The Real Cost of Owning Property in Stonington Borough, CT
Get one distinction right before anything else on this page: Stonington Borough is not the Town of Stonington. The Borough is a small, separately incorporated and separately governed historic district of just 0.7 square miles and 976 residents (2020 Census), sitting inside the much larger Town of Stonington, which spans 50.0 square miles and counted 18,335 residents in that same 2020 Census. That distinction is the whole story here, because it produces the single most important real-cost fact on this page: a Borough property owner pays both a Borough tax and the Town's town-wide tax, layered on top of each other, plus answers to two separate local governments instead of one. The Town's mill rate is confirmed at 18.18 mills for both real/personal property and motor vehicles, holding steady across FY2025 and FY2026. No specific Borough tax rate or dollar figure was confirmed anywhere in the research behind this page, and none is invented here - what follows lays out exactly what is known, what is not, and who to call for the number that actually matters to a specific property.
The Defining Fact: Two Governments, Two Tax Bills
Most Connecticut coastal buyers deal with a single town government and a single tax bill. Stonington Borough is genuinely different. It is a distinct, incorporated borough with its own elected government, the Board of Warden and Burgesses, operating inside the Town of Stonington rather than as a neighborhood or village name within it. Because that Borough government exists as its own taxing authority, a property inside the Borough is taxed twice: once by the Borough itself, for Borough-only services, and once by the Town of Stonington, for town-wide services including education. This is not a fee or an assessment district - it is a full second layer of municipal government with its own taxing power, sitting on top of the Town's.
That structure matters for anyone budgeting a purchase here, because it means a Borough owner's total annual property tax is the Town's rate plus the Borough's rate, not one or the other. Skipping this distinction - treating a Borough property like an ordinary Town of Stonington property for tax-estimating purposes - is the single most common way to get a Borough real-cost estimate wrong.
What Is Confirmed: The Town's 18.18-Mill Rate
The one hard number confirmed for this page is the Town of Stonington's own mill rate: 18.18 mills, applied uniformly to real and personal property and to motor vehicles, per CCM Data Hub. That rate held for both FY2025 and FY2026 - two consecutive confirmed years at the same level, which at least removes one variable from the estimate. In practical terms, 18.18 mills means $18.18 in Town tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value, before any Borough tax is added on top.
That 18.18-mill figure is the Town-wide rate applied across all of Stonington, including the Borough, Mystic, and every other neighborhood and village inside the Town's 50.0 square miles. It is not, by itself, a Borough property's total tax rate - it is the floor that the unconfirmed Borough tax then gets added to.
What Is Not Confirmed: The Borough Tax Itself
Here is the gap this page will not paper over: no specific Borough tax rate or dollar figure was found or confirmed anywhere in the research behind this page. The Borough tax is real - it funds Borough-only services separate from what the Town's tax funds - but its actual mill rate, or the actual additional dollar amount it adds to a given property's bill, was not located from a primary source this round. Anyone who tells you a specific combined Borough-plus-Town rate without having pulled it from the Borough or Town directly is guessing.
That means the honest way to describe a Borough property's total effective property tax rate is: the Town's confirmed 18.18 mills, plus an unconfirmed additional Borough tax amount, the size of which has to be verified directly rather than assumed or estimated from Town-wide figures alone. For the actual current combined number on a specific property, go directly to the Borough's own Clerk-Treasurer/Assessor, Lisa Coleman, and separately to the Town Assessor's office - two different offices, because these are two different taxing authorities, not one office covering both.
An Extra Layer of Local Government: Warden, Burgesses, and the Borough's Own Zoning
The dual taxation is only half of what makes this market structurally different from most Connecticut coastal towns. The Borough is governed by a five-member Board of Warden and Burgesses - Warden Michael Schefers, plus four Burgesses (Amy Nicholas, Senior Burgess, along with Amanda Barnes, Kevin Rogers, and Kevin Bowdler) - which meets on the third Monday of each month at 7pm. This board holds genuine governmental powers: taxation, property ownership, laying out highways, and creating its own bylaws.
Critically for anyone evaluating this as a place to own property, the Borough also maintains its own Planning and Zoning Commission and its own zoning regulations, entirely separate from the Town of Stonington's Planning and Zoning Commission. That means renovation, building, or land-use questions on a Borough property may run through Borough zoning rules rather than, or in addition to, the Town's - a genuinely different, additional layer of local regulatory oversight compared with a typical single-government Connecticut town. Confirm which board has jurisdiction over a specific project directly with the Borough before assuming Town zoning rules are the only ones that apply.
Home Values: A Hedged Picture Across Different Sources and Vintages
The real estate price picture here has to be read carefully, because the available figures come from different sources, different vintages, and different geographic scopes, and they do not reconcile cleanly. Zillow, fetched April 30, 2026, puts the average home value for "Stonington, CT" at $610,618, up 6.7% year over year - but that Zillow geography likely reflects the wider town or postal area rather than a confirmed Borough-specific figure, so it should not be read as a Stonington Borough number.
Separately, CCM Data Hub's town-wide median home value figure is $450,100, but that number is dated to 2023 and is explicitly a Town of Stonington figure, not a Borough one. No confirmed 2026 median home sale price, price-per-square-foot, or listing-inventory count specific to the Borough was found this round. Given a 0.7-square-mile Borough with only a few hundred housing units, Borough-specific pricing can move sharply on very few transactions - which is exactly why this page directs readers to a live MLS or real estate listing source for a current Borough-specific figure rather than presenting either the Zillow or CCM Hub number as a Borough sale price.
Town-Wide Context: Income, Grand List, and What It Is Not
A handful of additional Town of Stonington figures from CCM Data Hub are useful for context but are explicitly town-wide, not Borough-specific: population 18,431, median household income (2023) of $108,922, Total Net Grand List (2025) of $4,081,337,444, and Equalized Net Grand List (2022) of $6,030,070,394. An older, 2000 Census-era figure for the Town put median household income at $52,437 and per capita income at $29,653, with roughly 5% of the town below the poverty line - a genuinely dated snapshot from a quarter-century ago, included here only to be labeled clearly as historical, not as a current figure.
The Borough itself has its own separate Census demographic profile, since it is tracked as its own Census-designated place. The Borough's population was 976 in the 2020 Census, up from 929 in 2010 and down from 1,032 in 2000 - a small, slow-moving population base consistent with a built-out 0.7-square-mile historic district. Older 2000 Census figures specific to the Borough show a population density of 3,071.2 people per square mile, a median age of 48, a population that was 96.90% White and 0.97% Hispanic or Latino, and a separately noted large Portuguese-descent community (no percentage given in the source). Treat all of those Borough demographic figures as 2000-era snapshots, not current data - no more recent Borough-specific demographic breakdown was located this round.
What This Page Can't Tell You, and Who to Ask
Being direct about the gaps: this page cannot tell you the Borough's specific tax rate or dollar amount, cannot tell you a confirmed current Borough-specific median home sale price or price-per-square-foot, and cannot tell you a current Borough-specific listing-inventory count. It also cannot tell you a current, non-2000-era Borough median age or income figure. Filling any of those in with a Town-wide number, a different-vintage estimate, or a neighboring market's figure would be a disservice, so none of that happens here.
For the actual combined Borough-plus-Town tax rate or a specific property's tax bill, contact the Borough's Clerk-Treasurer/Assessor, Lisa Coleman, and the Town of Stonington Assessor's office directly - both, since both taxing authorities have to weigh in. For zoning, renovation, or land-use questions, confirm with the Borough's own Planning and Zoning Commission, since it operates separately from the Town's. For a current, address-specific home value or sale-comparable, work with a local real estate agent or a live MLS listing source rather than relying on the Zillow or CCM Hub figures above, since neither was confirmed as Borough-specific. And for anything tax, insurance, or financial-planning related, talk to a licensed CPA, tax attorney, or financial advisor familiar with Connecticut's borough-within-town structure - nothing on this page is tax, legal, or financial advice, and Stonington Borough's dual-taxation, dual-government structure is exactly the kind of detail a generic online estimate will get wrong.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Confirmed facts used on this page: the Town of Stonington's 18.18-mill rate for real/personal property and motor vehicles, confirmed for both FY2025 and FY2026 (CCM Data Hub); Town of Stonington 2020 Census population of 18,335 across 50.0 square miles; CCM Data Hub's more recent town-wide figures (population 18,431; 2023 median household income $108,922; 2023 median home value $450,100; 2025 Total Net Grand List $4,081,337,444; 2022 Equalized Net Grand List $6,030,070,394); a 2000 Census-era Town figure (median household income $52,437, per capita income $29,653, roughly 5% below the poverty line); Zillow's fetched-April-30-2026 average home value for "Stonington, CT" of $610,618, up 6.7% year over year; Stonington Borough's own 2020 Census population of 976 (929 in 2010, 1,032 in 2000) and its 0.7-square-mile total area (roughly 0.3 square miles land, with water making up roughly half); 2000 Census Borough-specific figures (population density 3,071.2 per square mile, median age 48, 96.90% White, 0.97% Hispanic or Latino, and a separately noted Portuguese-descent community with no percentage given); and the Borough's Board of Warden and Burgesses (Warden Michael Schefers; Burgesses Amy Nicholas as Senior Burgess, Amanda Barnes, Kevin Rogers, and Kevin Bowdler; meeting the third Monday of each month at 7pm), its taxation, property-ownership, highway-layout, and bylaw powers, and its own separate Planning and Zoning Commission. Explicitly not confirmed and not invented here: any specific Borough tax rate or dollar figure; any current (2026) median home sale price, price-per-square-foot, or listing-inventory count specific to the Borough; and any Borough-specific demographic figures more recent than the 2000 Census beyond the confirmed 2020 population count. For a specific property's combined tax bill, contact the Borough's Clerk-Treasurer/Assessor, Lisa Coleman, and the Town of Stonington Assessor's office directly. For zoning matters, confirm with the Borough's own Planning and Zoning Commission. For current home values, use a live MLS listing source or a local real estate agent. Nothing on this page is tax, legal, insurance, or financial advice.