Maine Moving Dilemma (Portland, Brunswick, Kennebunk: 2013, rent, condos)

[suaz]

I want so much to move to Maine, but I’m a single 66 year old female who has never lived in a snowy area. I’m interested in Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Belfast, Camden/Rockport, and Kennebunk. Ideally I’d like to pay no more than $250k. $300k max. What towns do you recommend for someone single in terms of making friends and social activities? I’m also a big walker (5 miles every other day).

I don’t know how I’d do clearing snow, especially as I get older. Do people hire to get their snow cleared?

I’ve thought of a condo, and have looked into that, but association fees are really high across the board. Also I prefer my own little house.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[jdhpa]

Personally I would add Brunswick and Topsham to your list. The Amtrak train runs as far north as Brunswick and as far south as Boston, which would be convenient. Brunswick is also a larger town than the others you mentioned, with all the trade-offs that comes with.

Good luck, I've only visited but Maine is an absolutely beautiful state with very friendly people!

[mainebrokerman]

id still look at condos you can get decent ones for that price range … and no shoveling.


the association fees vary - keep looking ….some may actually go down with more owners in the association

[westeasterly]

@suaz, I did just that, last year.

Have you visited the area? Belfast and Camden are very walkable if you live near the center of town. There are homes in your price range but almost no condos exist here. Outside of town, there aren't many sidewalks and this makes walking sometimes perilous but you can find small quiet roads to walk and lots of beautiful paths and trails.

There are plenty of activities, classes, performances, lectures and festivals here, depending on your interests. Check out the Pen Bay Pilot or Free Press Online for listings.

I pay someone to plow the slope of my driveway and I use a snow blower myself on the flat part of the driveway. I shovel the paths myself because I enjoy doing that.

Good luck with your planning! You will learn a lot from past threads here.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by suaz

I want so much to move to Maine, but I’m a single 66 year old female who has never lived in a snowy area. I’m interested in Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Belfast, Camden/Rockport, and Kennebunk. Ideally I’d like to pay no more than $250k. $300k max. What towns do you recommend for someone single in terms of making friends and social activities? I’m also a big walker (5 miles every other day).

I don’t know how I’d do clearing snow, especially as I get older. Do people hire to get their snow cleared?

I’ve thought of a condo, and have looked into that, but association fees are really high across the board. Also I prefer my own little house.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Condo fees vary, but yes, I've seen some nice condos in Rockport that are fairly inexpensive to purchase, but have really heavy monthly fees. I wouldn't write them off entirely, but yes, you always want to look at that.

If you're not getting a condo and are concerned about snow, I'd suggest a house with a garage (keeps snow off car), attached to the house (let's you walk right in from the house without slipping and sliding), and ideally oversized (to allow you to keep your snowthrower in and power it out past the car to clean the driveway). You can hire someone in town with a plow blade on a pickup truck or tractor to clear the driveway, and some will also shovel the walk too.

Bath and Belfast are relative bargains, yet both are still pretty nice towns, I think Belfast is a bit the nicer of the two, and is an underrated town. Front Street in Bath is a real nice commercial street, and its proximity to Brunswick and Portland will make Bath feel less isolated, if that's a concern. Camden is more lively and Rockport is quieter. I found a place I liked first in Camden, but like them both very much. Walkable downtowns and residential neighborhoods, beautiful area parks with both rugged and easier trails. Camden is adding a stone dust walking path from the public landing at the harbor up to the dam on the Megunticook River - this is in progress but will be 2.5 miles when complete. Camden is still fairly lively year-round, and a lot of the people who live there are "from away", many are seniors who retired there. Kennebunk is pretty, but to me, the sandy southern coast of Maine isn't that much of a draw - you can't really swim in the cold water anyways, and I like the rocky/treed coastline north of Portland more. Can't comment much on Boothbay other than what I've heard - seems to be a nice summer town for tourists... not sure if it is empty in winter?

P.S. I'd suggest visiting to scope out the towns you identify as potentials, and if you're seriously thinking of moving, visiting enough to really give you a good sense of the place(s) of real interest. You can definitely learn a lot on the net and on this forum, but you need to put "boots on the ground" and really see a place for yourself (and ideally explore it thoroughly) to get a good sense of it.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Be aware that it is not safe to walk five miles on roads in Winter in Maine. You need to take up cross country skiing.

[suaz]

I would love to learn how to cross country ski! It’s on my list. I’ve been to Camden, Rockport, Boothbay Harbor, but not Bath or Belfast. I’m coming at the end of September to check everything out again. I think I’m ruling out Boothbay Harbor. It seems pretty isolated. Right now, the Camden/Rockport Area is my favorite. Being single, will I feel like the odd man out in the towns I listed?

I’d love to have a garage. It seems that many of the homes don’t have it but I suppose if I found a house I liked, I could have one built.

Another concern is that I have a 2013 Lexus CT hybrid. I love this car and would hate to have to buy another. Does anyone know if it would be ok with good snow tires?

[jonesg]

Originally Posted by suaz

I want so much to move to Maine, but I’m a single 66 year old female who has never lived in a snowy area. I’m interested in Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Belfast, Camden/Rockport, and Kennebunk. Ideally I’d like to pay no more than $250k. $300k max. What towns do you recommend for someone single in terms of making friends and social activities? I’m also a big walker (5 miles every other day).

I don’t know how I’d do clearing snow, especially as I get older. Do people hire to get their snow cleared?

I’ve thought of a condo, and have looked into that, but association fees are really high across the board. Also I prefer my own little house.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Come up north. Save $200k.
You can buy 200 yrs groundskeeping with the savings, prople here are grateful for any work they can find.
Aroostock has awesome bargains on houses compared to downstate.

We moved from Boston 11 months ago, the house we bought cost less than 3 yrs rent in Boston, our mort payment is LESS than the cable bill we paid in Boston.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by suaz

I’d love to have a garage. It seems that many of the homes don’t have it but I suppose if I found a house I liked, I could have one built.

Another concern is that I have a 2013 Lexus CT hybrid. I love this car and would hate to have to buy another. Does anyone know if it would be ok with good snow tires?

Attached garage is a minority, but on newer houses (past 40 years), it's not uncommon. I think you will be fine with winter tires if you drive cautiously and don't try to drive on roads that haven't been plowed recently. Nokian is a Finnish brand that makes awesome winter tires.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by suaz

I would love to learn how to cross country ski! It’s on my list. I’ve been to Camden, Rockport, Boothbay Harbor, but not Bath or Belfast. I’m coming at the end of September to check everything out again. I think I’m ruling out Boothbay Harbor. It seems pretty isolated. Right now, the Camden/Rockport Area is my favorite. Being single, will I feel like the odd man out in the towns I listed?

If you have time in September, visit Belfast. It's walkable, has good restaurants and shops, and a working harbor. We probably go to Belfast (we live in China) 8-10 times a year. Camden is another favorite of ours, but we tend to go there off-season as it gets *really* busy during the summer months.

Originally Posted by suaz

I’d love to have a garage. It seems that many of the homes don’t have it but I suppose if I found a house I liked, I could have one built.

As much as I love living on China Lake, and as much as I like our house, I really, really miss having a garage. It's on my list, but there were other more pressing needs to take care of first.

Originally Posted by suaz

Another concern is that I have a 2013 Lexus CT hybrid. I love this car and would hate to have to buy another. Does anyone know if it would be ok with good snow tires?

Maine does a really good job of snow removal. We have a Subaru (like a LOT of people in Maine), but our second car is an '08 Prius. We put snow tires on both of them in the fall, and they both perform well. If we have to do somewhere when it's snowing, we'll take the Subaru - we're not crazy. But unless you're going to have to regularly hit the road when it's snowing or before the plows have hit them, I'd think the Lexus with good snow tires should be fine.