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But I'll be darned if I pay the same price or even more than what people pay for a comparable house in a more developed area.
I will never do that. That's plain crazy.
No one is making you. Simple solution; Quit looking in Washington County. Plus your assumptions on quality of the build based on year built is backwards. Without looking, you have no way of knowing what condition the plumbing, wiring, or other parts of either house are in better shape. I have seen 200 year old homes with PEX plumbing, high speed WAP's for internet, and completely modern wiring. I've seen 5 year old homes I wouldn't let my dog live in.
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Rural area propety should by all rights be cheaper than comparable homes in more developed areas.
Why? This is your opinion, not a hard and fast rule.
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During those ten-years I've been watching RE ads, I've seen some of those overpriced homes in rural areas get sold, only to soon come on the market again. Sometimes I wonder how often they've changed hands in the past.
And I've seen others languish for years and years and still not be sold for the crazy asking price.
My suspicion is that whoever is selling them, has the time to wait however long for the right sucker to come along.
Kind of like buying a lottery ticket.
You can say the exact same thing for some urban/suburban areas as well. Nobody makes someone buy a house, or set a specific asking price if they want to sell a house. Overpriced is overpriced
You may have been looking at real estate ads for 10 years in Maine, but you need to be looking in person to see a difference. The two properties you listed in your OP are 2 vastly different offerings, thus the difference in price. One has 200' of waterfront on what looks to be almost unusable water for an anchorage, while the other is 1400' of water frontage on a decent looking anchorage. Small lot compared to almost 35 acres. You are trying to compare apples to oranges and justify the comparison due to preconceived ideas of each area that are mostly wrong.
Forgive my input if it offends you, but you don't seem to be the type of person most Mainers want to move to their beautiful state. So, the price of the house is too expensive? Then don't buy it! If you are determined to move to Maine, then buy some land and build a house like you want. But, as I said earlier, I don't think you will be accepted by most folks with your attitude.
The Bangor Daily News tends not to look in their own back yard - just sayin' - there is a reason that there is not one, not two, but three Methadone clinics located in Bangor. Off topic, I know, so I'll drop it.
At any rate, I can understand why you're surprised at the prices here. The DH and I had kind of the opposite experience in upstate NY last week. We were shocked at how low the prices were on waterfront property for sale near Watertown.
I grew up an hour from Watertown. Low home prices are the only good thing about the area. The economy is and has been seriously depressed for years. Not a bad place to be as long as you don't have to live there year round.
"While the problem of drug abuse is severe in the entire state — law enforcement calls it the No. 1 reason behind crime — Washington County appears to be among the hardest hit."
Link to complete article: Drugs weigh heavily on Maine's poorest area, Washington County - Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Downeast/Drugs-weigh-heavily-on-Maines-poorest-area-Washington-County,151818 - broken link)
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Awesome. I thought I would have a hard time getting weed in Eastport compared to where I live now, 5 miles from the Fla to Detroit I-75 where drugs flow like water.
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
3,036 posts, read 5,887,316 times
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Originally Posted by OutDoorNut
Actually, wrongly put.
I prefer a rural environment.
But I'll be darned if I pay the same price or even more than what people pay for a comparable house in a more developed area.
I will never do that. That's plain crazy.
Rural area propety should by all rights be cheaper than comparable homes in more developed areas.
During those ten-years I've been watching RE ads, I've seen some of those overpriced homes in rural areas get sold, only to soon come on the market again. Sometimes I wonder how often they've changed hands in the past.
And I've seen others languish for years and years and still not be sold for the crazy asking price.
My suspicion is that whoever is selling them, has the time to wait however long for the right sucker to come along.
Kind of like buying a lottery ticket.
It is what the market will bear not just what price is asked or what price you would like to see. And the market will bear high prices for waterfront. Although, here the market is drawing away from water and more to urban/rural with a view.
And not to put too fine a point on it but you sound like the type to buy then put it back up for sale and head out saying how terrible everything was. Just my opinion fromreading your posts. They seem to be derogatory for the most part.
"While the problem of drug abuse is severe in the entire state — law enforcement calls it the No. 1 reason behind crime — Washington County appears to be among the hardest hit."
Link to complete article: Drugs weigh heavily on Maine's poorest area, Washington County - Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Downeast/Drugs-weigh-heavily-on-Maines-poorest-area-Washington-County,151818 - broken link)
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Drug abuse is everywhere..........some buy from a dealer, others get a nice slip of paper from their doctor. It's all drug abuse, it's just that some feel that their drugs are more socially acceptable.
I've never been to Washington County but I doubt drug abuse is any worse, but the people who do choose to use drugs there may not have the health insurance to pay for them..........
Drug abuse is everywhere..........some buy from a dealer, others get a nice slip of paper from their doctor. It's all drug abuse, it's just that some feel that their drugs are more socially acceptable.
I've never been to Washington County but I doubt drug abuse is any worse, but the people who do choose to use drugs there may not have the health insurance to pay for them..........
Yep, people who can will shop for a Doc to get what they want, all legal-like. And why not? Just look at all of the ads on the TV- "Not happy? We have a pill for that, we'll even give you your first month free."
But what bothers me more is the methadone clinics. I know a guy who has been taking his son to one every day...for three years. What's the difference? He's still getting high, but I and the other taxpayers are paying for it now.
Anyway, back to the topic...my family used to own most of the land around Holmes Bay. I went back to see about buying a bit for myself, but in the time that I'd been away most of the older folks had died off, leaving the land to their children and/or grandchildren...who parceled it out and sold it off. Out past the Cutler Navy Base small-acreage lots went for $1 million plus, well, that's what they were listed for anyway. I don't know if anyone actually paid that much.
... Rural area prope[r]ty should by all rights be cheaper than comparable homes in more developed areas.
I agree.
It 'should', and it often does.
Let us say for a moment that WC is an-anomaly; a wild point in the data set.
Rural land does usually sell for lower prices.
But there are exceptions to this.
Ocean frontage is an exception. As are river frontage and lake frontage [though to a lesser degree].
Freeway access makes an exception; and to a lesser degree any paved road access.
Lastly known and 'famous' vacation sites, ie Moosehead Lake region.
You can be in the most remote area with very lower population densities [say averaging 1 person per square mile]. As you approach water frontage the population goes up and the prices go up [It will be much more severe with ocean property].
As you approach paved roads or worse I-95, the population is going to increase and prices along with it.
Like at times when we see discussions about the volvo line. it is not as simple as saying that home prices soar as you approach Portland / NH. They do, but there are more subtleties involved. You must also consider the I-95 corridor, and the coast. To approach either will also cause prices to soar.
I am saying home prices, but really it is every thing from population density, taxes, cost-of-living, and the abundance of municipal 'services' that locals want.
If I may point out a possible error in your thinking [and please do not take insult in this] your focusing on WC. Change your focus to Unorganized Townships.
The idea that rural is cheap, does hold true more so when you look at population density and not counties lines drawn on a map.
Statistics about a county blends together the urban parts of the county with the rural parts. Whereas what you say that your are trying to do is to look at rural.
Well the UTs are rural.
So if you change your focus from one county or another county to focusing on UTs, I think you will see that the rule-of-thumb 'rural is cheaper' once again applies.
Good hunting
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