Thinking about moving to Maine (Portland, Bangor: real estate, property taxes, house)

[vickilynn]

My parents just sold a clothing business here in Maine that they ran for over 30 years (and my grandparents ran before). They carried a lot of the same merchandise LL Bean carries (outerwear, sportswear) and it was sad to see how the different brands started falling away one by one over the years. Every once in a while we would have someone come in and say "Which clothing lines are still manufactured in the US? We don't want to buy any other"...but, mostly people want the cheapest they can find (and who is to blame them? I have kids...you have to do what you have to do!) I wish the trend would move towards US-made goods...I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if I knew we all were supporting it as a country

[forest beekeeper]

Alas many 'higher-ups' in the political arena support international trade, and in fact focusing on only buying things from third-world countries.

My sister-in-law lives near DC, and is very active with politics; she fully supports "free trade" policies which sound good at first, but is focusing millions of dollars to cut out US manufactured goods in favour of South American goods. She boycotts many stores because they do not carry enough foreign goods.

The day of "check the union label", or "check the made in USA label" is gone.

[horsewizard]

If you want to email me privately I would love to chat with you about your move to Maine. I'm from Southern Maine and now live in the Bangor area and have lots of experiences with both areas. I'd be happy to answer all your questions, it's just hard to follow on here!
Kathy

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by vickilynn

My parents just sold a clothing business here in Maine that they ran for over 30 years (and my grandparents ran before). They carried a lot of the same merchandise LL Bean carries (outerwear, sportswear) and it was sad to see how the different brands started falling away one by one over the years. Every once in a while we would have someone come in and say "Which clothing lines are still manufactured in the US? We don't want to buy any other"...but, mostly people want the cheapest they can find (and who is to blame them? I have kids...you have to do what you have to do!) I wish the trend would move towards US-made goods...I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if I knew we all were supporting it as a country

hiya vicki, your family business, didnt happen to be in waterville did it??
id love to see "an american made" store, id do my best to patronize it.
id put signs all over the store, support america, buy american made!
or when you purchase here, you are supporting american jobs, not supporting, child/slave labor in third world countries.

[DavidoftheNorth]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Alas many 'higher-ups' in the political arena support international trade, and in fact focusing on only buying things from third-world countries.

My sister-in-law lives near DC, and is very active with politics; she fully supports "free trade" policies which sound good at first, but is focusing millions of dollars to cut out US manufactured goods in favour of South American goods. She boycotts many stores because they do not carry enough foreign goods.

The day of "check the union label", or "check the made in USA label" is gone.

If I remember right, this whole "support international trade" movement was a response to criticism against the rich countries by the poor countries. The poor countries said "It's not fair for the rich countries to have all this money - you need to give us some. We (the US) said "We won't just give you money, any more than we already do, - but we will buy some of your goods." (And possibly destroy our own industries in the process.) The Canadians, I think, are especially good at playing the NAFTA game. They have actually studied up on how the law works, applied it effectively against their friends the Americans, and beat the bejesus out of us in the process!

[DavidoftheNorth]

Just in case you don't know what NAFTA is, here's an explanation:
http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements...ion_Index.html

[vickilynn]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

hiya vicki, your family business, didnt happen to be in waterville did it??
.

Nope...down here on the coast. Are you thinking of Sterns?

[MhMaine]

What it really comes down to is your values. I grew up in Boston and I shudder to think of raising children there. When I visit family there, I see the rat race. People are under too much stress and are quite unpleasant. I don't blame them, I think it's just a by-product of living in an overcrowded place. Not my kind of place anymore, now that I've been spoiled by Maine. My husband and I earn a decent living in the Greater Portland, Maine area and we live in Westbrook. We've recently doubled the size of our house with a 2 story addition and our total mortgage is still under $150,000. We know 99% of our neighbors by name. Westbrook is up and coming, lots of young, artsy and progressive families are moving here. There are properties you can buy at a lower rate (and lower taxes) than Portland, yet you still have all the conveniences of the city, close access to Portland's amazing restaurants/culture, the shopping mall, airport, etc.

You also have diversity in Westbrook that you don't have in Falmouth, Cumberland and Yarmouth, where most people are in the same socio-economic bracket (and that would be wealthy!). Westbrook's Main Street has an authentic independently owned Mexican restaurant - Fahita Grill (the wait staff sings in Spanish while waiting tables and the margharita's are giant, tasty and cheap), a wonderful Italian restaurant - Casa Novella - it's hard to find a seat there on any given night of the week, Portland Pie - cool specialty pizza, Chicky's Fine Diner (nice local music scene, full bar and pub food), an independently owned Daily Grind (drive through coffee kiosk with funny, quirky owner), an amazing Thai place and many new businesses. It depends on what you want.

The Presumpscot River runs through Westbrook, the "river walk" was recently constructed and it follows a path along the river to Riverbank Park, great place for kids to play and run and lots of summer festivals happen there. There are many parades where they shut Main Street down to traffic several times per year. They even have a Halloween costume party/parade on Main Street and close it to traffic from 4-6p while businesses hand out candy and one organization always sponsors a haunted house.

Westbrook's tallest resident is probably the quietest these days - Sappi Paper Mill (no longer in its full operation, but a reminder of what Westbrook used to be - a mill town). The Warren family who once owned the mill, poured money into Westbrook's schools, libraries, parks, extra-curricular programs, you name it. Because of this, a wonderful infastructure exists and we actually have 2 libraries on either end of Main Street - both are wonderful.

What we love about living here is that we can visit the "big city" of Boston (less than 2 hours away), but we are within 1 hour of skiing at Shawnee Peak, 20 minutes from the Ocean, camping, hiking, lakes etc. There's plenty of work in the area. I was only unemployed once for 6 months and that's when my son was born. I have a journalism degree and work 30 hours/week in Marketing (my choice to work part-time to be with my young son 1 day per week). My husband has been with his company for 10 years (financial services) and earns a decent living, plus 6 weeks of paid vacation per year and amazing benefits for the family. We have many friends who live in Gray (about 30 min north of Portland). It is a less expensive commuter town that is growing tremendously.

Living here really fits in with our values of: family, community, safe place for kids, diversity, good public schools, knowing your neighbors, convenience to the great outdoors and to the city. It's worth a visit. And by the way, this IS Red Sox Nation Who let those New Yorkers in? I'm just kidding I love you guys too.

[Johnda]

Hi Gang,
I spent a number of wonderful years in Bridgton Maine and was right next to Highland Lake. My wife and I also rented a cabin on Conway Lake a few years ago. That area is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, with the White Mountains not far away and many nice lakes in the area. The smell of the pines there will be with me until I die!

I currently live on Long Island, NY in the hamlet of Southold and this is also a beautiful place. If you like salt water, this is the place to be. If you like the mountains, hills and lakes, then it's Bridgton for me! I have a three bedroom 2 bath ranch on one acre and my real estate taxes are around $5,000 per year. What are taxes up there like these days?

I wish I could have both places! I've been looking at real estate in the Highland Lake and Moose Pond area, just to see what's out there today.. You never know. The prices for homes not directly on water are pretty reasonable, while waterfront property REALLY gets up there! The area has not really changed that much over the years, which is a good thing and winters can be pretty rough, so you really need to like snow. All I can say is this... My wife and I have traveled extensively across the US after I retired. We went from NY to San Antonio, then to Santa Fe, then up to Montana and back east. These two areas are still my favorites!
Good luck in your hunt!

John

[Elcarim]

MhMaine, great post! And I was afraid of missing great, authentic Mexican food when moving away from the Houston area (we are a bit spoiled with that here!) but it's good to hear that Fajitas are alive and well in Maine!!