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Random Quote: When I die, send my body to my ex-wife. She could use a good meal.
Looking into buying a house on a lake 2 to 3 hours north of Boston, I like the Sebago area in Maine, not Sebago lake but some of the smaller lakes. I have not looked in NH, any tax or other significant advantage of being on one state over another? From a drive standpoint, I think 95 is always going to be easier than 93. Thanks for any input.
Not a real fan of Sebago region as it's too crowded and $$$$. I'd go a little more north to Rangley, Mooselookmeguntic,Richardson Lakes area. Maine taxes are not cheap.
__________________
Eating corn is like leaving a little bookmark in your poop.
I am selling my home on a small lake 10 minutes off I-95 2 hours outside Boston. I am not ON the lake, but a 1-2 minute walk from the neighborhood beach and boat ramp. Going on the market Monday.
I will say that I have been told property taxes in Maine are cheaper than NH but I dont know that for sure. I pay $1800 a year and I am right outside Portland. I feel like my taxes are very reasonable.
Not a real fan of Sebago region as it's too crowded and $$$$. I'd go a little more north to Rangley, Mooselookmeguntic,Richardson Lakes area. Maine taxes are not cheap.
How much further drive is it? Any good size lakes? I like Thompson lake for size ahd number of houses on it.
My in-laws have a home on Moose Pond in Bridgeton-real nice place, pretty quiet, with a ski area right there as well. Long lake in Naples/Bridgeton is nice-about 2 1/2 from Boston...
CMP
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It takes a teachers' union to bankrupt a village
Not a real fan of Sebago region as it's too crowded and $$$$. I'd go a little more north to Rangley, Mooselookmeguntic,Richardson Lakes area. Maine taxes are not cheap.
How much further drive is it? Any good size lakes? I like Thompson lake for size ahd number of houses on it.
Boston to Rangley is about 3.25 hours w/o traffic. the others are a little more north so I'd say 3.75 max. The nice thing about the western mountians is that when nobody else has snow to ride on, they normally do. You do like snow don't you? Like Mark said Long Lake is nice but I know it's getting pricey. From Long however you can run all the way to Sebago using the locks. A friend has a place in Harrison on Crystal Lake and it's nice but small. I don't know about Moose Pond. There are many small bodies of water still affordable if you search them out. Buy the DeLorme Atlas and start looking.
I don't need to tell you that many people have used that time formula as a limiting factor.
__________________
Eating corn is like leaving a little bookmark in your poop.
New Hampshire is way to crowded and overpriced. If your lucky enough to have a house there, you get inundated with all the Massholes who consider New Hampshire a "poor man's vacation". No one flying anymore because of airfare prices is driving even more people to N.H. Maine is bigger and better, plenty of places to get away from the riff raff. You will hit traffic on 95 Friday afternoons and Sunday nights, don't kid yourself.
Mac, I've been studying this issue for about 13 years! Our initial requirements were similar, 2.5 - 3 hour max drive from home, water access and close to ski areas. From where you and I live, it's an easier shot up 93 than 95 but my wife and I just prefer Maine.
My wife and I focused on property in the greater Bridgton, Maine area back in the early-mid '90s and then we had twins in '96 so those plans went on hold for a while. Funny thing is, a decade later some of the same property was still for sale or it had turned over once or twice and was for sale again.
Most of the towns in the area are only 30-40 minutes from "civilization" in North Conway and you have Shawnee Peak and Sunday River ski areas nearby. There must be 40 or more lakes and ponds in the area and it never seems too crowded, unlike the greater Laconia/Meredith, New Hampshire area.
That said, however, now that our kids are closing in on 12 we are not as interested in a 4-season getaway spot. We're too busy! With work, sports, Scouts, and family, we don't really have the time to make the most use of a place.
I started looking at property in the greater Bath, Maine area in 2001. The Maine coast from Freeport to Friendship is of interest to me now as a retirement location. I have 20 years to go until retirement but I wouldn't be averse to buying a piece of land now. Friends of ours purchased an oceanfront lot in Harpswell, Maine in 2001 and finally built a house there in 2005. Sadly, they moved to California last year and now rent out the house in the summer.
People speak highly of Sunapee Lake and Newfound Lake in New Hampshire; both are easy drives and close to skiing, but I have no first hand experience with them in the summer.
My wife is a teacher and when we first got married I envisioned having a place where she and the (then future) kids would go off to for a month or more in the summer and Dad would come up for the weekends, etc. The reality, however, is that she would go stir crazy in one place for more than a week and the kids have Scout camp, sport camps and their friends back at home.
Let me know where you end up getting a place, I'll be happy to come up for a weekend!
New Hampshire is way to crowded and overpriced. If your lucky enough to have a house there, you get inundated with all the Massholes who consider New Hampshire a "poor man's vacation". No one flying anymore because of airfare prices is driving even more people to N.H. Maine is bigger and better, plenty of places to get away from the riff raff. You will hit traffic on 95 Friday afternoons and Sunday nights, don't kid yourself.
Ya us Massholes keep you from crapping in a one holer outhouse. People who spout that amaze me. Poormans vacation is having two places that you're taxed on but can only vote at your primary residence. This of course allows you to talk like that because half you tax income comes from others who live away and most times don't require the level of service you "full timers" need.
It's a good thing the double home owner can't vote on local issues effecting YOUR home town. You'd be back in that one holer outside a one room school house.
FYI traffic on Fridays and Sundays has been a PITA for allot longer than the current economy has been in the tank. Of course at your age you wouldn't know this.
__________________
Eating corn is like leaving a little bookmark in your poop.
My in-laws have a home on Moose Pond in Bridgeton-real nice place, pretty quiet, with a ski area right there as well. Long lake in Naples/Bridgeton is nice-about 2 1/2 from Boston...
CMP
Thanks,
Can you boat from Long lake into Sebago?, it looks like you can on the map. Long lake is in the running, going up in a couple weeks for a week, trying to line up some realtors so we can look at some stuff, I am also bringing up the aluminum boat thought we would take day on Thompson lake and maybe Long and see what it was like, you can tell alot from the water.
Mac, I've been studying this issue for about 13 years! Our initial requirements were similar, 2.5 - 3 hour max drive from home, water access and close to ski areas. From where you and I live, it's an easier shot up 93 than 95 but my wife and I just prefer Maine.
My wife and I focused on property in the greater Bridgton, Maine area back in the early-mid '90s and then we had twins in '96 so those plans went on hold for a while. Funny thing is, a decade later some of the same property was still for sale or it had turned over once or twice and was for sale again.
Most of the towns in the area are only 30-40 minutes from "civilization" in North Conway and you have Shawnee Peak and Sunday River ski areas nearby. There must be 40 or more lakes and ponds in the area and it never seems too crowded, unlike the greater Laconia/Meredith, New Hampshire area.
That said, however, now that our kids are closing in on 12 we are not as interested in a 4-season getaway spot. We're too busy! With work, sports, Scouts, and family, we don't really have the time to make the most use of a place.
I started looking at property in the greater Bath, Maine area in 2001. The Maine coast from Freeport to Friendship is of interest to me now as a retirement location. I have 20 years to go until retirement but I wouldn't be averse to buying a piece of land now. Friends of ours purchased an oceanfront lot in Harpswell, Maine in 2001 and finally built a house there in 2005. Sadly, they moved to California last year and now rent out the house in the summer.
People speak highly of Sunapee Lake and Newfound Lake in New Hampshire; both are easy drives and close to skiing, but I have no first hand experience with them in the summer.
My wife is a teacher and when we first got married I envisioned having a place where she and the (then future) kids would go off to for a month or more in the summer and Dad would come up for the weekends, etc. The reality, however, is that she would go stir crazy in one place for more than a week and the kids have Scout camp, sport camps and their friends back at home.
Let me know where you end up getting a place, I'll be happy to come up for a weekend!
I'll keep you posted, my kids are 2 and 5, to take a day on the boat in the ocean is just too much work right now, I do not want to slip it so trailering it is my only real option. A house on the ocean is out of reach within 2.5 hours so this is the alternative, plus my wife likes lakes better.
I want to get a place directly on the water no shared access, 2 kids 2 dogs, trying to share with that would not be easy. I figure Friday afternoon head up and come back on Sunday and maybe 3 weeks during the summer and couple in the winter. I am not a big skier but thinking snowmobling might be fun. I figure it is probably a decent investment as well and is probably safer than keeping the money in the bank.
Long to Sebago thru Songo Lock. For some reason I recall a Brandy Pond in the mix. I have not been in the area for better than 12 years. There was another pond up off 117 near Norway. I don't have my atlas but you should have one. We use it for finding shortcuts using the dirt roads.
Another place to look is Great East Lake bordering NH and ME by Sanbornville and Wakefield, home of the Poor Peoples Pub if it's still around.
Don't discredit an association beach too quick. I had a home right on the water and with it came the work of putting my own 24' dock in and out by myself. The view was outstanding but it was work. Our new house that we custom built is off the water with one of the few sandy beaches on the lake along with woods, a mooring field and docks. With it comes someone else cutting the grass a BBQ area for parties and a storage shed for chairs and whatnots. There is also a shallow launch but I don't use it. It's about 3 or so acres in size. There is also storage racks for yaks, canoes, dingy, ect all for 35/yr. The tax savings alone is worth it IMO and I'm not looking into the NW winds for the winter when it's -30.
Snowmobiling is addicting.
__________________
Eating corn is like leaving a little bookmark in your poop.
Wasn't sure what a "masshole" was, so I googled it:
"A symptom of friction often found when rural and urban cultures meet, the term's negative use has increased with the migration of upper-middle-class families from eastern Massachusetts to districts with less crowding, lower home prices, and lower taxes, either as a primary residence or a vacation home (examples are New Hampshire, Vermont, most of southern Maine, especially the tourist areas of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, and the rural areas of Rhode Island). The term is a direct reference to the perceived rudeness, snobbishness, and high-pressure lifestyle of the migrants and current residents of Massachusetts. It indirectly refers to upward pressures on real estate prices, due to their higher average income and net worth."
Not applicable to a 2nd home, but if you were to make ot your primary domicile:
from retirementliving:
The top five states where the tax burden as a percent of income is the highest are: Vermont (14.1%), Maine (14.0%), New York (13.8%), Rhode Island (12.7%), and Ohio (12.4%). The United States average is 11.06%. The District of Columbia is 12.5%.
The five states with the lowest tax burden as a percent of income are: Alaska (6.6%) 50th, New Hampshire (8.0%) 49th, Tennessee (8.5%) 48th, Delaware (8.8%) 47th, and Alabama (8.8%) 46th.
They don't drive as far as I will to get away from them.
I have some very good friends, most of whom are locals where we built. The term is not welcome in the area unless you pull in with your BMW, RR, Hummer, or some other POS thinking that your $hit doesn't stink. When that happens the prices go up and the service goes down. For the record we were the first people who had a contractors party. We were not the first to say that we would.
There is some very good talent available. to find it all one needs to do is prove that they are normal, pay the invoices on time, leave the attitude at home, know what the hell you're doing when building a home, and treat others the way you would like to be treated in return. Try it sometime, it really works.
__________________
Eating corn is like leaving a little bookmark in your poop.
without posting a bunch of stuff here, pm me. I have a marina on brandy pond which is the intermediary between long lake and sebago/ songo river. I can give you a ton of info about the area.
NH or Maine vacation home?
Like Mark said Long Lake is nice but I know it's getting pricey. From Long however you can run all the way to Sebago using the locks. A friend has a place in Harrison on Crystal Lake and it's nice but small. I don't know about Moose Pond. There are many small bodies of water still affordable if you search them out. Buy the DeLorme Atlas and start looking.
