Yet another Maine vs New Hampshire moving thread (Portland, Bangor: how much, homes)
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My husband and I are young-ish, looking to start a family soon, and are attempting to move to Maine. Both of us have lived in hot, humid climates our entire lives and are simply done with sweating, living in constant air conditioning, and want to be around more forests and rivers for recreation. I know the winters are going to be extreme (to say the very least) compared to what we're used to and we don't really have the ability to try it out for the winter though I'm sure that's sage advice. We're willing to put up with a lot to get actual seasons other than really hot and normal hot lol, would rather be cold than hot anyway, don't have seasonal affective disorder etc.
We've pretty much settled on Maine but I'm also curious about whether Southern New Hampshire could also be a good fit for us. We spent a little over a week in the past month driving up and down Maine - we drove from Boston and took a little detour into Manchester, NH and then onto Concord, Rochester, Sanford and then through Portland, Augusta, Bangor and came back down the coast.
Ideally, we'd like to live somewhere along the Portland to Augusta corridor, the only real stipulation to where we can live is ideally within an hour commute of a major airport (at the very least the size of Portland's) for my husband's fly-in fly-out job.
Some things we've been thinking about:
1. How different really are the winters along the Portland-August corridor (or even the equivalent coastal regions of Maine) vs Southern New Hampshire? Also - I'm under the impression that unless you live on a dirt road, roads are regularly plowed, how do private road situations work regarding that? How much does snow affect commute times? Is there ever times where you literally can't go out on the road for an entire day or two? What about living near a lake like Sebago or the Belgrade Lakes?
2. We're both pretty centrist and college educated and would rather not be in an extremely politically polarized environment where it's difficult to make friends without being partisan. I know this is pretty subjective but how different are the two regions we're looking at in that regard?
3. It's important to us to live in a clean environment, I've got a little bit of a handle on the situation in Southern Maine but not too sure about Southern New Hampshire. I want to stay away from places with major threats to human health like PFAS contamination of well water, a lot of superfund sites, rampant cyanobacterial blooms etc.
4. Which area has better hospitals, especially for maternal care?
5. How does the quality of K-12 and university-level education compare between the two? We're planning to homeschool kids but want a general lay of the land.
6. We've looked quite a bit at the difference in tax burden and while Maine weighs a bit heavier - do you get what you pay for? Are general services better? The state of roads?
6. We both fish saltwater mainly but want to take a crack at trout and perhaps the elusive landlocked salmon, which area is better for that?
7. We like areas with lots of wildlife viewing opportunities but also have academic hobbies and would like to live in, or at least not very far from, a culturally rich area to pursue them.
8. How far is far enough from a gravel pit?
Thanks for reading, any input would be appreciated.
Either could work for you, though you may want to consider the Boston exurbs as well. Boston has a younger demographic than either, and will likely have more options for maternity services.
Off the top of my head, there is a superfund cleanup site in Greenland NH near the border with Portsmouth, and a nuclear power plant in Seabrook NH.
If you have high income NH will be better on taxes, for "middle" income I think it's a wash.
Near the coast will get less snow, but is substantially more expensive.
Some of your questions ... I have no idea. But here is what I can offer:
Quote:
Originally Posted by boysen_bear
1. How different really are the winters along the Portland-August corridor (or even the equivalent coastal regions of Maine) vs Southern New Hampshire? Also - I'm under the impression that unless you live on a dirt road, roads are regularly plowed, how do private road situations work regarding that? How much does snow affect commute times? Is there ever times where you literally can't go out on the road for an entire day or two? What about living near a lake like Sebago or the Belgrade Lakes?
The farther you get from the coast, the hotter and muggier it gets in the summer, and the colder in the winter. The ocean moderates things quite a bit, even within Maine. A hot summer day in Portland is a much hotter day in Augusta or Bangor. A hot summer day in Portland is torturous heat in New Hampshire.
Most communities do a great job keeping the roads clear, but the farther you live away from town, the longer it may take the plows to hit your area. For private roads, you'll probably have to either plow yourself or hire someone to do it.
The only times I have ever been truly nervous about going out was during the rare ice storm (ice storms are definitely "stay home" events) or while the snow is still falling and wind blowing during a blizzard. Your average winter storm presents no real problems, and even heavy storms, if you'll give the plows time to go through, it's no problem. We have been here over ten years now and have never had to put chains on the car or even buy snow tires. But we live in town.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boysen_bear
2. We're both pretty centrist and college educated and would rather not be in an extremely politically polarized environment where it's difficult to make friends without being partisan. I know this is pretty subjective but how different are the two regions we're looking at in that regard?
Maine is like most places. It's Bluer in the cities and redder in the small towns and rural areas. But the thing about Mainers: They have a real "mind your own business" attitude. Anyone is welcome to have whatever political beliefs they want as long as they don't blow a trumpet about it. I have friends and co-workers are deep blue lefties and friends and co-workers who are red to the bone and love Donald Trump. I don't fit either spectrum. We get along fine. We just don't discuss politics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boysen_bear
6. We've looked quite a bit at the difference in tax burden and while Maine weighs a bit heavier - do you get what you pay for? Are general services better? The state of roads?
Well, the great thing about winter in Maine is that the snow fills in the pot holes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boysen_bear
7. We like areas with lots of wildlife viewing opportunities but also have academic hobbies and would like to live in, or at least not very far from, a culturally rich area to pursue them.
Check out Brunswick, home of Bowdoin College. We live on the edge of town with a wetland off our back yard. Dozens of squirrels, chipmunks, and songbirds daily. Foxes and the occasional skunk, woodchuck, raccoon, deer, and bat make an appearance. Moose aren't common, but every now and then a lost cow or calf will wander into town. And we are close to some gorgeous beaches and Maine coastline. A year or two ago, nearby Harpswell, sadly, had Maine's first fatal shark attack in Maine history. Likely a great white, though I don't know if this was ever confirmed.
6. We've looked quite a bit at the difference in tax burden and while Maine weighs a bit heavier - do you get what you pay for? Are general services better? The state of roads?
Maine has more than double the Food Stamp recipients than NH, and in general, the social spending in Maine is roughly 40% higher than NH. So put Maine in the top 10 of states for per capita social program spending, and NH near the bottom. Some factors are the relative population ages and the stronger overall economy in NH.
Based on our travels, roads are no better in ME than the rest of the NE USA. Winter does a number on the roads in the NE USA once you get north of central PA. Southern states 'have it made in the shade' for winter road maintenance!
New Hampshire is filled up ,no more room. South East NH is Progressive Liberal . Hot in Summer Cold in Winter not much snow about 60 inches ave in the south East..Maine is your best bet.
... 6. We've looked quite a bit at the difference in tax burden and while Maine weighs a bit heavier - do you get what you pay for? Are general services better? The state of roads?
'tax burden' is the total sum of all taxes paid to the state from all sources, divided by the population. People often use it to imply how much they pay in individual income taxes, but that is an error.
I think that different people look for different things to be provided by the state.
I have a friend who serves on the Water Board of Orono, When I have compared his mil-rate to mine [his mil-rate is roughly 4X higher than my mil-rate]. He justifies his 4X higher property taxes because all of his town has cable available to every home. I think that is silly since cable providers are a for-profit corporation who are funded by subscribers and has no bearing on municipal tax revenue.
I live in an Unorganized Township [UTs make up roughly 52% of the state of Maine], about 20 miles North of Bangor. I think our road is very well maintained. The asphalt falls apart quickly because our road is a 'floating road' [instead of a base layer of rock they built our road on a layer of floating logs, going through the peat bogs, when the ground freezes and thaws the pavement gets wonky]. The state repaves it about every second year.
Quote:
... 7. We like areas with lots of wildlife viewing opportunities but also have academic hobbies and would like to live in, or at least not very far from, a culturally rich area to pursue them.
I often see moose, deer, and turkey. Most years a bear over-winters on my land, and we have a lot of eagle. Twice I have had to stop my car because beavers were dragging trees across the road, my only option to continue driving was to assist the beaver dragging its tree off the pavement. I live within spitting distance of the UM-Orono campus, there is always an assortment of activities on campus.
Quote:
... 8. How far is far enough from a gravel pit?
Gravel pits are fairly quiet places around here. Maybe someone will show up for target practice once a week.
I moved here in 2005, since that time I have seen many news articles where college students had arranged to have a beer keg party in a gravel pit. But each time, the local cops have been informed ahead of time, so the cops get there before the band or the beer show up, and everyone attempting to party gets arrested.
The last one that I read about, a man who owned a gravel pit had a son graduating college, so he wanted to host a bonfire and beer party with a band. The cops blocked off the driveway and refused to allow anyone access.
For at least 15 years the local PD has not allowed any gravel pit parties, I think it is gradually changing the culture.
My husband and I are young-ish, looking to start a family soon, and are attempting to move to Maine. Both of us have lived in hot, humid climates our entire lives and are simply done with sweating, living in constant air conditioning, and want to be around more forests and rivers for recreation. I know the winters are going to be extreme (to say the very least) compared to what we're used to and we don't really have the ability to try it out for the winter though I'm sure that's sage advice. We're willing to put up with a lot to get actual seasons other than really hot and normal hot lol, would rather be cold than hot anyway, don't have seasonal affective disorder etc.
We've pretty much settled on Maine but I'm also curious about whether Southern New Hampshire could also be a good fit for us. We spent a little over a week in the past month driving up and down Maine - we drove from Boston and took a little detour into Manchester, NH and then onto Concord, Rochester, Sanford and then through Portland, Augusta, Bangor and came back down the coast.
Ideally, we'd like to live somewhere along the Portland to Augusta corridor, the only real stipulation to where we can live is ideally within an hour commute of a major airport (at the very least the size of Portland's) for my husband's fly-in fly-out job.
Some things we've been thinking about:
1. How different really are the winters along the Portland-August corridor (or even the equivalent coastal regions of Maine) vs Southern New Hampshire? Also - I'm under the impression that unless you live on a dirt road, roads are regularly plowed, how do private road situations work regarding that? How much does snow affect commute times? Is there ever times where you literally can't go out on the road for an entire day or two? What about living near a lake like Sebago or the Belgrade Lakes?
2. We're both pretty centrist and college educated and would rather not be in an extremely politically polarized environment where it's difficult to make friends without being partisan. I know this is pretty subjective but how different are the two regions we're looking at in that regard?
3. It's important to us to live in a clean environment, I've got a little bit of a handle on the situation in Southern Maine but not too sure about Southern New Hampshire. I want to stay away from places with major threats to human health like PFAS contamination of well water, a lot of superfund sites, rampant cyanobacterial blooms etc.
4. Which area has better hospitals, especially for maternal care?
5. How does the quality of K-12 and university-level education compare between the two? We're planning to homeschool kids but want a general lay of the land.
6. We've looked quite a bit at the difference in tax burden and while Maine weighs a bit heavier - do you get what you pay for? Are general services better? The state of roads?
6. We both fish saltwater mainly but want to take a crack at trout and perhaps the elusive landlocked salmon, which area is better for that?
7. We like areas with lots of wildlife viewing opportunities but also have academic hobbies and would like to live in, or at least not very far from, a culturally rich area to pursue them.
8. How far is far enough from a gravel pit?
Thanks for reading, any input would be appreciated.
I'll have a crack at these two:
6. Both the Maine coast and the New Hampshire coast offer good inshore saltwater fishing. Stripers, bluefish and flounder are commonly targeted. Trout and landlocked salmon - you can get them "up north" in New Hampshire, but the water is generally a little warmer than ideal when you're talking about seacoast NH region, which is further south as well as near sea level. I think Maine is better for these guys and you can certainly catch them locally in the mid-coast region of Maine, although further to the west and north in Maine there are some rightly famous waters for trout and landlocked salmon fishing - check out Grand Lake Stream for example.
7. Seacoast NH has UNH right in Durham and Portsmouth nearby with a good arts scene as well - concerts, local theater and dance productions. The seacoast NH region is very dynamic. Portland, ME is certainly a culturally rich area - which you likely expect, but Brunswick, ME, which has Bowdoin College and a fine art museum itself also has a lot going on, and further up - Rockland and Camden are host to a several fine museums, and a lot of concerts, lectures, and festivals - whether it's the blues festival, lobster festival, or the documentary film festival, or the National Toboggan Championships in winter (not nearly so serious as that sounds!)...
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 07-27-2021 at 06:33 PM..
I grew up in SW NH (Keene to be exact), and I lived in SE NH (Dover, Durham, and Newmarket). I have lived in Portland for the last 20ish years.
The Keene area was a great place to grow up in. If I was to have kids, I'd definitely think about Keene and the surrounding areas. The other side of NH is also great. I spent my college years (and a bit after that) there. The mentality is similar, but the feel is slightly different since there is ocean access. The area is also the main corridor for Massachusetts folks to travel to the White Mountains or to Maine. It is a bit more touristy where as Keene is closer to Vermont which brings a different vibe.
The Portland area is more diverse. Kids grow up quicker in the city. The surrounding towns are not cheap. Augusta is not that great of an area. My wife spent part of her childhood there. You'd be better off using Route 1 as your corridor since the towns tend to have more going for them, both in culture and amenities.
P.S. When you look at seacoast NH on e.g. Google Maps, you can't miss the Great Bay and neighboring Little Bay, which together form a large tidal estuary that's drained only by the Piscataquah River, which reaches the ocean at Portsmouth. These inland bays are connected to 5 rivers flowing in from the surrounding region. These are all beautiful waters to explore with a kayak, canoe or small powerboat, and offer great fishing as well. You can get some inshore saltwater species closer to the ocean where there's more salinity (without being rocked by big ocean waves), and you can get freshwater fish species by going up in those 5 rivers. Of course there are plenty of birds and wildlife too. If you have a bigger boat you can head out the mouth of the Piscataquah and go along the coast nearby or go out to the Isles of Shoals a few miles offshore. Outstanding area to be on the water if you love nature.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 07-28-2021 at 04:58 AM..
P.P.S. I know the seacoast NH coastal waters much better - used to have a boat I kept in the Great Bay, but Brunswick, ME has been mentioned several times, and in that area, at least from what I know, the waters of northern Casco Bay offer fine saltwater fishing and they're certainly beautiful, and then if you're just a bit north, the Kennebec River, which flows past Bath, is said to have saltwater fish like stripers where it has higher salinity close to the ocean, and freshwater fishing for e.g. smallmouth and largemouth bass further up, and far enough up (quite far), the Kennebec is said to offer good fishing for trout and landlocked salmon.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 07-28-2021 at 06:11 PM..
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