Westbrook Maine (Portland, South Portland, Gorham: apartments, rentals, crime)

[jena]

Hello... Can anyone give me some insite about the Westbrook and surrounding area. I had previously asked about Central Maine but the job that my husand was researching didn't pan out. However, he was just in Maine last week and was offered a position in Westbrook. Our plan is to have him move out there to work and my son, brother and I will follow once our house sells here in Michigan. We have gone on line trying to get an idea as to the prices of apartments but can't really make a determination until we find out a little more about the area. We are looking to do this temporary move for him as cheaply as possible. Can anyone recommend apartments in this area that is decent. He is willing to drive at least 20-25 mins. to Westbrook.

I truely appricate your input.

Sincerely
Jena

[tkx7]

Westbrook has an average/below average school system if that is a factor. Westbrook is cheaper than Portland and probably one of the cheapest areas around Portland to live. You could try Windham, South Portland and Portland as well for a short commute, if there are nice housing oppurtunities there. Otherwise, I would just stick to Westbrook for the cheapest housing.

[jena]

tkx7 - Thank you for your response. We are only looking at Westbrook for my husband to stay and while he is out there we plan on hiring a realtor to help us find a home there. We are thinking we would look at the Yarmouth area. Schools are definetly a factor. We want our son to go to a good school. We want to be in a rural part of that area of the state. We are definetly trying to get away from the big city area so he will need to commute some I'm sure. Is the Westbrook area a safe area?

Thxs
Jena

[italylover]

You can get a nice apt with two bedrooms in an okay part of town, or you can get an entire house for $1000 if orange shag carpets are fine with you.

Westbrook has some areas that are not hot, sort of next to burned down buildings, Yarmouth is much nicer but it's not rural. Yarmouth is more like country/suburban living. I do not know Michigan but Maine is very quiet in the winter so you need to make your own fun and make friends easily. Maine is not an outgoing place so be prepared.

Try looking for rentals on craigslist.com there are more rentals now in Maine under Portsmouth N.H. and sometimes Boston.
or try the Portland Free Press. It's best to rent for a year before buying a home.

Italylover

[tkx7]

I really wouldnt worry about crime in westbrook, although it probably has more problems than other towns. It has a lot of working class residents. There is a paper mill in town with some other stores and buildings. A few highlights are some good golf courses, close to the maine mall, outdoor hockey rink, a main street with shopping, new library in town, a sports bar and pool hall. It is more urban than other surrounding areas of Portland.

[chris]

don't forget, stinkbrook's mill smells *really* bad. You basically have to be at least 10-15 miles away to dodge the daily odor (although a good wind can carry it 20-30 miles away). The smell will stick to you and others will smell it if you have been around it all day.

I lived less than a mile from the mill when I was a child for about 3 years, and became asthmatic before we moved away. I found out about 10 years ago that the mill's polution levels were nearly 100 times worse than EPA minimum standards for pollution, but that the state couldn't/wouldn't do much because it's the main employer in the area.

[tkx7]

Originally Posted by chris

don't forget, stinkbrook's mill smells *really* bad. You basically have to be at least 10-15 miles away to dodge the daily odor (although a good wind can carry it 20-30 miles away). The smell will stick to you and others will smell it if you have been around it all day.

I'm not sure where you have been recently but it has completely changed. Probably 7 years ago or so they made some drastic changes. It really does not smell anymore.

[jena]

O.K. Can you please tell me in your opinion what is the best area to live and raise a family in the Southern region of Maine? My husband just accepted the job in Westbrook and the hunting begins. We don't want to live in the city or to close to the city. We want to live where it's safe, clean and is out in the country. My dh will be making another trip out there to look for an apartment to move into until our home here sells. We plan on hiring a realtor so that once we are ready to join my dh we can move right into our new home. I do plan on traveling there to look around as well but would like to give my dh a list of locations to go look at so that when I do visit, he can take me around.

I appreciate all of your feedback.

Sincerely,
Jena

[tkx7]

Originally Posted by jena

O.K. Can you please tell me in your opinion what is the best area to live and raise a family in the Southern region of Maine? My husband just accepted the job in Westbrook and the hunting begins.
I appreciate all of your feedback.

Windham, Gorham, Standish, Buxton are all more in the country and fairly close to Westbrook. I would look at those. Gorham is a really nice area but its more of a nice town then than in the country.

[JClark]

Personally, Gorham would be my pick, though land is getting very expensive there. I work in Gorham now, it's perfectly situated between Westbrook, Windham, and South Protland, so you have plenty of options for shopping, movies, etc. The problem with Gorham, aside from the cost of living, is that it has a lot of traffic passing through it at all times, and gets quite clogged up in around 8am and 5pm with commuters passing through. I work here, but there really isn't much business in Gorham itself (it's a tiny little town, with a downtown that takes up barely a mile of rt. 25 and some of 114), so most people work elsewhere. And be aware that Gorham is a college town, having the Gorham campus of USM practically in the town center, though most of the dorms are in Portland, so it basically amounts to even more traffic. Still, if I could afford to I would move here.

Westbrook is ok, though as has been pointed out, it is an old mill town. The famous smell is gone, has been for some time, so that's not really a concern (they actually did a study on the effects of the smell, surprise, everyone hated it). There's a bunch of new construction going on now, Westbrook's commercial area is getting better, but it's still more a place you pass through when going to other places, than a destination in and of itself.

Yarmouth is a very nice town, but it is quite rural. It is connected directly to Portland, South Portland, and other places directly by a highway, so it's a great place to live if you work in Portland, just be aware that there's not much of a real town there. It's also close to Freeport, which offers some nice shopping, except for the summer when tourists clog the place up.

Windham is ok, it has its own growing downtown (just got both a Home Depot and a Lowes, has a Super Walmart, a Hannaford, and a small movie theater, etc.), and it's easy to get from there to South Portland or Portland. I wouldn't want to live there personally, though that's probably because I spent much of my young adult years there and don't care for the character of it any more. Rt. 302 in Windham is becomming too much like a small South Portland or Westbrook for my tastes.

Standish is an OK place to live (I live near there myself), it's a strait shot up Rt. 25 to Gorham, then Westbrook, or up Rt. 35 to Windham, so it's fairly central. It has a nice little shopping plaza with a Hannaford, a Radio Shack, a Chinese food place etc., not much but it does for the basics. The further you get from Portland, the cheaper it is to buy and own property (and rent), which is why I live so far out. The downside of this is that as you move out, things tend to get lower and lower class. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but be aware that towns like Limington and Cornish (next in line after Standish as you go down 25) have large numbers of trailer homes and the like. If that matter to you, Standish might be as far as you'll want to go.

Personally, I would order the places I've mentioned like this: Gorham, Standish, Windham, Westbrook, Yarmouth. This is largely because I like the area between Windham, Standish, and Gorham. You can be in South Portland or Portland within a half hour from that area, but you're far enough out that you don't feel like you're in the city at all, and it's relatively quiet. Also, towns in that area seem to be growing nicely. There's constant construction in Windham, and Gorham and Standish seem to be slowly improving as time goes on.