Discover New Preston CT Real Estate & Lifestyle

New Preston and the Town of Washington at a glance

New Preston is one of five villages in the Town of Washington, with Washington Depot, Washington Green, Marbledale and Woodville, according to the town. The town's history page says the western section was the Parish of New Preston and belonged to New Milford, the eastern section was settled in 1734 as the Parish of Judea under Woodbury, and the present town was incorporated in 1779 and named for General George Washington, who traveled through during the war. Early industry was farming, ironworks, quarries and small water powered mills on the Shepaug and Aspetuck rivers. The town reports a population of more than 4,000 full time residents, about 550 of them public school students, and operates under a town meeting form of government with a Board of Selectmen. New Preston is the village on Lake Waramaug's shore, and the town supplies the lake's only public motorboat launch and three of the nine seats on the Lake Waramaug Authority, which the town says meets about twice a year.

The state park on the New Preston side is, in the state's words, the only public access point on the 656 acre lake, with a car top launch, a 76 site campground open May 22 to October 12 in 2026, and no state ramp for power boats; the page is quoted in Lake Waramaug State Park as the state describes it.

Schools in Washington

The town's schools page lists Regional School District 12 for public education: Washington Primary School, Shepaug Valley Middle School and Shepaug Valley High School. For private education it lists Glenholme School, the Gunnery, Rumsey Hall School and Washington Montessori School. Confirm current attendance patterns with Region 12 before relying on them.

The lake, the beach and the ramp

• Washington Town Beach permits are sold through the Parks and Recreation site, and the Lake Waramaug Association says the beach is for Washington residents and taxpayers with permits.
• Washington Boat Launch hours, from the town's 2026 Boat Launch Regulations: from the third Saturday in April until the last week in June, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, 6 to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to sunset; from the last week in June to Labor Day, Friday through Monday 6 a.m. to sunset and Tuesday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; after Labor Day to the last Sunday in October, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, 6 to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to sunset. Stickers are day or seasonal, inspection stickers must accompany day boat stickers, and the regulations say no parking on Route 45.
• Decontamination for trailered boats runs at the New Preston Fire Station under the 2026 program described in the lake post linked above; the town posts the ramp and decontamination hours together.

Taxes and land use in Washington

The town site does not post its mill rate as text, but the state does: the Office of Policy and Management's mill rate dataset lists Washington at 10.85 for the fiscal years ending 2025 and 2026, down from 14.25 the year before, on the October 1, 2024 grand list.

The Tax Collector bills real estate taxes in two installments, July 1 and January 1, with motor vehicle and personal property due July 1, and states that Washington has no additional water, sewer or fire district taxes. The Assessor's office produces the grand list and administers Public Act 490 and exemptions, and its online property data is working grand list data subject to change, so ask the office for the official card. Washington keeps a separate Zoning Commission and Planning Commission, plus a Zoning Board of Appeals, an Inland Wetlands Commission and a Housing Commission; the town has posted new multifamily zoning regulations, and building and driveway permits run through an online permitting portal after the Tax Collector verifies no delinquent taxes.

Sources for this section: Town of Washington, About, History of Washington, Schools, Tax Collector, Tax Due Dates, Assessor, Parks and Recreation, Town Beach 2026, Lake Waramaug Authority and Boat Launch Regulations 2026 pages; Lake Waramaug Association, Recreation page. Figures are the town's own as published in September 2026 and change by year.

The 2026 conforming loan limit in New Preston

832,750 dollars for a one unit property. New Preston sits in the Town of Washington, which is in the Northwest Hills Planning Region, and in Connecticut the Federal Housing Finance Agency sets the conforming loan limits by planning region rather than by county. The Candlewood Lake towns just south, New Milford among them, are in the Western Connecticut Planning Region at 977,500 dollars. That is a 144,750 dollar difference in how large a loan can be before it stops being conforming, and it is worth settling before you narrow a search across both. The two regions, side by side.

Buying or selling in Connecticut: the parts that are the same everywhere

New Preston is the village in the Town of Washington beside Lake Waramaug. The Washington Town Ramp on Route 45 at the southeast corner of the lake is the only public motorboat launch on it, by the Lake Waramaug Association's account, and the New Preston Fire Station hosts the hot water decontamination unit that trailered boats have needed before their first launch since April 2026. Lake Waramaug for a second home lays out the lake's rules from the bodies that publish them.

New Preston sits in Litchfield County rather than on Candlewood, but Connecticut transaction law does not change by town. These are the statewide rules that catch people out, whichever side of the county line the house is on.

• Septic. Connecticut does not license or certify septic inspectors, so who you hire is the whole safeguard. Connecticut does not certify the person inspecting your septic.
• Well water. Nobody is required to test the well before a sale. Nobody has to test the well before you buy.
• The closing. A Connecticut admitted attorney must conduct it, and the penalty for getting that wrong is criminal rather than administrative. A non attorney cannot legally close your purchase.
• Seller costs. Only one of them is a percentage set by statute. Only one selling cost is set by law, and what the conveyance tax actually costs works the numbers.
• The disclosure report. The $500 credit is not an exit. The $500 disclosure credit does not let a seller off the hook.
• Your assessment after you buy. The price you pay does not become your assessed value, and assessments run at seventy per cent of true and actual value. Your purchase price does not become your assessment.
• An inherited house. A fiduciary sale runs on a different sequence, and a fiduciary transfer is exempt from the condition report altogether. Selling an inherited house is not an ordinary sale.