New Haven, CT: a market profile for local advertisers

Income, homes and households

The metropolitan statistical area is centered on New Haven, Connecticut.

A $88,197 median household income puts New Haven, CT 9 percent above the national figure. The median home value of $353,100 is 6 percent above the national figure.

Three quick reads on the people of New Haven, CT. New Haven, CT has a median age of 40.2 (1.3 years above the national median). The unemployment rate stands at 6%, about the same as the US share. Owner-occupied housing 60.5%, 5 points below the US share, which is the figure home-service advertisers should watch. Bachelor's degree or higher: 42% of adults, 6 points above the US share.

New Haven, CT versus Connecticut: income 8 percent lower than the Connecticut figure, home values 4 percent lower than the Connecticut figure, business density about the same as the Connecticut figure.

The local business base

County Business Patterns counts 13,779 employer establishments in New Haven, CT. Business density is a first proxy for competition: 24.1 per 1,000 residents, 4 percent below the national figure. Contractors in the home-services trades total 743, or 5.4% of the base, about the same as the US share.

Index: local share of all establishments divided by the US share; above 1 means the trade is more common here than nationally.

Against the US mix, personal care services, grocery stores, electrical contractors and physicians' offices are over-represented. Personal care services lead at 400 establishments, 1.5 times the US share. Fewer than the national pattern would suggest: concrete contractors, general freight trucking, roofing contractors and real estate lessors. Concrete contractors are the thinnest at 20, about half of the national share. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, general automotive repair and automobile dealers track the US share closely.

Per 100,000 residents: restaurants 220.6, followed by physicians' offices and personal care services. In absolute numbers restaurants lead with 1,259, followed by physicians' offices at 456 and personal care services at 400. Across the groups, consumer services (restaurants, salons, child care, grocery) run 1.3 times the US share and trucking, storage, real estate and road construction about 72% of.

Where the openings are

With personal care services, grocery stores and electrical contractors over-indexed, the cost of a click rises and so does the value of everything that happens after it: a page that loads fast, a number that is answered, a review profile that settles the comparison. The thin categories, concrete contractors, general freight trucking and roofing contractors, are the cheapest place to build a name: fewer bidders, cheaper clicks, and searchers with fewer options. An older-than-average market (median age 1.3 years above the national median) responds to search results, review counts and a phone number that is answered; it is less swayed by feed advertising. Homeownership of 60.5% is below the national share, so a larger part of the housing stock is managed by landlords and property managers; for home-services trades that argues for a commercial and property-management pitch alongside the consumer one.