South Portland, Maine (Kennebunk, Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth: to rent, homes, neighborhood)

[StevieCo]

Hi,

We are potentially looking at relocated to the South Portland, Maine area through a job relocation. We are currently in North NJ in a small town with a very good school system and would like to find a similar type of environment. Currently in a 4 bedroom 2k square foot home. The plan would be to rent during the first year and then buy. We have 2 children in elementary school. The position would be in South Portland near the jetport. The most important factors for us would be school system, safety and convenience.

Thanks in advance for any advice or feedback.

[WhoFanMe]

You have lots of choices, although inventory is down which is putting an upward pressure on prices. Does the company moving you to Maine have relocation benefits and if so, is there a deadline on when you can use them?

[atrixwolfe]

If your position is by the jetport you have lots of options as far as commute goes.
There are good schools all around and prices and taxes will seem about normal to you if your coming from North Jersey.
I might suggest spending some time on google maps and looking around on where you want to live. Do you want to be by the beach? in the country. You could reasonably look as far north as freeport & cumberland, or as far south as Kennebunk (all have good schools) You could go over to Southportland/cape elizabeth or as far west for lake living like Wyndham, standish or raymond. You won't find they typical North jersey small town, but you'll find a small neighborhood feel here and there if that makes sence.

[StevieCo]

I've yet to receive the offer so I'm not sure of the relocation details. Are you saying that the homes are currently overpriced and it may make sense to sit on the sidelines? We were thinking of just renting for a year to see how everything goes first and then buy if we think we'll be there for a while. However, we'd like to keep the kids in the same school district if we decided to buy. Areas we looked at are Falmouth, Cumberland Foreside, I was actually pretty surprised the home prices were and I definitely noticed a big jump the last few years. We don't need to be by the beach. Just looking for a community type environment with some level of convenience for essential shopping, etc.

[gf2020]

Cape Elizabeth would get my vote.

[atrixwolfe]

Originally Posted by gf2020

Cape Elizabeth would get my vote.

I agree but i'm biased, since I live here. Cape has a rep for being expensive, but not every thing in cape is expensive. Taxes have a lower mil rate than South Portland, and Cumberland.