Lewiston Area Move (Portland, South Portland: low income, to rent, car insurance)

[myo1974]

Hello,

My family and I are considering moving to the Lewiston area of Maine within the next year. Right now we live in NJ and are looking to make a major change. We are a family of four.

The company I work for has offices in the Lewiston area (and several other areas of Maine) so I will hopefully be able to transfer up there. However, I am looking for more information about the area.

As I said, we currently live in NJ and everything is over the top expensive here. It's also extremely overcrowded.

If anyone can give me some idea of what things cost around Lewiston (or Maine in general) such as car insurance, groceries, gas, etc. and also what the population is like, what life is like (lol) I would really appreciate it!

Thank you!

[IHeartMaine]

There are nice areas outside of the city.............

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by myo1974

Hello,

My family and I are considering moving to the Lewiston area of Maine within the next year. Right now we live in NJ and are looking to make a major change. We are a family of four.

The company I work for has offices in the Lewiston area (and several other areas of Maine) so I will hopefully be able to transfer up there. However, I am looking for more information about the area.

As I said, we currently live in NJ and everything is over the top expensive here. It's also extremely overcrowded.

If anyone can give me some idea of what things cost around Lewiston (or Maine in general) such as car insurance, groceries, gas, etc. and also what the population is like, what life is like (lol) I would really appreciate it!

Thank you!

I have lived there, own property there and know quite about it. Lewiston is your typical north east mill town.. Once a thriving city way back when but the Mills have since died out and the city struggles economically.

The City is about 38 square miles with a population of around 36k plus.. That makes it the 2nd largest city next to Portland. It is a service center and has two major hospitals along with bates college.

The downtown is where you will find most of the poverty and low income dwellings. Something that is missed however is the very large population that occupy the outskirts. There is a strong middle class representation. My wife is from there and her family still live and work there.. there is a lot of pride for the community (some of it the way it was sort of stuff but still pride) and especially the schools as both her brother and mother are teachers.

Some of the positives are if you make friends easily Lewiston is not a bad place to live and call home. I have some friends that moved from out of state and like living there and my wife has many many friends who all went to college and went back there to raise their families..

I try and be positive because you will hear much propaganda from those who have but a few times driven their car through there let alone live their. Lewiston gets a bad rap because of the downtown area and people over look the larger area on the outskirts.. People also fail to see that if you understand the crime there its no different then many other of the poor communities and cities in Maine. Maine is a poor state and I can assure you poverty is not isolated to Lewiston, many smaller communities around Maine have all the social problems Lewiston has with out the benefit of a larger more productive community around it..

The Problems I see with Lewiston is this. I moved their in 95 and shortly after the city went through major revitalization efforts, I once had all the numbers but the total investments into the city were in the hundreds of millions. In 2000 the city started going through major demographic changes. Thousands of Somali immigrants/citizens alike discovered Lewiston as a place to raise their families. There is some debate about this but Maine has some of the most generous welfare in the country and there are many that saw them coming here as just for the handouts. Anyways if your in and around Lewiston there is not much of a friction factor.. for the most part everyone gets along.. but my point is when the recession came it hit the city terribly hard.. the city had no industry to fall back on but now a very expensive social service problem that needed to be addressed mostly with tax payer money, in the schools and elsewhere. Home prices have crashed, taxes are extraordinarily high the downtown looks worse then it ever did. And I have seen many people frustrated to the point that they actively want to move. For me it seemed like the city was just about ready to crawl out of ditch when someone came by and kicked it in the teeth.

It really depends on what it is your looking for. I live in South Portland and love it.. I own but if I were to rent I would expect to pay nearly twice as much for an apt then if it was in Lewiston... which is 35-45 min away door to door!

feel free to DM me with any questions you have.. good luck!

[myo1974]

Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate you taking the time to write this reply. I will be sending you a DM with some more questions. Thanks again!

[mainebrokerman]

auburn has some very nice neighborhoods right off the auburn turnpike exit...

green, minot, poland, leeds, turner, sabattus, all nice towns around lewiston

[myo1974]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

auburn has some very nice neighborhoods right off the auburn turnpike exit...

green, minot, poland, leeds, turner, sabattus, all nice towns around lewiston

Thank you!