Yarmouth or Falmouth (Portland, Lewiston, Auburn: hair salon, real estate, oceanfront)

[jacjolantern]

HI guys-

I was wondering of you could help me out...we are deciding on where to moce and our choices are down to 2 towns -Yarmouth and Falmouth.

Does anyoen live in these towns and can you give us an idea of what they are like and which ont (and why) you think is better-safer-nicer-prettier ect..

We live across the country and cannot get there to check it out before we move- so we need hlep- We have moved sight unseen before (being military) and have never had any problems. I hear that both of those towns are very nice and we just have to know the pros and cons before we settle on one place.

If you guys can help out- we would really appreciate it.

Thanks !!!

[moughie]

It always seems to boil down to a choice between these two, or sometimes the mix includes Cumberland or Cape Elizabeth.

How about be wild and crazy and try something different? Escape the spiffy new volvos and overfed golden retrievers and consider Pownal, Durham, Gray, Harrison, Gorham, S Freeport, Lewiston/Auburn?

[woolwiTch]

Both are nice towns. Both have fairly high concentrations of more well-off people, but still have a decent mix of income groups. Not a ton of difference between the two. Falmouth doesn't really have a downtown and Yarmouth does.

[Maineah]

I grew up in Yarmouth, went to high school with the now Chief of Police, and knew virtually everyone in town. That was 30 plus years ago and Yarmouth has gone through some big changes since then. They have managed to stave off the big box stores (which are in Falmouth by the way) and kept Main Street more of a small shop/boutique area. You won't find a hardware store or grocery market on Main St. though you will find a non-chain convenience store or two, a gas station, a good Chinese Restaurant, library, a couple of banks and a private Academy (prep school) North Yarmouth Academy. There are three marinas and a town landing where residents can launch small boats if you're into boats. The schools are fresh and newly rebuilt plus they are top rated nationally for their excellence. There are a couple of nice restaurants in town, an Amvets post for the Vets, multiple baseball fields for league softball and baseball, a walking path which runs along the river and another which follows Route One. Route one is the business area now as opposed to Main Street.There is a Hannaford shopping plaza on route one which is Maine's largest and best stocked grocery chain,a video store, hair salons, Mac Donalds (though no drive through there) a couple of drug stores,and a laundramat. The town is host to the Yarmouth Clam Festival every July. The festival lasts technically three days though the activity is a week long. The Festival has become a bit of a controversy as of late for political reasons. Many of the locals plan their vacations and simply leave town for a few days as Yarmouth becomes an absolute zoo with many tens of thousands coming into town. It's only three days of inconvenience though and if you have never been it is a fun, if tourist oriented, event.
Yarmouth is very much a "transplant" community. A majority of the people living there now are originally from out of state. The influx has upgraded the towns architecture,( unfortunately raising all Real estate prices in the area) and helped to preserve some of the older sea captain homes on Main Street though the home town friendliness of the Yarmouth is long gone. Some would say that it is a good thing while others liked it the way it was. I'd choose Yarmouth over Falmouth though as moughie stated there are other choices around where we locals would probably live before choosing either Yarmouth or Falmouth. That's just my take.

[WhoFanMe]

It might come down to available supply. There are 55 Single Family homes in Yarmouth listed as "Current" in MLS while Falmouth has 153.

[MRVphotog]

When I lived in Cumberland I could either go to Falmouth or Yarmouth for errands. In my view the two towns are very diferent. I could definately live in Yarmouth, mostly quiet neighborhoods with alot of nice old well maintained housing stock. A pleasant experience. There is some sprawl up on Rt 1, love Mid-Coast Hardware.

Falmouth is a sprawling spreadout collection of shopping centers along Rt 1 and Washington Ave. Falmouth does have a few nice neighborhoods and the Falmouth skating pond is nice. The post office is in the Shaw's supermarket.

Both have excellent schools.

[recovering yank]

I lived in Falmouth.

"Falmouth People" as the previous poster mentioned, live in cookie cutter houses, have golden retrievers, and drive shiny new SUV's. You definitely "buy your friends" in the sense that people group together with their neighbors, which can be a good thing, or in some cases a very BAD thing.

The schools in Falmouth were great, I went to them, was challenged, and it gave me enough boost to get into a very good school. When I lived there, we always beat Yarmouth at soccer, and I'm pretty sure it stayed that way
Falmouth is also building a new Elementary School, and built a new High School in 2002.

The big advantages that I can see is an oceanfront, (in the sense that the Foreside is right there, not around on cousins island) the closeness to Portland is fantastic, and there are plenty of things "to do" here, in the sense that we have three country clubs, the yacht club, and some parks. I also liked the West Falmouth and Route 1 areas being different, but offering you a variety without having to drive miles away. The town of Falmouth is looking unfavorably on the Big Box Stores, which has resulted in rumors that Wal-Mart is moving up US-1 to Cumberland. Besides that, there are grocery stores, small stores, a movie theater, and a vacant supermarket.

To be completely honest, I think that I may have gone to Yarmouth 20 times in my life, 10 of which were for soccer. They're both great communities, and I hope you find a good place in either one.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions, I still have a place there and am there frequently.

[DreamworksSKG]

I'd say Yarmouth. Falmouth doesn't have much of a downtown and has a lot more traffic route 1.. and such - and more big box retailer chains, outlet stores.

Yarmouth is more of a town feel

I might also suggest

Lewiston-Auburn area

or Gray