Gay guy moving to Portland: Suburbs or Peninsula? (Saco, Falmouth: real estate, rent)

[diabloblanco]

Hello all,

I am moving to the Portland area in July, and had a question about Real Estate and the LGBT community. I currently live in a large metropolitan area, where the gay population is located in the city center. I live in a house in the suburbs, and I virtually have no (LGBT) social life here. Getting people to come out for parties is impossible, and I am forever driving in to see friends. When I visited Portland, I noted that the peninsula itself is very small, and that neighboring towns are just a 10-15 minute drive North or South. I think I prefer these towns because the houses are amazing, and are much cheaper. If I bought in like Saco, Falmouth or Yarmouth, would I find myself in the same boat: feeling isolated? Do gay people only hang out in Portland proper? Or because everything is smaller/closer, are people more willing to travel up or down 295 to socialize? Are there gay populations in these little towns? My goal with this move is to have more easy access to a gay community. Can I find this in a Portland suburb? Or do I need to bite the bullet and buy on the Peninsula?

Thanks for any feedback!

Dana

[WhoFanMe]

Hello Dana,

Welcome to Maine and the forum. As a licensed real estate agent, I can't answer any of those types of questions due to Fair Housing laws, but hopefully others on the forum can help. I would recommend that you network online and offline as much as you can so that you can make the right decision and as others will suggest, perhaps rent for 6 months or a year to see if you are in the right location.

[jeneric13]

I don't feel like it's so segregated here. Yes, there is a very small gay population in the West End, but mostly the gay people I know just live scattered amongst the straight people I know.

And yes, people drive to socialize out here. Not many people live in the actual downtown part of the city.