Real Estate

At The Crossroads in Goshen, CT

By Published On: February 3rd, 2025

Cover photo by Roger Castonguay of Dot Media courtesy of Lenore Mallett and Elvia Gignoux of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. This dramatic timber house at 17 Hageman Shean Road on 139 acres sold for $2,200,000 after only 10 days on the market.

The Old Town Hall (now the home of the Goshen Players), a congregational church, a bank, and an interior design store mark the corners of the historic center of Goshen at the traffic circle where the Sharon Turnpike, Route 4 intersects Route 63. In all directions small, family-owned businesses dot the town’s roads from landscapers, potters, and woodworkers to a local blacksmith and a wild animal park.

Historically an agricultural community, Goshen was known in the 1800s as the home of the famous house warming present, the pineapple cheese. Today’s farm-based businesses include Nodine’s Smokehouse, which sells 21 varieties of bacon and donates sausages to church breakfasts. Thorncrest Farm & Milk House Chocolates, located on a dirt road next to the barn where pampered Holsteins, each with a name, supply milk for the chocolate truffles, is recommended by Martha Stewart. Farm stands, Sunset Meadow Vineyards, a bison farm, and 100 acres of pick-your-own blueberries at Old Barn Farm continue Goshen’s agricultural tradition, but the biggest employer in town is the Torrington Country Club.

Goshen may be best known for the fairgrounds just beyond the traffic circle, which host events year-round from tractor pulls, Boy Scout dinners, the state Holstein show, music festivals, and the 4H Fair to the Goshen Fair on Labor Day, a major agricultural fair held since 1910. Goshen’s Agriculture Council, which owns the fairground, adopted the Biblical reference to the “land of milk and honey” to describe Goshen because of its agricultural heritage and the importance of preserving its remaining food-producing land.

300 East Hyerdale Drive on the shore of Woodridge Lake sold in December for $2,250,000, the highest price paid for any property in Goshen last year. Photo by Corrado Galizia courtesy of Stephen Drezen, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.

Population growth fueled by real estate development

Founded in 1739, Goshen was never an industrial town, and with the decline in the importance of agriculture, its population fell steadily during the 19th century. The rural town experienced growth to today’s population of over 3,000 because of residential real estate development. Compared to its neighboring towns of Cornwall, Litchfield, and Torrington whose populations have increased only 12% over the last 50 years, Goshen’s population has more than doubled while Norfolk’s has actually declined. This growth started with the building and development of Woodridge Lake, which was created in the early 1970s by damming up the Marshepaug River to create a recreational lake community and now boasts over 700 parcels with a clubhouse, boat launch, swimming pool, and other recreational activities. Built over the years, the homes represent a variety of styles from Adirondack rustic to contemporary. Most are on lots just under one acre, with the most expensive homes lining the lakefront.

In the last year, Woodridge Lake’s sales accounted for 24 of the 46 residential sales in the town including the most expensive house sold in 2024, for $2,250,000 at 300 East Hyerdale Drive on the lake. Vacant building lots are still available, including a 0.84 acre parcel for $240,000 on Hyerdale Drive, and new houses are being built throughout the development as well as teardowns and rebuilds.

Stephen Drezen of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty has been selling homes here since the beginning and characterizes the community as a professional and international mix of residents with 55% to 60% full timers who are attracted to the recreational activities, the low town property tax rate of 14.2 mills, and a very reasonable homeowner’s association fee of around $2,000 annually. As Drezen says, “Woodridge Lake has always been known as ‘Connecticut’s best kept secret’.”

Years of stability and 200% COVID price surge

From 2003 when the Goshen median single family house price was $275,000 until COVID and remote working, Goshen experienced a very stable housing market, mirroring the growth in Litchfield County overall for 20 years and avoiding the peaks and troughs of towns like Cornwall.

In 2020 that changed.

Built in 1895, the Old Town Hall has a distinctive shingled entry hall with a bell roof. It is now the home of the Goshen Players, the second oldest continuously performing theater group in Connecticut. Photo by Christine Bates.

Goshen prices started to climb, widening the median price gap with the rest of Litchfield County. By the end of December 2024, Goshen’s median price hit a new high of $642,500, doubling the median price of $320,500 in 2019. Comparing the current average Goshen sales price of $716,471 to that median of $642,500 explains a great deal about the Goshen market, especially when contrasted to the wide difference between the two measures in towns like Salisbury and Cornwall. Goshen does not, at least not yet, have the number of +$2-million-dollar sales that occur in some other North West corner towns. Of the 46 homes closed in Goshen, 15 sold for less than $500,000, 25 between $500,000 and one million, and only six over $1,000,000.

Goshen has also been stable in market velocity or number of single-family homes sold annually for the last 20 years, frequently outpacing both Salisbury and Sharon. By the end of 2024, Goshen tied with Salisbury with 46 homes sold – the two most active towns in the Northwest corner of Connecticut in terms of unit sales.

Land sales are booming

While 46 houses closed in Goshen in 2024, 24 pieces of land sold ranging in price from $30,000 to $265,000. These sales were the result of the ongoing development of higher-end subdivisions in Goshen, including Tyler Ridge, Pond Ridge, and Meadow Crest where 42% of the land sales occurred in 2024. In fact, these numbers underestimate sales, as many lots are sold privately and never appear on the MLS or Zillow.

Presumably new houses and neighborhoods will be seeking building permits and contractors, eventually adding to Goshen’s tax base. Woodridge Lake by itself accounted for an additional nine land sales leaving only five lots sold not in a development. Salisbury in contrast had only eight land sales in 2024, with none in a subdivision. Sharon had seven and Cornwall only two.

What’s on the market right now

In the beginning of January, only six single family homes were for sale in Goshen, half of them at Woodridge Lake and all of them over $500,000, with the most expensive at $2,995,000 for a 5,000-squarefoot, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom house on Woodridge Lake.

AOK and Beauty are two of the pampered Holsteins who produce milk for Thorncrest Milk House Chocolates in Goshen. Photo by Christine Bates.

While it’s not clear what to expect when the spring selling season begins in April/May, it is clear that the inventory of houses for sale has been falling across our entire area, even before COVID, and has continued to decline despite rising prices and interest rates. In May of 2023, there were 27 houses on the market versus only 11 in May of 2024. The highest recent number was 84 in June of 2019. No one knows what the spring of 2025 will bring.

While there are only six houses for sale, there are seven parcels of land publicly listed for sale, three in subdivisions and one at Woodridge Lake. The most expensive is asking $4,450,000 for a parcel of 295 acres on Reservoir Road and Pie Hill with its own 15-acre lake. That property has been on the market for over five years and is not your typical single-family plot.

Small town appeal

Long time Goshen residents are proud of the town’s extreme weather due to its average 1,300+ foot elevation, the highest in Connecticut. They like to say that Goshen is a town above all others or that Goshen was split off from Maine.

Despite the winter weather, Goshen is an appealing place to buy or build because of its relatively low prices, scenic beauty, lakes, recreational opportunities, location with ready access to Torrington and Litchfield, and low property taxes. In the last four years under the current First Selectman Todd Carusillo, the mill rate has been reduced from over 20 to 14.2. Residential real estate development has gradually increased the value of its grand list (the value of all properties in the town for the purpose of property taxation), making it possible to moderate tax rates.