Thinking about moving to Maine (Portland, Bangor: loan, schools, camp)

[DavidoftheNorth]

Originally Posted by pixieshmoo

A friend of mine moved to Maine a few years ago from New Jersey. She loves it and has been encouraging us to move there. We started out joking about it, however, my husband and I have become very serious about moving. We have children and in a couple of years our oldest will be entering high school. Being a lifelong "Jerseyan" myself and noticing the changes, I DO NOT want my kids growing up around here. I've done plenty of research about Maine but have yet to get an actual person's opinion, other than my friend. I think Bangor might be too far, we were thinking Greater Portland area (falmouth, windham) but I wouldn't completely disregard the Bangor area or somewhere in between. Any suggestions/opinions???? Thanks.

Don't do it man, this place is flooded in Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy: http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/...744&zoneid=500

[MhMaine]

I pay $2300/yr in real estate taxes in Westbrook, Maine for a 2500 sf house and city lot with a decent fenced in back yard. I'm sure Bridgton's non-waterfront taxes are cheaper, but I don't know for sure. Southold sounds beautiful!

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by MhMaine

I pay $2300/yr in real estate taxes in Westbrook, Maine for a 2500 sf house and city lot with a decent fenced in back yard. I'm sure Bridgton's non-waterfront taxes are cheaper, but I don't know for sure. Southold sounds beautiful!

That is really high for taxes.

Many places are much cheaper.

[irishmom]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

That is really high for taxes.

Many places are much cheaper.

See now most of the places I looked at were at least $2300 for taxes and went up to $4200...so I thought that was just average. Where is cheaper, really rural?

[forest beekeeper]

"Really rural" I am not sure.

We are about 19 miles from Bangor [12 miles on the freeway and 7 miles from the exit].

While most of the homes around here are year-around dwellings, many were forest camps that were modified for year around living. They all have power / phone / DSL, and they pay the 'treegrowth' tax rates, which run about $1.05 per acre each year.

Most of our land [41 acres] is forest and will remain forest, and we are growing Ginseng in it. I took one acre out of 'treegrowth', to use for veggie farming and our 2400 sq ft home [3 bdrm, 1 bth, and a lap-pool], barn and equipment shed. So now I pay $869 / year. The assessor told me that my taxes are so high because we are riverfrontage. Had I put our home across the road and away from the river, our taxes would be a 2/3s less. Kind of matching the land prices: my land cost $900/acre, across the road land prices run $350/acre.

We are riverfrontage, we do not have a dock yet, though we have began shopping for docks to use.

We are rural, though I don't really think of us as being 'really rural'. So much of Maine does not have paved roads, or power/phone/DSL. And a lot of Maine is further than 20 miles from a big city.

[maineboy51]

As a lifelong Mainer, I am very happy to see how Forest Beekeeper has figured out some excellent strategies for living happily and affordably in Maine. There are a lot of things he has done right. I assume that he has a retirement income stream.

He illustrates how retirement in Maine can be very affordable. Here are the things he has done right:

1) He was very careful where he bought his property. Go north of Portland and prices drop. Go north of Augusta and prices drop again. Go north of Bangor and prices drop like a rock.

2) He was careful about the property taxes. They are all over the map in Maine. The old milltown cities, which tend to have a more liberal political leaning, can be outrageously high. Mil rates can exceed 30 mils. This means that a home in one of these cities that is worth $200,000 can mean a $6000 annual property tax bill. Yet in other locations, such as that which Forest Beekeeper found, the taxes can be very reasonable. Look before you leap.

3) He moved to Maine with a good strategy for health insurance by being retired military. Nobody should come to Maine to live without knowing how they will get health coverage. It is unaffordable without either being old enough for Medicare or having some sort of employment-provided plan. Dirigo Health is a state-run attempt at universal health care, and it is failed miserably so far. Now our governor is talking about more reforms, some of which are market-based. Maybe it will help, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

4) Unless you are rich, in general, stay off the coast. The property -and the taxes- will be a lot more. Moreover, the summers on the coast can be a lot foggier and chillier than inland- especially so for locations north of Old Orchard Beach (which is most of the coast!). There is not much warm weather in Maine, but being inland, you'll get a lot more of it. I grew up in Hancock County on the coast. In May and June, many days would be foggy and cold, but you could drive to Bangor and have the sun out and be twenty degrees warmer. The leaves on the trees come out at least one-two weeks sooner in Bangor than in Ellsworth, for example, due to the influence of the very cold ocean in the spring.

[Elcarim]

I've looked and looked online and can't find a list of property tax rates throughout the state. Where can I go to find the rates for Belfast area? Thx!

[maineboy51]

http://www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax/Municipal%20Services%20Files/Full%20Value%20Tax%20Rates.htm (broken link)

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by maineboy51

As a lifelong Mainer, I am very happy to see how Forest Beekeeper has figured out some excellent strategies for living happily and affordably in Maine. There are a lot of things he has done right. ...

Thank you sir.

We decided to move to Maine, while living in Italy. Knowing that I would soon be retired and trying to decide where best to live on my pension.

Cheap land prices, low taxes, green forests, fish-filled rivers, never ever any droughts; all went into our decision to move to Maine when we returned stateside.

Bless you.

[Johnda]

Originally Posted by SMSailorNeptune

I'm a little concerned about one of the above replies... the one regarding teen pregnancy, drugs, violence, etc. I am 18 years old and not from an extremely wealthy family. I've grown up my whole life in Gorham, and not once have I, nor have any of my friends, done drugs, drank, or gotten ourselves into any trouble with the law. I think that there is plenty to do, my friends and I go to the movies, bowling, camping, hiking, biking, out to eat, the mall, arcades, and all the other things normal teens do. My school has a population of about 800 students, and of that 800 this year about 3 were pregnant. I think the drug + pregnancy problem (found mainly in the bad parts of portland/westbrook) are more of a parenting issue than a lack of things to do issue. I wouldn't let these factors discourage any decision to live here.

I want to thank you for your excellent comments. It is important for people to get the full picture on what's happening with the young people in their area and you gave a very intelligent, mature and balanced opinion.

Thanks for taking the time to write!

John