fairfax to Maine ? (Portland, Lewiston, Auburn: condos, low crime, how much)

[55plus in DC]

Hi we've been living in Fairfax County for 20+ years and we're fed up. Yes there's the museums in DC ( free for the most part ) yes there's diversity and it's a fairly politically liberal area BUT the traffic,crime cost of living enough already ! I'm from NY originally andtired of living in the south. Considering Portland/Brunswick ME area just how bad are the winters ? snow I can take it's this ice junk we get here that's a pain. What about utilities ? Sure heating costs but is using the a/c in summer rare or not ? We're both 55+ and considering retirement in a completely different area. Opinions ?
Thanks
55plus in DC

[woolwiTch]

The Portland/Brunswick area is a great place to retire. Easy to get around, plenty of amenities, many different kinds of groups to get involved with, friendly people. I'm sure you already know that Maine is a very low crime state.

I grew up Maine, but I lived in CA for many years before moving back. You get used to the winters, and winter in the Portland/Brunswick area isn't bad, compared to a lot of other places. Most of the time you don't get much snow at all until December, then it might start in earnest or you might just get a bit every few days or about once a week. We nearly always have a white Christmas, but sometimes it's a close call. January and February we generally have quite a bit of snow and daytime highs are only in the teens and 20s a lot. We can have very cold weather, with highs in the single digits and even below zero, but generally not for many days in a row.

You will certainly need to think hard about a snow removal system for whatever house you end up in. Shoveling alone won't cut it unless you have only an extremely short driveway. The great thing about being retired is that you don't have to rush out at all hours and any kind of weather to get the snow out of there in time to leave for work.

The cost of heating is high. Most houses heat with oil and you can expect to use somewhere between 800 and 1200 (typically) gallons of oil a year. When you are looking at houses, be sure to ask how much the sellers have used per year----and remember, you may use more if the sellers are not home during the day. Find out how old the boiler is (assuming it's oil heat) and how efficient it is, and see how well insulated the walls, windows, attic and cellar are. Ask about what kind of power outages they've experienced in past winters so that you can consider whether you may also need/want to get a generator. We usually have one or two bad winter storms that cause power outages for up to several days. If you live right in town in Portland, it's less likely and the outages won't last long, but the areas of Brunswick that are out of town and look the most attractive are among those who tend to experience the most and longest outages.

Most people adjust to the winters pretty well. The thing that is harder for a lot of people is the springs. In short, we don't have much of any. It is still winter in March and sometimes for half of April. Even if the snow stops in March, April is generally raw and gloomy. Even in May it's often not very springlike until the end of the month. You can't plant a vegetable garden here with any hope of success until Memorial Day weekend, and it's safer to wait another week after that. Our Junes are pretty iffy. This year's June has been about the worst I've ever known. Highs in the 50s and low 60s, almost no sun and three times the normal amount of rain. Looks we'll finally break out of the pattern next week.

We only have one window a/c unit in case it gets really hot for days in a row in the summer. It's out in the shed and we haven't used it in three years. After living in the DC area, you'll find summers wonderfully comfortable here----though short.

Hope you'll visit here in all seasons before you decide. Best of luck.

[55plus in DC]

Hi your info is very helpful. Guess I should have also mentioned that we both will probably want to work at least part time. I'm in healthcare and hubby does telecommunication/emergency services. He's somewhat flexible though and could do consulting/work at home. How is the health care in Portland ? Are most homes heated with oil ? How about condos/townhouses ? Do many homes have woodstoves ? that would seem to be a good thing to have. After DC summers almost anything would feel cool !! I live in SC for 3 years never even had a/c in my car. Moved to DC and absolutely needed it yes for sitting in traffic with no breeze. I spent my first 10yrs living in Ann Arbor Michigan so I know from cold winters ! Maine is not the only place having monsoons this year same down here only 15-20 degrees warmer. We were in Freeport for 3 days and yes we got a deluge one day and it was chilly. However next day it was around 62 and great for a short hike. thanks again !!

[woolwiTch]

Healthcare is active in Portland. Maine Medical Center in Portland has been nationally recognized. The other big hospital right in Portland is Mercy. Lots of medical offices throughout the Portland area. The Intermed group is one of the big professional groups. In Brunswick there are two hospitals: Mid-Coast Hospital and Parkview (Adventist) Hospital. Unfortunately, Mid-Coast is trying to drive Parkview out of business. It's ugly. I should mention that another large hospital/medical center complex is in Lewiston: Central Maine Medical Center. It includes the Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing, founded by Patrick Dempsey (the actor) in honor of his mother, who lives in Harpswell.

Most houses are heated with oil. The most common heating system is an oil-fired boiler feeding baseboards. In the Portland area there is a fair amount of natural gas heat as well, but natural gas heat is not available in most of Maine. I'm not familiar with condos and townhouses, so I don't know for sure what kind of heat is typical there.

Yes, many, many homes have woodstoves. We use ours as much as possible to keep down our oil consumption. (Our wood is free because it comes from our lot.) There are all kinds of wood heat. Outdoor boilers, cellar wood boilers, woodstoves and pellet stoves. Pellet stoves have become very popular. If you find a house without a woodstove, you can vent most new stoves out the wall.

I should also mention that once you get outside a city/town, most houses are on well water and septic. If you are looking at buying a house with either one, be sure to have a purchase contingency that will let you have them checked out before you are committed. Test the water quality, find out how old the well pump is, how old the septic system is, when it was last pumped. Some of the peninsulas have water supply issues, though that is less common. Also, with Maine being so rocky, there is a lot of radon, so you'll want to have the place tested for radon as well.

Good luck!

[DreamworksSKG]

I would recommend the Sebago Lake Area. if you don't mind living 20 miles or so from the city - it would be a great recreational area to live and if you got a place say on the Lake or nearby you could have a boat or something - and you'd be close to the ocean to so you could have a slip at a ocean marina and a lake marina. You wouldnt even be that far fro the Lakes Region of NH (Lake Winni) and such

Other areas to consider would be Gorham, Gray, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Brunswick, and Lewiston-Auburn area.

Hope this helps