Florida to Maine...Is there a trend? (Washington: low income, crime)

[MainerWannabe]

I have always heard of people wanting to move/retire to warmer climates. But I see a lot of Floridians (and Arizonians, Californians, Georgians etc) moving to chilly Maine! Why is it? Does it apply to you? Is Maine poised to be the next "hot destination" in this vast Country of ours? I find it to be great to the economy of Maine. Do you?

[Maineguy04654]

Personally I do not understand it. Maine is very unfriendly to business and not any better with taxes and fees. Our power is twice that of most Americans and unless you live in a town you are unable to get fast internet in most places. You can not even get cable in many places. Then there are our roads many very bad. The good ones are only good till you hit a town that did not fix there part of it. They tax your car every year then charge you to have it inspected. You even have to pay tax on tractors here! Most places have no trash pickup.

In short you have to love it here. Why else would you want to be treated like we are?

Then again if your low income or on the dole then you have entered heaven!!

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Maineguy04654

Personally I do not understand it. Maine is very unfriendly to business and not any better with taxes and fees. Our power is twice that of most Americans and unless you live in a town you are unable to get fast internet in most places. You can not even get cable in many places. Then there are our roads many very bad. The good ones are only good till you hit a town that did not fix there part of it. They tax your car every year then charge you to have it inspected. You even have to pay tax on tractors here! Most places have no trash pickup.

In short you have to love it here. Why else would you want to be treated like we are?

Then again if your low income or on the dole then you have entered heaven!!

Our town chooses to not tax tractors...

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Many of those "Floridians (and Arizonians, Californians, Georgians etc)" are returning Mainers. They were born here and were driven out during the age of endarkenment. They see hope and opportunity again.

[namder1]

I am one of those returning after 23 years in California. I will always love California, but it's just time for me to come home........but the roads do indeed suck here!

[elston]

My family was from Maine.....I returned here in my retirement from San Diego and have no regrets.
I love Maine. Here I have found community.

[mollysmiles]

It's what you make it. Some people will never be happy, no matter where they are!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by MainerWannabe

I have always heard of people wanting to move/retire to warmer climates. But I see a lot of Floridians (and Arizonians, Californians, Georgians etc) moving to chilly Maine! Why is it? Does it apply to you? Is Maine poised to be the next "hot destination" in this vast Country of ours? I find it to be great to the economy of Maine. Do you?

I may be 'from' California, though I left there in the 70's. I have gone back many times to visit, my siblings are still there farming. In some ways I do miss the mountains and snow. But I do not miss the high taxes, high cost-of-living, and the retarded politics.

My career caused us to move around a lot, East Coast, West Coast and overseas. Our search for the 'right place' to retire was a long search. I am glad that we found Maine.

For us Maine is great. Will it become a hot new destination? I do not think so. You may look around and see a lot of folks here who immigrated, but in terms of numbers, as many that come to Maine about equal how many leave Maine. The grass is always greener somewhere else.

As a pensioner I needed a place that offers a low cost-of-living. Otherwise I would have needed a second career added onto my pension just to hold even. And what happens when your forced to leave that career and go onto SS? I was forced to retire due to my advancing age. Going into a second career, just prolongs the process. Eventually you simply are too old and must retire. On pension your gross income drops again and at that time your under. No, we decided it best to search out and to find a region now with a really low cost-of-living, where a person could function on my level of pension.

For us the economics was a big part of it.




Also being rural and low crime is nice. No gang-bangers, no shootings, sidewalk child abductions, stabbings, blah blah. The low population density of Maine results in low crime, which is nice.

I have nothing against firearms, I have a few myself and I routinely use them for hunting and pest control. But having served in combat, I have no desire to live my retirement in a community where you hear gun-fire and you know it is people shooting at people.




Here I commonly see eagle in the tree tops on my property. We have moose, deer, and rarely even bear. I like Maine, and most of Maine is rural forest land.



As for the economy, in a way I don't care. I have a pension. I would bring cash into the local economy anywhere that I live. Our entire nation is currently in an economic problem. Unemployment is high everywhere.
When the DOL last allowed raw data to be publicly posted the unemployment rate was at 24%, but then they stopped allowing the real data to be posted. Now we can only see the adjusted numbers [which are completely fake].

We like Maine for it's low cost-of-living. We like Maine's low taxes. We like Maine's low crime rate. Rural, mostly forested, with rivers and lakes; what is here for anyone to not like?

As a retired 'baby-boomer' I think that Maine is fantastic.

[maine4.us]

I am one of those people who lived in Florida for 38 years, but could not wait to leave and come to Maine once I retired. I am originally from Tennessee. Tennessee shared a lot in common with Maine years ago. I graduated from college and could not find a job in my hometown. I searched within 100 miles and did not land a job. I saw a newspaper want ad for a job in Florida, was interviewed, took the job, and worked there for 38 years until I retired.

People like me come to Maine for the wide open spaces. I grew up in a rural area, but lived as an adult in a very congested urban area. The number of people, cars, and attitude of the people drove me from Florida. Florida and many of the states mentioned in the earlier post have populations that are largely "from away." There are very few Florida natives in Florida today. Most of them are from other states. There is very little sense of community in places like that. I lived in a subdivision of 66 houses and with the exception of two of my neighbors, I didn't know anyone's last name.

People move to Maine for many reasons. I moved because I like cold weather. I moved because I found a house with an ocean view that I could afford. I moved to Maine because the lack of jobs did not affect me, because I am retired and have a pension.

People move to Maine because of a slower, safer, more relaxed lifestyle. Many of us have done our homework and know that taxes in Maine are high. We expect 5-6 months of winter with plenty of snow. We expect higher prices because of transportation costs. Most of us plan quite well how we will make it in Maine.

Maine is undergoing gentrification. Gentrification happens when an area attracts older retired people who are empty nesters. We do not have children in the school system. We are generally not a burden on the local infrastructure. We usually bring our income with us and do not take jobs that locals need. We are one of the reasons that Maine has the oldest population in the country.

I find it quite interesting that everyone says there are no jobs here. My wife and I planned to retire, but we both found jobs without much difficulty. We live in Washington county, which is supposed to have the highest unemployment in the state. I suspect that many people don't actively look for a job. My wife had 3 jobs to choose from and I had 2.

I do find the tax situation a bit disturbing. That can't be helped. Most of the cities and towns in Maine are not large enough to distribute the tax burden. An ideal size town has about 5000 residents. Towns that are smaller than 5000 are not economical to operate.

I would tend to disagree with Forest statement about low taxes. Your taxes depend on where you live. Towns 5 miles apart can have huge differences in tax rates. Forest lives in an unorganized territory I think. His taxes would be much lower than those that live in cities. Maine has something for everyone. I agree with Forest, I think Maine is fantastic.

Just a side note here. Everyone thought I was crazy for retiring to Maine from Florida. That's fine with me.

[Zarathu]

My personal belief is that Maine is going to become the new Florida and Southwest for retiring baby-boomers. These people, of which I am one, are not worried about not being real Mainers since we know we are not and will not live long enough in our new adopted state to even be considered one by anyone. We will not be a burden on the local working population, and will actually be helping them because we will be bringing our retirement investment, pensions, and Social security money into the state.

We will come here for many reasons: the scenery, the lack of pollution, the lack of stifling hot summers, the people, stuff to do, open spaces, etc.