Where in the Portland, Maine area to buy a home?? (Bangor: real estate, 2009)

[Maine2009]

My wife and I will most likely be moving to the Portland,Maine area sometime next year from Los Angeles. We are currently speaking with realtors and trying to find the best places to live within a 15 mile drive of Portland, Maine. We are looking to spend approximately $750k-$999k+ on a house in Maine.

We have been told Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are the nicest suburbs of Portland for our price range. Does anyone have any suggestions/opinions as to what areas are best to live in??? Thanks.

[skytrekker]

Maine2009

Both Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are very nice New England upscale towns, dripping with charm. You also might consider Scarborough, just south of Port Elizabeth- all have quick easy access into Portland. Cape Elizabeth is a very beautiful aloofly genteel somewhat snobbish enclave.

At the prices you suggest- you will be able to buy a very large luxury home. On 2-4 acres-
with a large gardens, wooded privacy, screened porches, stone patio's, veranda's, curved stairwells, multiple fireplaces, and within walking distance to the beach in many cases.

See realtor.com to see what that price can buy.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by Maine2009

My wife and I will most likely be moving to the Portland,Maine area sometime next year from Los Angeles. We are currently speaking with realtors and trying to find the best places to live within a 15 mile drive of Portland, Maine. We are looking to spend approximately $750k-$999k+ on a house in Maine.

We have been told Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are the nicest suburbs of Portland for our price range. Does anyone have any suggestions/opinions as to what areas are best to live in??? Thanks.

Welcome to the forum Maine 2009. Those are both fine communities, as is Yarmouth, Cumberland, Scarborough and parts of Windham and Freeport and Portland itself, depending upon what type of home you are looking for, i,e. new or sold, water access/view, lot size, square feet, number of bedrooms & baths, garage size, etc. As I look in MLS I see 37 homes in those communites in that price range. There is also 182 land parcels between $100k and $500k to choose from. In addition there is new construction not yet on MLS as builders/developers don't put all of their lots/build packages on at once to give the appearance of scarcity. You certainly will have plenty to choose from!

[moughie]

Originally Posted by Maine2009

My wife and I will most likely be moving to the Portland,Maine area sometime next year from Los Angeles. We are currently speaking with realtors and trying to find the best places to live within a 15 mile drive of Portland, Maine. We are looking to spend approximately $750k-$999k+ on a house in Maine.

We have been told Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are the nicest suburbs of Portland for our price range. Does anyone have any suggestions/opinions as to what areas are best to live in??? Thanks.

Congratulations! You are in an enviable category with incredibly lovely properties from which to choose!!

You may want to check Falmouth Foreside and South Freeport for lovely waterfront property or, as mentioned by whofanme, Cape Elizabeth also. Do you have any children?? Make sure the realtor advises you on school districts. Good luck!

[zoe456]

Our realtor (actually a husband and wife team) who we worked with when we purchased our condo in Yarmouth is very in-tune with the local community around Portland, and they have been featured on Fine Living's "What You Get for the Money". They've also been involved in real estate transactions of folks I work with who live in Cumberland Center and The Woodlands Club (in Falmouth). PM me for the contact info.

[kellysmith]

In that price range I'd look at some of the houses in the West End. There are some fabulous older places that have been modernized. Upper Spring St near Wayflete School is the neighborhood I'd look at. Some beautiful mansion type homes in that price range there...as long as they have been updated...especially with $3 oil now days you would want better insulation than what was used in the days those houses were built. Some are even listed as historic buildings (not good if you plan on a major remodel) but that area oozes with character.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Maine2009

My wife and I will most likely be moving to the Portland,Maine area sometime next year from Los Angeles. We are currently speaking with realtors and trying to find the best places to live within a 15 mile drive of Portland, Maine. We are looking to spend approximately $750k-$999k+ on a house in Maine.

We have been told Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are the nicest suburbs of Portland for our price range. Does anyone have any suggestions/opinions as to what areas are best to live in??? Thanks.

I can understand wanting to leave LA, but why Maine?

I would choose Falmouth over Cape Elizabeth, personally-but both are areas that are appealing to the eye.

The West End in Portland is also pretty swank, but it appears to me to be more 'old money' type of rich then anything.

Even though there are homes/property in this state that sell for over a million-with your budget you can more than afford to live anywhere in the state that you choose.

My suggestion/opinion as to what area is the best all depends on you; if you come here with an LA frame of mind then nowhere will be best-not even Portland. You will quickly feel and be treated like an outsider and will probably end up leaving the state rather soon. If you leave everything that you have learned in LA behind then you will feel welcome here where ever you end up choosing.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by Maine2009

My wife and I will most likely be moving to the Portland,Maine area sometime next year from Los Angeles. We are currently speaking with realtors and trying to find the best places to live within a 15 mile drive of Portland, Maine. We are looking to spend approximately $750k-$999k+ on a house in Maine.

We have been told Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth are the nicest suburbs of Portland for our price range. Does anyone have any suggestions/opinions as to what areas are best to live in??? Thanks.

Yes. The question is, "WHY are you moving to Maine?"

Moving to the greater Portland area is in reality, moving to North Boston. You are moving into the most urban area of the state, and therefore are not living in Maine. Having lived there and elsewhere, if I were making the transition from LA to the east coast, I would probably live in Massachusetts rather than in Maine, and certainly, with nearly a million dollars to spend on a house, I could do it. Portland is a nice, urban area, but it is NOT Boston.

If you are looking for bright city lights, why make the compromise to live in a very small, relatively poor state, when the sophistication of Boston is readily available, with real estate prices that have recently taken a tumble?

Now, if you are interested in living in MAINE, then you might do well to pick an area that is serviced by an airport that can get you to the urban centers of the east coast and the rest of the world quickly. Portland, of course, but Bangor, Augusta, Camden/Rockport and the Mt. Desert Island area are obvious choices because of their all weather commuter airline service.

[genmomto5]

Now I see it differently Acadionlion. If I won the lottery and could live anyway I want in any place I would live right here in Portland in this house. Of course, I would figure out this wacky kitchen thing so it would be more straightforward to cook. And I often say... if we had all the money in the world and could send my oldest to any HS we wanted to we absolutely would not be able to find a more perfect school for him than the public high school he attends here.

Some people like city living, some prefer country living. Some like to have the perks of a city with the ease of getting to beautiful places of all sorts. For the needs of my family Portland is perfect.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by genmomto5

Now I see it differently Acadionlion. If I won the lottery and could live anyway I want in any place I would live right here in Portland in this house. Of course, I would figure out this wacky kitchen thing so it would be more straightforward to cook. And I often say... if we had all the money in the world and could send my oldest to any HS we wanted to we absolutely would not be able to find a more perfect school for him than the public high school he attends here.

Some people like city living, some prefer country living. Some like to have the perks of a city with the ease of getting to beautiful places of all sorts. For the needs of my family Portland is perfect.

Back around the dawn of time, my wife (of the time) and I lived in Waterville. We had a growing insurance business, and lived in a really nice apartment complex in Winslow, right across the river and about five minutes from the office.

Gradually, the business grew, and OUTgrew Waterville, with more and more of our clients more than fifty miles away. We had a substantial clientel along the coast as well as in Aroostook County and the southwestern most corners of Maine, including the greater Portland area.

We were a Yuppie Couple without children, and we decided that we really wanted to live in the greater Portland area. Much of our business was NOT related to the Waterville office, so we moved it and us to Portland. We leased a gorgeous condo and opened a neat office in Falmouth. It changed EVERYTHING in our lives, and we loved it. Of course, my miles got to be more than before....servicing Aroostook from Portland is a LOT different than doing that from Waterville...but it all seemed worth it.

But we went to the symphony and to the theater, and occasionally to Boston, and less often, downeast which is really where I belong. Eventually it just got old. By the time it got old OLD, we had built a beautiful house on lovely land in Cumberland....the house was a custom design by an architect client of mine...and was a joy.

But suddenly, I had a LAWN, and a septic system and a well, and when Cumberland decided to do the 'yuppie' thing and build a huge new library that would have an immediate impact on the tax rate of TEN CENTS, I started to get really itchy. When the library was done and I found that the TEN CENTS added to the mil rate did not include BOOKS, I decided that the time to leave was nigh.

Not long after, we found a buyer for the insurance agency, merged it, and eventually, I headed back downeast with Courtney Marie, my Maine Coon Cat, and minus one wife, who headed somewhere else with the other Coon.

Now, I can go to Portland (or Boston, or New York, whatever) to see the bright city lights whenever I need to. Mostly, I don't NEED to do that at all.

But if I wanted to live in an urban environment so that I could partake of all the adventures and accessories of urban life, I would pick a modern city that would include all of them. Here in the Northeast, the number one choice is still Boston, and if I was to be driven to be near that sort of thing, I would probably live on Cape Ann so that I could take the train into the city.

Portland was a fun experience. It has a certain kind of overgrown adolescent charm, but the REAL city is about 90 miles southwest.