Buying a lakehouse in Maine? (Portland, Bangor: real estate, loans, houses)

[Drayb3]

Hi everyone. As much as I'd love to move to Maine, that isn't happening anytime soon. However, my parents have stated their intention to buy a lakehouse in Maine. I've decided to ask all of you on the Maine forum for advice.

First off, they're not looking to spend a ton of money or to have some over-sized extravagant house. They just want a quiet place they can go and relax. A place where they can escape the insanity of Northern NJ/NYC, and potentially even retire to. 3-4 bedrooms (don't have to be big), a swimmable lake, a fireplace, and a big screened in porch to keep out a lot of the bugs are a must. We have vacationed on Pushaw lake before, but I'm not sure they'd want to be that far. Are there any lakes in Western Maine that you would recommend?

Thanks for the advice!

[mainebrokerman]

The good news. is there are many many areas of maine that have lakeside homes- you first have to agree "where" in maine they'd like to live-southern maine has most of maine's population, but northern maine and downeast maine offers solitude, a slower pace, and awesome scenery

Again Maine has lakeside homes all over the state, but Maine is a large state and it does depend whats important to them, where do they want to be close to- whether it's hospitals, opera houses, shopping centers, or be out in the wilderness etc,

[jzinckgra]

lakefront homes will have considerably higher taxes then a comparable home in the same town not on the water. sounds obvious but i am always amazed at taxes on the water. my parents get screwed with their taxes.

[Submariner]

Your best method really is to come up. Visit each region of Maine, and see what each is like first.

[Maineah]

MBM makes some good points though there are some lakes and ponds in Southern Maine that offer solitude eight months of the year while not being totally isolated or too far from civilization.

[Zarathu]

There are plenty of houses on MDI that while not lake-front are withing walking distance of one of the lakes that are part of the national park. Expect to pay between $200K to $350K. This is pretty high for interior maine but not for the southern coast or for average houses in South central PA which are not on any lakes within 25 miles.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

There are plenty of houses on MDI that while not lake-front are withing walking distance of one of the lakes that are part of the national park. Expect to pay between $200K to $350K. This is pretty high for interior maine but not for the southern coast or for average houses in South central PA which are not on any lakes within 25 miles.

To the OP.... I'm very sorry but no one but a tourist should (or would) live on Mount Desert Island.

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by Maineah

To the OP.... I'm very sorry but no one but a tourist should (or would) live on Mount Desert Island.

Maineah apparently doesn't know very much about MDI, and so such statements are callous and mean to those of us who own land on MDI and either live there now or will do so soon. I was teasing when I said that he hadn't been to MDI in 40 years because he made a similar comment to Northern Maine Land Man about the south. But apparently its was actually true.

MDI has a large summer population exceeding almost 40,000 at some times. However, there are many other people about 11,000 total, who live and work on MDI all through the year. Some of the typical large employers include lobster fishermen, researchers and support personnel at Jackson Laboratories and Maine Biological labs, and teachers and employees at the College of the Atlantic. There is also a large retired population who are not tourists, and whose pensions and investments and SS bring needed revenue to the island. The national Park Service employs many people year round. And then there is a fully active set of elementary schools on-iland and in the outer islands(Swan and Cranberries), as well as a middle school and the MDI high school. There are many teachers and support personnel who live on island.

At this point there are actually 105 non profit businesses that operate on MDI. And then there are numerous real estate firms run by native Mainers.

There are a number of restaurants, food stores, and other retail facilities that stay open year 'round in Bar harbor, Tremont, Soutwest and Northeast Harbors, and Mt Desert.

Bar Harbor has a very active YMCA that many island residents belong to. The winter crowd is a tight knit community and not withstanding the sometimes visited xenophobia exhibited on this forum(as in the quoted post), I have never seen any of that on-island. Everyone that I have spoken to, without exception, has been excited when I told them that I was living there year round come next year.

The list of non-tourist involvement goes on and on and on---covering every aspect of normal living, from retail to theaters to health care(one of the best hospitals Downeast), to banks to savings & loans. There are even active chapters of the Rotary and the 100F clubs.

So not only is Maineah just a little wrong, but actually more than 11,000 people by the last census would choose to heartily disagree with him/her. I suspect these people would be badly offended to discover that only tourists should or want to live on MDI, since they make this their home year round and are not tourists. I, myself, have gladly supported Bar Harbor in my taxes to the tune of about $7000 over the past three years.

However, Bar harbor is a bit of a trek for people coming from Northern NJ. I will be traveling there in two weeks to put flooring in my house, and it will take me 7 hours to get to Tewsbury MA, arriving at about 11:30 PM, and then another 4.5 hours after that to get into MDI. Since it takes me about 3 hours to get to NYC, this would be about a 12-13 hour drive into DownEast as opposed to maybe 9 to get into southern Maine. But then i tend to drive the speed limits; not everyone does.

Zarathu

[Drayb3]

Thanks everyone. We've vacationed all over the state, we typically go to Maine for a week or two every other year. I have to ask them specifically where they want but I'm thinking either just northwest of Portland, somewhere near Camden, or somewhere near Bangor.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Drayb3

Thanks everyone. We've vacationed all over the state, we typically go to Maine for a week or two every other year. I have to ask them specifically where they want but I'm thinking either just northwest of Portland, somewhere near Camden, or somewhere near Bangor.

Yep, that pretty much narrows it down.