Portsmouth or S. Maine (for sale, real estate, apartments)

[reisner]

My wife and I love and regularly vacation in New England. Finally we're ready to leave Port Townsend, WA (too small, 8000; too remote, 2 1/2 hrs from Seattle) and move to the Portsmouth area or southern Maine. Understanding that real estate is dropping, we are in no rush. Does anyone have a rental available for a month in the late fall or winter? Any opinions on how the two states stack up against each other? And what's available in the way of convenient daily walks of up to six miles? Thanks.

PTcouple

[399083453]

Southern Maine: Lower housing prices, low property tax but income tax. If your working in Maine, no big deal. Walking 6 miles, no problem. I see zero cars while walking as long as I avoid the hours around 8am or 5pm

Portsmouth: Very, very expensive. Six mile walks no problem depending on where in town you pick. Working in Maine? You might as well move to maine if your going to pay income tax. Some roads like Rt1 you dont want to walk on.

Rentals are hard to come by in Portsmouth, they go quick. Gotta lock one in before moving. Check the local papers online. fosters.com / seacoastonline.com

Good luck.

[Valerie C]

Also check craigslist: new hampshire classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events and also consider hooking up with a real estate agent that handles rentals (many do not, but they are in our MLS, so NH agents have access to many. Not sure about Maine, not licensed there). Rentals do go fast... move quick on them.

[heathcat]

Rentals, and houses to buy, are cheaper in Southern Maine than in Portsmouth (although Eliot, York, Cape Neddick and the Kennebunk/port can be very pricey to buy). Portsmouth rentals are pretty outrageous if you ask me.

do check craigslist as previously mentioned. It's harder to find a rental in So. Maine, but I think it's worth it. It's true you will need to pay income tax if you live in Maine as opposed to NH, but I think it's worth it in the long run when comparing property taxes.

Look for Kittery and South Berwick as slightly more affordable, and even Berwick and North Berwick if you're willing to drive a little further from Portsmouth!

[reisner]

Thanks for the three replies. I did notice house prices seem cheaper in S. Maine by about enough to compensate for the income tax. (I'm retired, but may be working on top of my pension.) Any further advice from anyone would be most welcome. We moved once upon my retirement; it was the right thing to do--getting out of horrid San Diego--and Port Townsend, WA has been a great place to land, a lovely artsy community with everything from bald eagles to cougars in our neighborhood, but: it is remote from good medical care, an allergy-sufferers hell, much darker and grayer in the winter than most of New England, and frigid for much of the summer. Swiimming indoors or out, forget about it. We'd like our next move to be our last.