Who lives in Maine and wants to answer some questions...

[OHmama]

My husband and I would love to just pack up and move(but we won't),but Maine seems like somewhere we might like to live so I want to know...

Where do you live?
Pros?
Cons?
What should we know about Maine?

We plan to go vacation there next year.Any info is appreciated.

[toewsrus]

Maine is absolutely beautiful. We live in TN now, but we lived just outside of Portland. We left Maine because 1. Deep long winters and 2. Rampant liberalism.

The more north you go the cheaper land gets.

[TedH71]

What do you call liberalism? It can mean many different things to people.

[mabeane]

Northern Maine and Southern Maine are quite different politically. You will find that it is a beautiful state with lots of open spaces and friendly people. Where I live above Bangor everyone knows everyone and that is both good and bad. Yes we have snow in the winter but we know it will come and we prepare. The air is clean, the water is clean and there is no traffic. I love it!

[fishhead]

What are the summers like? Rainy and overcast a lot?

After this latest hot and humid spell with more likely I'm looking for a place where the summers aren't brutally hot and humid.

[mabeane]

Summer in Maine is delightful. Some hot and humid days but mostly warm to hot days and cool (great for sleeping) nights! Its 63 here this morning with a nice breeze.

[BigHenTinyBrain]

We live in the western mountains. Lots of trees, great ATV/snowmobile/hiking/biking trails, hunting, fishing, snow, ski areas, rivers and lakes...
Also lots of tourists, mosquitos and predators who would like to eat your chickens.
Maine, if you are away from the coast can be extremely affordable. There is a lot of uninhabited woods, people are mostly friendly and the cost of living is low.
There are not a lot of jobs, especially in small towns.
Rural locations may require a very long drive to get to the store- and there never seems to be a road that goes directly from where you are to where you want to be.
Winters are long, cold and snowy. If you like that sort of thing you should do okay, but if you do not enjoy winter or some sort of snow activity you may be miserable.

Come visit! Spend some time so you can drive around and see several aspects of Maine- the coast is very different from the interior, the north is different from the south, etc. It's a big state, but it IS an awesome place to live.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by OHmama

My husband and I would love to just pack up and move(but we won't),but Maine seems like somewhere we might like to live so I want to know...

Where do you live?
Pros?
Cons?
What should we know about Maine?

We plan to go vacation there next year.Any info is appreciated.

We live a half-hour North of Bangor, in an Unorganized Township [UT].

Most towns in Maine [52%] are UTs.

I am from California, my Dw is from Ct; we love Maine.

Pros: low land prices, low property taxes, small government, with a low income taxes are very low.

Cons: if you earn a high income then taxes can be bad.

This region is completely free of drought, small scale farming is a growing sub-culture. New Farmer's Markets open every year.



I hear about 'liberalism' but it is mostly confined to a small urban area down South around Portland.

[OHmama]

Originally Posted by mabeane

Northern Maine and Southern Maine are quite different politically.

how so?Just curious since the liberalism and politics were brought up.

[SparkyMaine]

The politics in Maine tend to be similar to other areas - the more urban/suburban areas tend to be more on the liberal side of the aisle, while the more rural areas lean more conservative. Obviously that's quite a generalization, but I think it gives a reasonable overview.

Much of Maine's population is in the Southern part of the state (or as some folks call it, Northern Massachusetts ) and along the coast, while much of the inland/northern areas are more rural. That said, it's not like there are huge population centers here. Portland is the largest "city", with 66,000ish people. There are only two other cities in the state with over 30,000.

[Vosey]

DH and I both grew up in Maine, the Mid Coast area and lived inland a bit when we met. Most of our family still lives there. Our families all say the summers are getting hotter, the winters milder. Traditionally summer starts on the 4th of July and is over by Labor Day. Some years summer never came, it just rained, others the fog would settle in for a month. Unless you are right on the coast the black flies and mosquitos can be horrendous. Cabin fever can really get to you in the winter.

But having said all that? There is something really special about Maine. I don't miss the long winters, the snowy commutes or the bugs and to me now that I live in a dry climate the summers are very humid, but I would still move back in a heartbeat!

I always loved feeling that I was up and around the corner from the rest of the US.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by toewsrus

Maine is absolutely beautiful. We live in TN now, but we lived just outside of Portland. We left Maine because 1. Deep long winters and 2. Rampant liberalism.

The more north you go the cheaper land gets.

Draw a circle around Portland 50 miles and you will include such a densely populated mass of people that you will have 50% of the population of the entire state. Maine has two Congressional districts, #1 is the urban metro-center around Portland and it's suburbs, #2 is the other 95% of the state.

Lots of people packed into a tiny area = urban. Maine has a tiny area that is urban.

Much of Maine is rural with 10 people per square-mile or less. We have many townships with less then 4 people residing in them.



Urbanites tend to demand more municipal services. Which are costly. Those voters drive up government spending, and therefore local taxes. It is very common that bond issues pass. Anytime that a ballot issue comes up with a chance to borrow debt at interest, for a chance to raise taxes, the urbanites will vote in favor of increasing their taxes. It is very rare for Maine voters to not pass increases in state debt and our taxes.

The majority of Townships in Maine are Unorganized [UTs]. UTs have no town selectmen, no building inspectors, no rec departments, nobody on municipal payroll. All because folks living in the UTs do not want higher taxes.

40 townships in Maine have been Organized, and at some point decided to burn their town charter to Dis-organize. As a method of preventing our taxes from climbing as quickly as the urban cities raise their taxes.

[fishhead]

Originally Posted by Vosey

DH and I both grew up in Maine, the Mid Coast area and lived inland a bit when we met. Most of our family still lives there. Our families all say the summers are getting hotter, the winters milder. Traditionally summer starts on the 4th of July and is over by Labor Day. Some years summer never came, it just rained, others the fog would settle in for a month. Unless you are right on the coast the black flies and mosquitos can be horrendous. Cabin fever can really get to you in the winter.

But having said all that? There is something really special about Maine. I don't miss the long winters, the snowy commutes or the bugs and to me now that I live in a dry climate the summers are very humid, but I would still move back in a heartbeat!

I always loved feeling that I was up and around the corner from the rest of the US.

Are you talking about a coastal area with the short summer, fog and lots of rain?

[Cash]

The climate has indeed been changing up here. We live on the Kennebec River just a few miles from the coast, and winters have gotten distinctly milder in the past 25 years. We still see snow, but nowhere near as much as we once did, and I've seen winters when almost every snowstorm ended with rain. Inland areas get more snow. That said, winter no longer runs from Halloween to Tax Day. First frost at our house used to be in mid-late September. Now it's not uncommon to keep the tomatoes going until mid-October or later.

Summers have gotten hotter, but we still get a fair mount of rain.

Bugs can be a problem, depending on location. Lyme disease from deer ticks has now spread statewide, and we're suffering from several other invasive species that threaten our ash and spruce trees, along with biting red ants ashore and green crabs along the coast. Most of those are a result of milder winters and warmer ocean temps allowing new species to survive here.

Politically, Maine's liberal center is Portland-Lewiston-Brunswick, although the Dems also have a stronghold in the St. John Valley in far northern Maine. Generally the state votes blue for President and all over the map for the rest. First Congressional District stretches from the New Hampshire border to the west side of Penobscot Bay and about 50-60 miles inland and votes consistently D. Second District is the rest of the state and can go either way. The current 2nd District Representative is a conservative Dem, at least compared to most Dem politicians.

Land is cheap compared to other places, and there is a thriving small farm subculture. The people are friendly and the air is clean.

[fishhead]

Our snowstorms in MN now seem to start with rain and end with snow and cold even in January.

The summers seem much more humid than they ever were before which is making me think of other places to live.

[billooo2]

I used to live in Thorndike........about 45 minutes from 3 towns......45 minutes from Bangor, from Waterville, from Belfast........

What I disliked the most was the month of April!!!!! Maine does not have a spring like they have in the midwest.......they have the MUD season!!!!!

I have heard people describe the climate in northern Maine as '9 months of winter and 3 months of preparing for winter.'


Otherwise, I loved Maine.....but my wife did not love Maine.

[Vosey]

Oh yes, mud season, I'd forgotten about the mud! And March is frozen mud.

Fishhead - I am talking about the coast with fog and damp. I grew up on the coast and out on the islands. When DH and I lived inland the summers were hotter and the winters colder. We regularly saw 20 below in the morning, but my brother says he hasn't seen those temps in many years. The winters have been so much milder he's seeing problems with bugs that should have been killed off. He lives not far from Thorndike above!

But part of being a Mainer is being tough, if the seasons were perfect and there were no bugs everyone would live there! Many people over the past 300+ years have gone to Maine to get away from the big city and government interference in their lives and that tradition lives on.

[ET1 SS]

I saw a lot of fog while living in Central California. Since moving to Maine, I have only seen fog on a few occasions. 'pea soup-like' but rarely reducing visibility to less than 50 yards, so not bad at all.

In this area, the second and third weeks of January are the coldest. -15F to -20F nights are normal. One week of those temps then it warms up again, to lows of 5F.

Most of the winter has a weekly snow storm. One day or night of snow, followed by six days of clear sunny skies. Very bright.

All of Maine [EVERY town] is inter-linked with a network of sled trails. Winter and it's bright sunny days are when everyone is outside and busy. Only the invalids are indoors at those times.

Much of Maine is most accessible in winter. You no longer do you have to go 'around' in search of a bridge to cross a body of water. You can go straight. Many lakes and rivers can be crossed directly in winter. Places that in summer would take all day driving, can be traveled to in a matter on an hour or two, via sled.

Some regions also get bogged down in summah with tourists. Once the leaves finish turned, the traffic thins out.

[OHmama]

definitely not wanting an area with tourists!

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by OHmama

definitely not wanting an area with tourists!

Tourism is the biggest economy that Maine has.

Along the coast, from Acadia down to Kittery sees a lot of tourists. Not as much above Bar Harbor though.

You get a bit of tourists around Katahdin, a lot around Moosehead Lake / Greenville, and many little tourist hotspots are scattered up and down along the NH border, anywhere within 50 - 100 miles of NH is generally more touristy [Bigelow, Rangeley, Mt Blue, Grafton, Sebago, Farmington, Rumford, Bethel, Paris, Bridgton, Casco, Windham, and right into the urban center around Portland].



On the other hand, most of Maine sees very little tourism. Once you get away from the Southern urban tip, away from NH, avoid the coast [at least the Southern 1/3 of the coast line]. Then there are only a few specific spots that draw tourists.

So it is fairly easy to avoid tourists.