municipal corporation and a separate taxing district, with statutory power to provide fire, police, street maintenance and lighting, sewers, garbage collection and water, to build docks and dredge harbors, and to issue bonds.

On the ground: 268 acres, 654 parcels. Weekly curbside trash plus twice-yearly bulk pickup. Potable water through the GLP Water Commission. Its own police enforcing parking. Tennis, basketball, bocce, volleyball, baseball and a playground. Boat slips, moorings and docks get assigned every year.

And building permits go through the Association office, not the Town.

Rules you'll want to hear before you start making plans:

Ten beach passes per property, required for everyone over age two at Main, South and East beaches and East Dock. No pets, bicycles or alcohol on the beaches. Red parking stickers for owners. 25 mph, strictly enforced.

Construction is limited to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and shuts down completely from July 1 to Labor Day. Buying a Groton Long Point place to renovate? That one rule reshapes your whole schedule and your budget.

One more piece of history: after the 2011 revaluation pushed Groton Long Point taxes up roughly 35%, owners challenged it and the Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed they weren't entitled to relief. The district structure has been tested and it held.

The Submarine Base and Electric Boat Are the Economy

Naval Submarine Base New London is in Groton

Not in New London. The name is a leftover from history. The installation sits on the east bank of the Thames River in Groton, across from the city. It's the single most repeated mistake people make about this region.

As of 2025 the base employs roughly 6,000 enlisted sailors and civilians with 15 submarines homeported. The wider base community, families and retirees included, runs a whole lot bigger. The facility covers 687 acres plus 530 acres of family housing, and it's been the Navy's submarine base since 1916.

You'll see headcounts of 6,000, 10,000 and 21,000 thrown around for this base. They're each counting a different population — uniformed only, uniformed plus civilian, or dependents and retirees included. Pay attention to which one you're reading.

Electric Boat is expanding like nothing I've seen

Electric Boat's president has described the strategy as clearing the waterfront in Groton so it's purely shipbuilding, which is why the company bought most of Crystal Mall over in Waterford to move engineering and software off-site.

Here's what that does to housing. New London's mayor has said the region needs at least 10,000 additional housing units, and we add a few hundred a year. That's the pressure sitting underneath every price in this county.

Now the honest part. This economy runs on defense appropriations, and we've been burned before. The 2005 BRAC process came within one commission vote of wiping out a projected 15,808 regional jobs. Buy here and you're underwriting a federal procurement cycle. There's no diversified private economy behind it. The $77 billion multi-year contract and the $5 billion yard investment are the best evidence anybody has that this cycle is early rather than late. They are contracts, not guarantees.

Groton Schools — Every Elementary Is a Magnet

Groton went through a big consolidation they called the "Groton 2020" plan. A new consolidated middle school opened in 2020 and replaced two middle schools. The two former middle school sites became magnet elementaries, three elementary schools closed, and the one left over converted to a themed magnet.

So every Groton elementary school is now a magnet school. That's unusual, and it changes how a family thinks about which house to buy.

District total is 4,009 students across seven schools. Enrollment figures come from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2024-25. A Mary Morrisson Early Childhood Center opens September 2026, bringing back the name of one of the closed elementaries.

Watch this address trap: Mystic River Magnet and Northeast Academy both carry Mystic mailing addresses but are Groton district schools. A "Mystic, CT 06355" address tells you nothing about which district your kid attends. There's also the regional Marine Science Magnet High School in town, which isn't part of the Groton district at all.

Mystic, Noank and the Villages

Mystic straddles the Groton–Stonington town line, and the Mystic River is the divider. The village grew as three sections: Old Mystic upriver, "Lower Mystic" on the Stonington bank, and Portersville on the Groton bank. The Mystic River Bascule Bridge carries Route 1 across right at the center of the village.

Crossing that bridge changes a lot. On the Groton side you get a base rate of 25.29 plus the Mystic Fire District at 2.76, while the Stonington side carries a lower town rate. Schools flip completely — Groton magnets on one side, Stonington's Deans Mill School on the other. Same village, same street grid, same 06355 ZIP code. See my Stonington page for the other side of the river.

Noank is a historic shipbuilding village out on the point between the Mystic River and Palmer Cove, with its own listed historic district and its own volunteer fire district going back to 1929. Noank carries the lowest fire district rate in Groton at 1.69 mills, which lands it at a combined 27.35 & that's meaningfully under Mystic's 28.42. So a Noank address is genuinely cheaper to hold than a Mystic one.

Groton's other villages: Old Mystic, Poquonnock Bridge, Groton Long Point, Center Groton, Long Hill and Fort Hill.

Groton Is Revaluing Right Now

Groton's revaluation is underway on the October 1, 2026 Grand List. The new values first show up on tax bills issued in July 2027.

If you're buying in Groton in 2026, you're buying against an assessment that's about to be thrown out. After the appreciation we've had, that reset is going to be big. It doesn't automatically mean higher taxes, because when the grand list rises the mill rate comes down. But whatever tax figure is sitting on that listing, that's not the one you'll be paying.

Connecticut assesses at 70% of market value. The 2025 Grand List was certified January 29, 2026.

Practical Things You'll Want in Your Pocket

Good news on foundations: Groton is well outside the 20-mile crumbling-concrete radius centered on Stafford Springs. The pyrrhotite problem that hits Tolland and Windham County housing isn't an issue in this corner of New London County. Ask your standard foundation questions anyway, but this particular defect isn't part of your diligence here.

Septic and well permits go through the Ledge Light Health District, which covers East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, Lyme, New London, North Stonington, Old Lyme, Stonington and Waterford.

Town Hall is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30 — no Friday closure. That matters, because plenty of towns around here do close Fridays, and that blocks a closing from recording. Town Hall is at 45 Fort Hill Road.

Groton is a Council-Manager town with a 42-member Representative Town Meeting. The RTM has to approve the budget before the Council can set rates.

Groton covers 31.0 square miles of land plus 14.2 square miles of water, with a 2020 Census population of 38,411, estimated at 39,138 as of July 2025.

Owner-occupancy is 53.4%, way under Waterford's 79.7% and Stonington's 72.6%. That comes straight from the base and the shipyard: a big, mobile, rental-dependent population. If you're selling, it means there's a deep and durable rental market sitting under your sale price. Median household income is $88,284, median home value $340,100, and there are 2,815 veterans in town.

Thinking of Selling in Groton?

You're selling into a market with real structural demand behind it. 8,000 Electric Boat hires this year, against a documented regional shortfall of thousands of housing units.

Two things I'd get ready. Know your tax district and put the combined rate in front of buyers early. A buyer who finds out about a 4.70-mill fire district after the inspection feels misled even when nobody misled them, and then you're renegotiating. And if you're in a cheap district like Noank or Mumford Cove, say so. That's a selling point.

Be ready for the revaluation question. Informed buyers know Groton is revaluing this October and they'll ask what it means. A clear answer keeps the deal together.

If you want a real number on your home, call me. I'll walk the property, pull the actual comps, and tell you honestly what I think it brings.

Nearby Towns

Groton borders 3 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:

• Ledyard real estate
• New London real estate
• Stonington 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 rates by district: Town of Groton FYE2027 mill rate schedule, October 1, 2025 Grand List; prior-year figures from Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. District offices, founding dates and the rate formula: Town of Groton. City of Groton structure and services: Town of Groton Guide to Town Government. Groton Long Point charter powers: Connecticut Office of Legislative Research; rules and services: Groton Long Point Association. Submarine base personnel and history: reporting quoting base leadership and the Governor's office, August 2025. Electric Boat workforce, hiring and contract: Connecticut Office of Military Affairs, February 2026, and reporting on the July 2026 contract award. Regional housing shortfall: statements by the Mayor of New London. School enrollment and structure: National Center for Education Statistics, 2024-25, and Groton Public Schools. Revaluation schedule: CT OPM Revaluation Schedule 2023-2037 and Groton Assessment Division. Health district: Ledge Light Health District. Crumbling foundations radius: Connecticut Department of Housing and the state foundation testing program. Population, owner-occupancy, income and veterans: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts and 2020 Census.

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