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I am new to the forum and am looking for some help for my family's relocation to the Portland area this spring/summer. After lots of research and many visits we have finally decided on Cape Elizabeth. I am wondering if anyone can comment on the differences in the neighborhoods of Cape Elizabeth and the "feel" of each neighborhood? Pros and cons? We are starting to look at real estate and are wondering which neighborhood might be the best fit for us with our 2 young children and our dog.
Any info or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much
Dogs and kids fit in any place here. lots of different neighborhoods and price ranges from the low 200s to millions. But I love it here and I know you will too. If you narrow something down and want an opinion feel fee to Direct Message me. Here's a shot on what you asked for.
- Oakhurst and surrounding area is a nice neighborhood close to ft William with an off leashdog
park. Con Lots of leaf pickup in the fall.
- Old Ocean house road area has fair amount of kids, but walkability is not as good as maybe some others how ever its closer to beach and the schools.
- There are a couple nice neighborhoods off spurwink, very convenient location.
- The neighborhood by the school off the south side of scott dwyer sorry can't remember any street names at the moment. Less expensive, but houses are very close togeather.....instead look at the neighborhood on the north side of scot dwyer.
But there are lots of great little streets all over Cape.
Spend Alot of time poking around on Google earth and zillow.
thank you so much atrixwolfe! that info is really helpful. we will be visiting in a few weeks again and will definitely check out those neighborhoods!
i am always wondering if there are any considerations we are missing in planning a move. we have lived several places and there always seem to be things that you don't anticipate regardless of how much research you have done or how many times you visit. are there any traffic considerations for the summer season? we were there this past summer and there didn't seem to be traffic around the beaches but just checking. if you live in the fort williams/delano park area does it get aggravating with the number of tourists? i am wondering which beaches people go to if you don't live on the coast and have access to a private beach? how does that work as a resident vs. a tourist? how about pests? do people have big problems with pests in the area, like the black flies, stink bugs, beetles, etc...? any i'm not thinking of? also, are there high tension power lines running through cape elizabeth at all? it seems from looking online that power lines are above ground for the most part. i have read a lot about ice walls. is this a big problem along the coast or mostly for inland maine?
sorry for the abundance of questions, i am trying to think of as many things as possible any advice is welcomed!
Well that's life, there's always something isn't there.
As you know traffic is all realative. In my opinion traffic has never bothered me here and if you were here in the summer then you saw how it was 1st hand. Tourests can be annoying occasionally (according to my daughter who worked in a tourist shop on commercial st in portland this summer) , but more of them are the nicest people. I often walk my dog at Ft William and she knows that if we go up near the lighthouse she'll find some tourist who will fuss over her and she usually does. I've talked to many people this way...and again I've never felt it was Too crowded there.
One weekend in august you will be inconvenienced by the beach to becon run, which closes off some streets.....but this is one weekend.
No pests I can think of, no high power lines. I'm not sure what Ice walls are, unless your referring to ice dams that happen on your roof and yea that can be a pain, but you get a roof rake and get outside in the fresh air and then come in and have hot cocoa and warm up....not something that doesn't make it not worth living here.
The only thing that caught me by suprise (not really by suprise, I had been warned) was the cost of heating oil. But again its inconvience is not worth not living here (ugh 2 nots, but I couldnt' think how else to word it). The thing is with the heating oil is you can fix it, you can spend the money or factor into your house budget or offer for replacing it with a more efficient system.
Oh....OK... there is no garbage pick up, you have to go to the town transfer station, this is common in many places in maine. However IMO, I actually like going to the transfer station, the recycleing program is great you don't even have to seperate. and yea you do have to pay $10 to thow away a matress and Yard brush disposal can be a pain, but you could always compost....well not the mattress. The swap shop is kind of fun to poke though some times. Again for me these few things are Small and I still love living here.
There is no garbage pick up in CE? Wow. I'm surprised. Here in Falmouth there is. I think we did not have it when we lived in Northport, but that is a tiny little "town" between Camden and Belfast.
There is no garbage pick up in CE? Wow. I'm surprised. Here in Falmouth there is. I think we did not have it when we lived in Northport, but that is a tiny little "town" between Camden and Belfast.
Nope there isn't. But I have to say living many years in a different city with the big green cans, and a recycling system that was so picky it detered participation. I like the transfer station model, It really does make me think about what I throw away. We also don't have to separate the recycling so every week i take 1 not even full bag of garbage and 2 to 3 paper trader joe's bags of recycling, and I'm slowly weeding out all my junk to the swap shop. ;-) there are people around you can contract to if you want pick up and then your helping to employ a person rather than giving more money to the city for trash pickup.
There is no garbage pick up in CE? Wow. I'm surprised. Here in Falmouth there is. I think we did not have it when we lived in Northport, but that is a tiny little "town" between Camden and Belfast.
thank you so much. i really appreciate all of this information!
the garbage pick up is a surprise as i have lived in several places and have never come across it, but i'm fine with it. where i am now our recycling is very picky and i just love the idea of the swap shop!
Hi! To answer your question - yes there are several distinct neighborhoods in Cape, all with a slightly different feel. We've been here for about 4 years now and I am still learning the nuances. Here's what I know:
Oakhurst - kind of middle of the road and some high cost housing. Homes are fairly close with a nice "tree lined street" feeling. Oakhurst is off of Shore Road, so its pretty easy to get into Portland. Residents can join a beach association for a little beach about .3 miles from most of Oakhurst.
Two Lights/South of the Town Center - from our perspective there is a different feel to the 'hoods down there. You are more in a "beach" town and the homes have more property. There are several densely populated areas down there for the neighborhood feel but I am still learning the nuances. I don't live down there so I can't comment that much! People I know who live there say they love being close to Crescent Beach and many of the 'hoods have little beaches associated with them. Drawback: its a good 15-20 mins just to get to some parts of Portland.
Delano Park - lovely large homes, fairly expensive. I've heard many of the homes are owned as vacation homes so often it is kind of quite and has an isolated feel.
Birch Knolls, Surf Road area - these are the 'hoods on the ocean side of Shore Road north of Fort Williams. These both have access to Casino Beach and many of even the modest homes have ocean views. Not many homes in there so it could feel isolated - but I've heard that the access to Casino beach can really add to the community feel.
Mountain View Park, Sea View Road, Warren Ave, Charles - this is the densely populated area just over the South Portland Cape E border (roads running off of Shore Road). this is one of the only places in cape where you can easily walk to a coffee shop or bakery. 10 minutes to Portland. Mountain View park has lovely historic homes and tons of kids. This area is also walking distance to Willard Square which has a bakery and ice cream shop. Draw back of this area is the school bus takes longer, and it takes about 7 minutes to get to the town center.
Brentwood area - the roads north of Scott Dyer Road - walking distance to schools, some very affordable homes - South of Scott Dyer also very affordable.
Cross Hill - new development of high end homes. Not walking distance to much, but lovely homes and fairly convenient to the town center and Portland.
Stonegate - development off of Mitchell Road built in the 80's, some very nice homes. Mix of young and old families.
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