Connecticut ghost town for sale

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Anyone wanna buy a town?

For the price of a detached home in a desirable Toronto neighbourhood, you could have your own village.

An entire Connecticut village is up for sale. The starting bid: $800,000.

(Current bidding is at $900,000.)

Johnsonville, Connecticut is situated on a “picturesque” pond about 30 minutes from Hartford, and is a two-hour drive from both New York City and Boston.

The successful bidder will be purchasing 62 acres of land, and eight “structures of historic significance” including a general store, a stable, an old mill, a chapel and a tavern.

Also in the village: A covered bridge, wooden dam and waterfall.

The only catch: the former mill village has been abandoned for decades.

Despite attempts to redevelop the village — including one attempt to turn Johnsonville into a tourist attraction in the ‘60s, which led to vintage buildings being set up on the land — the place has been relatively uninhabited since 1994.

The current owner, a real estate entity, purchased the property in 2001 with plans to restore the village. After two recessions, however, they decided to sell it and let someone else tackle the huge development project.

The town was on the market last year for $3 million. The current reserve price for the auction is unpublished.

Jim Kelly, a real estate agent with RM Bradley Company, the company in charge of showing the property, said that most of the buildings are structurally sound — although there’s plenty of wear and tear that needs addressing.

"You would hope the buyer would restore the Victorian village to its natural state," Kelly told CBS New York.

Thanks to travel and lifestyle blogs — and National Geographic TV’s “Abandoned” series — Johnsonville is currently an official tourist attraction as a ghost town.

Learn more here.

And if you’re interested in making Johnsonville your own, you have until 1 p.m. on October 30th to place your bid.

"It’s considered a special purpose property, given the uniqueness and nature of it, and it’s driven a lot of traffic,” Kelly told ABC News. “There’s quite a large field of considerable interest.”

Johnsonville also made an appearance in Billy Joel’s music video for “The River of Dreams.”

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