Portland ME vs. Portsmouth NH (rental car, sales, rental)

[ctr88]

Can anyone who has lived in both towns or has a opinion on which they like better and why chime in? Thanks.

[sjwaste]

You might want to post this in the NH forum too, since it tends to be more active, and will give you a different set of opinions. I have a similar thread there since I am moving to somewhere between Dover/Portsmouth and Portland for work (long story short, I will work in Dover, wife in Portland, so we'll try and split the difference).

My comparison in a nutshell -

Portsmouth: Smaller, about 20k people. Quiet, probably more affluent. Public schools tend to be a little better. Good restaurants, good nightlife, but less of both than Portland. Nice views of the river, other than the giant mound near the Sheraton. Portsmouth is very walkable. Housing will probably run you almost twice what it would in Portland, especially if you wanted to live in-town. Property taxes are a bit higher too, but no income or sales taxes.

Portland: A fairly big city feel for 60k people (about 250k in the metro area). Best restaurants on the east coast outside of NYC (YMMV, but I'm sticking to that, and I've traveled). Fairly walkable, downtown isn't too large, and it's conceivable to walk from the east end to the west end if you wanted to. Not as pretty as Portsmouth, but that's not a slight - it's a really nice looking city, while Portsmouth is more of a town. Housing is more affordable.

If I could choose, I'd take Portsmouth. I like that it's smaller while still having a downtown with things to see and do. I like that it's an hour closer to Boston and has two airports within an hour drive (BOS and MHT), since our families are not nearby.

[bwap_bonk]

just a chime in, you are going to pay a lot less taxes in NH

[mainegrl2011]

I am pretty sure that if you live in Maine and work in NH, you'll be expected to file a Maine income tax return. I know someone who lives in Maine and works in NH..... no sales tax when buying in NH unless you admit when you file Maine income tax how much you buy in NH while having a Maine residence....btw, Portland has its own airport.

[sjwaste]

Originally Posted by mainegrl2011

I am pretty sure that if you live in Maine and work in NH, you'll be expected to file a Maine income tax return. I know someone who lives in Maine and works in NH..... no sales tax when buying in NH unless you admit when you file Maine income tax how much you buy in NH while having a Maine residence....btw, Portland has its own airport.

Portland does have PWM, but the reason I mentioned Portsmouth's advantage of being an hour away from MHT and BOS is one of access and cost.

PWM has relatively few direct flights out - mostly United, US and Airtran connections to LGA, DCA and BWI. Those flights themselves are fairly expensive, but as a connecting flight, even more so. MHT is competitive because it's serviced by Southwest with non-stops to like 7 or 8 major airports, while still being a lot like PWM in the lack of crowds, polite employees, and ease of entry/exit (on-site rental cars, close parking, etc). BOS is simply the other place to go when you need an international flight, a last minute fare with any hope of not having to sell an arm for it (AirTran, Jet Blue, Southwest all competing there, as is the US Airways shuttle).

Don't get me wrong, I like PWM a lot - it's convenient and friendly, and it does have connections to the main east coast airports. I don't like what it costs to get in and out of that airport, though. I am really, really hoping that when Southwest completes the AirTran merger, they use those landing slots to compete with US to DCA, or at least put some downward pressure to BWI. It's unlikely, though, since there really isn't any competition out of PWM for those routes. Very little overlap, but maybe connections through LGA will get cheaper.

And there concludes my way-too-long post on regional airports.

[ctr88]

Thank you for the excellent info! Portsmouth being central location is a big benefit being closer to Boston and closer to Vermont as I have family there.

[Calebray95]

It seems that a lot of people get the population of Portland's metro mixed up. 250K is closer to Portland's urban area where as its metro area is actually over 516,000.

[Sunday1]

I suggest when it comes to gaining a clear and accurate understanding of Portland's size, you refer to the posts from lrfox on the thread by Kranamorse titled "Portland, ME". He's got it right. And if you're comparing Portsmouth to Portland, (as we did in our move 2 yrs ago) it probably matters. Tough decision, and yet the differences between the two are distinct.

//www.city-data.com/forum/portl...rtland-me.html

[Mark S.]

Also: Even though Portsmouth is technically a smaller town, it feels bigger to me, because you can never really get "out of town" in Portsmouth. As soon as you leave Portsmouth, you're immediately in another town. And when you leave that town, you're in another town. To really get "out of town" from Portsmouth, you're looking at an hour drive at least.

Whereas in Portland, you can be in the country 15 minutes from town.

So it really depends on what you want. Personally, I like being able to get out of the hustle, but others trhive on that. Both are very nice towns and have a lot to recommend them.