Where to look to move to in Maine??? (Portland, Bangor: for sale, real estate)

[Mass2Maine]

Hey folks,

I just joined up even though I've been searching this forum on Maine topics for a few weeks. So the wife and I have been talking about moving from southern Mass to Maine within a few years, but are just not sure where. We feel it would be a better place to raise kids with good values. Let me give you a bit of a background first.

We live in southern Mass a few miles from the Rhode Island border. Our town used to be a farm town years ago, but is just becoming too crowded (although most, except Mainers, would considers 15k people small). I live in the "country" so to speak. Its a small culdasack surrounded by woods on what used to be a farm at one point. The wall that marks the back edge of my property was actually put in by the early pilgrim settlers.

Both my wife and I work in the closest city which is about six miles away. Shes a secretary at a hospital and I'm a software programmer for a hospital software company.

hmmm....what else??

My father in law has a weekend home in Newfield, ME. We go up there all the time, but it was usually just to relax. Only recently, when she started to come around on the idea of moving, have we started to explore the area. We've seen the areas around Newfield and have been down to the Acton area where her uncle lives.

With this in mind, we aren't sure where to begin to look for property. We are looking for between 3 and 10 acres of land. Preferably on a lake or stream/river (I'm a big fishing fanatic). We are looking for a small town that is in close proximity of the necessities (hospital, market, post office, hardware, etc.) and potential jobs.

Which is another issue. We would need work. Staying in our fields is preferable, but not necessary. I'd love to work at home if possible. But if I have to commute, I'm not looking to drive my day away. I commuted to Boston for a good amount of time and will never do that again.

So as for what we were looking at so far with all this in mind...Standish seems like a good place. Gorham would be an alternative choice. What I'm looking to find out from natives is their recommendations? Thanks!

[AliceT]

Your bio could be any of hundreds of bios and nobody can tell you exactly where to start looking or where your specific jobs would be in need. Enter the bad economy and lay offs for downsizing and that spells double trouble for people comng along looking for work and a home. You are asking a lot right now.

Best advice I can offer is: Rent first. Pick an area, find a rental and try it on for size.

[AlisonL]

Find a job first. Then get a rental, and take it from there.
BTW, a town of 15,000 isn't small in Maine.

[mollysmiles]

I'd look into the Bangor area... have you been there?

[Mass2Maine]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

I'd look into the Bangor area... have you been there?

No I have not. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Acadianlion]

Many years ago, I lived on a farm in Rehoboth and commuted to my teaching job in South Providence. I know your area well, and it saddens, though not surprises me, that it has become developed, and I suppose that dairy farm with its 60 holsteins is long gone, too.

I can only say to you what I say to everyone like you...and there are many...who fantasize about moving to Maine. How good is your arithmetic? Here are some simple number facts for you and your wife to understand:

Maine is larger than all five New England states put together.
Maine has barely more than 1.2 million people, the majority of whom live in the southwest corner of the state near New Hampshire.
Maine has many small towns with fewer than 1,000 people. Those towns will possibly have one little convenience store with two gas pumps, a volunteer fire department, and nothing else in the way of infrastructure. Land is plentiful in such places generally, and land is not terribly expensive either. BUT you will likely be as much as 50 miles to the nearest REAL grocery store, medical treatment facility. Jobs? What are those?
The largest city in Maine (in terms of population) is Portland which is 40% SMALLER than Fall River, Massachusetts, and the surrounding metropolitan area is barely as large as Fall River in terms of population. All of that is within the southwest corner which I have described above. How much employment opportunity do you think exists with such population density, IF population density drives the economy that provides jobs? Jobs here in Maine are a major problem.

My thought is that if you start right now, and plan on spending a weekend each month, and as many additional whole days as possible for the next two years, you will have discovered where in this very large state there may be a place that you will find that will feel right to you. Maybe.

From a financial standpoint you are really in a good situation right now. YOu ae in the nexus of southwestern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Your employment opportunites are close by in Fall River, New Bedford, Providence and even Brocton are close or near commute. You could find such a circumstance here in Maine, too, and to do that you would need to live somewhere in central Cumberland or York counties where your cost of real estate, cost of housing, and general cost of living will be at least what it is where you are now, and the cost of heating your home will be 30% higher as most probably will be your electricity bill. Every time you start your car to go and get anything you will go five to 25 miles, and gasoline if gasoline prices drop back to where they were in the 1950's so will the price of everything else and so will the wages.

Ok. You might well ask why anyone would want to live here? In my case, my first wife decided that I should go live in the Maine woods instead of anywhere near her which was outside of Hyannis. That was more than 30 years ago. I had NO chance of becoming employed because there was simply nothing for me to do for which I was qualified by education (quite a lot, actually) or experience (quite a lot of that, also). So I began to create my own employment and have done so ever since. It was extremely hard, and there was NO WAY that I could have done it had my children lived with me, nor would I ever begun to try it. It isn't a place or lifestyle for everyone, but it has its moments that are purely grand, and if you take time to get a true feel for it...and you will probably need a couple of years of visiting before you and your wife (from what you have said: MOSTLY your wife), will be ready to give Maine living a shot, even as renters somewhere.

Now, nothing that I have written means anything at all if you have a very large trust fund. (OF course, as of this writing , there are an awful lot of people who now have very small trust funds and they are not moving to Maine, and some will soon move out).
If you have truely independent wealth, then the time, distance, population density issues of Maine are not issues for you at all.

All others need to put their boots on the ground and find out what and where Maine is, because it isn't like where they are now at all.

[Shuffler]

All I can add is not to let your emotions outweigh your abilities for taking a practical look at things.

Many a relationship has been ruined by poor financial decisions...that's a big factor in my decision making process on staying here or moving to Maine.

[lookinforahome]

Saco, where I live, is an excellent place to live. Close to Portland for jobs, great school system, almost non-exsistent crime level, and it is a growing community too!

[lrfox]

I grew up in Assonet, MA (just north of Fall River)and have spent the last 4 here in Maine (Portland). I will be leaving soon, but if you're looking for isolation, you'll probably love it.

I'm assuming that by the "closest" city to Swansea, you mean Fall River or Maybe Providence? In either case, both of those cities are significantly larger than anything you will find in Maine. Portland is the largest and most developed area here and aside from the city iself, South Portland, and little strips in Scarborough and Falmouth, it's really not built up at all. Even Portland is mostly suburban (single family homes and small yards aren't hard to find here... picture the Fall River highlands and that's what most of the residential part of the city resembles) once you're out of the Downtown area (which is actually a quaint, but nice area with a good number of restaurants arts, and entertainment).

What I'm getting at, is that it's really easy to be close to one of Maine's largest cities and be in a very rural environment. Standish and Gorham fit that bill, but Gorham has some suburban-style development around the town center, but much of it is pretty rural and it's only 15 minutes from Portland. Standish is the more rural of the two.

I have family from the Bangor area as well, and It's even smaller than Portland, so isolation won't be a problem. Winterport, Hampden and even Brewer and Old Town could be attractive to you.

My third suggestion would be the Farmington area. I did two years of college there (University of Maine at Farmington) and it's a nice little community. There are enough services in town (hospital, schools, police, fire, etc), a nice University, some decent little restaurants, and some beautiful countryside. It also seems to be relatively immune from development, yet it's not so tiny and isolated that you'll go out of your mind. It's about 1/2 hour -40 min. from Augusta, not far Kingfield, Sugarloaf, and about an hour from Bethel and Sunday River. Land will be a little cheaper, and you can probably pick up more than 3 acres for a reasonable price (Most land in Maine will be cheaper than it's equivelent in S.E. Mass.)

Saco/Biddeford isn't bad either. It's a depressed mill area (comparable to Taunton, MA , actually) that has some hidden gems. Downtown Saco is cute, Downtown biddeford (just accross the river) has many vacant store fronts, but a nice revitalized mill on "Saco Island" houses some nice condos, a restaurant, and a satellite USM campus. The coast is pretty, and you can find your piece of land pretty close to downtown and still be "away from it all." Not exactly what you're looking for, but Old Orchard Beach has a multitude of homes for sale close to the water that you could probably get for a good deal given the housing situation at the moment.

As far as jobs go, Maine is tough. Even in good times it's difficult here. driving around Portland, it seems there are more vacant office buildings for sale or lease than actual occupied ones. I doubt you could go wrong if either you or your wife are in a medical profession, or looking for sporadic, temporary positons. People come to Maine for peace and quiet, not jobs.

Good luck in your search, I hope you find what you're looking for.

[lookinforahome]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Saco/Biddeford isn't bad either. It's a depressed mill area (comparable to Taunton, MA , actually) that has some hidden gems. Downtown Saco is cute, Downtown biddeford (just accross the river) has many vacant store fronts, but a nice revitalized mill on "Saco Island" houses some nice condos, a restaurant, and a satellite USM campus.

He is correct, however, I would recommend Saco over Biddeford. Biddeford has some nice areas, but much of it is slums. Saco is not nearly as depressed. Good luck!