Housing in the Brunswick/Bath/Boothbay area

Depends on where you are working, but I would not to have to commute through Wiscasset on Route 1 at any point.

Will be working in Boothbay Harbor, and commuting right now from LA. Is there any way to avoid this?? We are stuck with where we are until our house sells. What areas would be best to look for houses in to avoid Rt 1?

There's a long commute between Brunswick and Boothbay. Do yourself a favor, and buy close to where you will work. Also, be careful with real estate agents, they have a lot of inventory their clients want unrealistic prices for that they are calling them about every day. The first properties you'll be shown are the over-priced white elephants. A foreclosure might be the best way to go.

In your stated range have a nice little 3 bedroom in the 900-1000 sf range in Brunswick near Durham I'd sell for $110,000. Modular, maybe 10-15 years old, good condition, nice little development, but no basement. If you are going to be near Boothbay though, I'd go on the other side of the river, maybe Woolwich (pronounced by Mainers as Wool'ich) which is a nice little town. I lived there for a couple of years, and it was great - also an easy drive to Reid State Park or Fort Popham, a couple of beautiful beaches.

UPDATE: If you are going to be in Boothbay, Kenny is correct.

Hi Tom C, how do you find foreclosures? Are they always listed in the realty sites? How do we avoid going through Wiscassett? Does that mean that Boothbay is really the only option to avoid that area?

Would you be interested in house sitting for the winter, if so I can ask around and see what is available. The Boothbay area is pretty big, Southport, Trevett, East Boothbay etc. lots of choices. I do know of one house for sale for $47,000. Small and may need some TLC but was lived in up until a year ago.
Will you be teaching here?

Also check with some of the local municipalities as some of the properties in their towns are put up for auction twice a year. We have a town employee who is licensed to be an auctioneer on foreclosed properties. I understand that several towns around the state have an employee on the payroll who is able to do this. It might be worth checking at least. Being a town with some very high end properties, we have had some very interesting pieces foreclosed on over the last couple of years.

Islander, I hope to be teaching in the area once we move that way, but most likely not this school year. My husband is the one who will be working in Boothbay Harbor, and yes, we would probably be very interested in house sitting for the winter (depending on what it would cost and what we would have to do with our house in LA)! I will have to talk to him and see what he thinks; he was just offered the job yesterday so we're still in scramble mode right now! I can send you a PM with more info if that would help?

No promises but by all means PM if you have any questions. I also have a friend who may have a small house for rent here on Southport.

Hi Tom C, how do you find foreclosures?

Best is to go to the banks in the area.

Some people find buying foreclosures distastful, especially when they have to kick the old owner out. Also, you must do good research to know if there are any other liens or obligations on the property.

Years ago, I had a dealing with a property my client was trying to foreclose on that had a DHHS lien on it for child support. The DHHS couldn't tell us what was needed to resolve the lien, so it put the property essentially in limbo. Those are the kinds of trickey issues you need to consider before buying one of those.

With the economy in shambles and job security at an all time low I wouldn't get anchored down with another home and would rent at least for the forseeable future. Even teaching jobs are unsecure unless you've got a lot of seniority.

You may already have this link , but I think this is one of the better sites, all MLS listed houses including foreclosures are listed here. There are quite a few in your price range for sale in Boothbay and in the general area:

http://www.mainelistings.com/RealEstate/ByCounty-State/ME/County/Lincoln

Here are the stats for Lincoln County:

Lincoln County

Active Listings 1392
Under Contract 77
Open Houses 0

Year To Date 2012

New Listings in 2012 899
Sold Listings in 2012 226

Swaybar, thank you for the link! I had been using realtor.com but this is a lot easier.

My husband really doesn't want to have to commute from LA for very long, so renting is an option. We are hoping his job is fairly secure (the position hasn't ever been cut before and I don't think it's based on seniority), and we would like to live in the area, regardless. But it all depends on what we find and what happens with our house!

Bazinga, I've seen some pretty nice properties for sale in Wiscasset in your price range. In your situation, though, you might want to concentrate your search in Edgecomb/Alna/Newcastle to avoid the horrendous traffic bottleneck in Wiscasset in the summer. Damariscotta is way overpriced IMHO, but perhaps that has changed since the Great Depression II hit.

Bazinga:I hope your search produces good results. We are in the process of re-locating to the same area although we are retired and moving to be near our younger daughter who recently bought a house in Boothbay. It took her awhile but she eventually found a place that she could afford. We too found a house but probably paid too much-time should take care of that. Apparently your spouse is a teacher in the area--we have a 15 year old grandson at BRHS .

The comments about avoiding the Wiscasset bottle neck are right on IMO. We have been back and forth between Boothbay and Augusta alot lately and it is a royal pain there. I would hate to think that I had that place on my daily commute.

Welcome to the Boothbay area guys!

It’s a great area with close local ties. I recently took my wife to Damariscotta to dine at some all natural organic restaurant that she was thrilled with. It’s less of a hassled then going to Portland where the only other places of this type are located. The pirate festival is what brought be to the area that day!

I recently read an article that gave Damariscotta some fine reviews as a place that anyone traveling thought the Mid Coast area should stop and explore. It’s a small enclave for liberal paradise seekers.

Boothbay is the classic down home costal community. It might take a while for the local coffee stops to warm up to you if your new and from away, but that’s typical of any small village in Maine. The guys you might find around the local coffee pot are just sharing gossip like any knitting club might do.

With the economy in shambles and job security at an all time low I wouldn't get anchored down with another home and would rent at least for the forseeable future.

This makes a lot of sense. I don't agree with Dave Ramsey on everything, but he has a good deal to say about the trap of buying a house. We are esentially brainwashed into thinking that buying is always better than renting, but that's not always the case.

Especially if you are not planning to live there forever, renting should be considered as a better option in many cases. First, finacing involves a big chunk of change up front, and closing costs in the thousands of dollars. The APR you are quoted assumes that you will hold the loan to maturity, which rarely happens nowadays. As a result, the actual loan costs are higher than you might imagine.

Secondly, once saddled with a home, you assume the risks and burdens of ownership. I've rented and owned, and I have to admit there is something nice about being able to call the landlord when something breaks. Finally, houses, especially nowadays, are much less than liquid assets, and are, especially now, hard to sell. Remember, in order to sell the house you will likely pay a real estate commission and other transfer costs, plus usually spending thousands in repairs to make the peoperty more salable.

Equity? It's like driving a new car off the lot, figure the potential transaction costs have taken at least 10% of your equity when you buy the place. That money is gone, you'll never get it back.

Bazinga, best of luck with the upcoming move and new job situation. Hope the resident AMG members can steer you toward a workable situation.

Unfortunately we already own a house, so we already will have to deal with the housing market. Not sure whether to rent our house out or try to sell it.

Most of the people I know that have been Landlords have horror stories about their rentals. Sell if you can, if you think the move is stressful, just add the drama of being a Landlord.

I live in Nobleboro and work in Woolwich, own a house in Waldoboro, and grew up in Warren. I know the area well.

Avoid buying a house in Wiscasset, Boothbay, or Damariscotta/Newcastle. Their taxes have been heading north at a very fast rate and they blame it on waterfront property rather than their Taj Mahal projects. Look to Alna, Jefferson, Nobleboro, or Waldoboro since all are within easy commuting distances with much lower taxes and tax burdens. River road from Newcastle will get you to Boothbay and allow you to avoid route 1 traffic, which is only an issue 3 months out of the year. I contend with it on a daily basis. There are enough backroads that you can get to where you want to go fairly easily.

I would avoid buying anything south of Wiscasset due to the higher taxes and home valuations. I would consider Edgecomb if you could find the right house, but Edgecomb is looking to expand and snag a piece of the Route 1 corridor pie, with some grandiose plans now that they have sewer & water to the island, and the whole town will wind up sharing the burden with however it's exploited.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Jeep...
Boothbay has had the same tax rate for the past four (4) years.
Boothbay does not build Taj Mahals. They even refused to extend the sewer line a few years ago.

Souhthport has one of the lowest property taxes in the State, we raised the rate a couple of years ago to purchase some land,but dropped the rate back after it was bought and paid for.

I've heard Southport can be hard to get off of because of the drawbridge. Is this true?

BTW, do you know where this is? Is it in a good area? A bit out of our price range, but depending on what $$ they would accept, and the low taxes, may be do-able.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/561-Hendricks-Hill-Rd_S...

I live on Southport, and yes if the bridge is open you cannot get off or on. However this time of year it is on a schedule open every 1/2 hour. later in the year it will go to on demand for the commercial fishing boats. There are some affordable houses on the Island, but not many. We have a small school, PO, store, library, fishmarket, restaurant etc. typical Island community.

I have a friend who lives in Boothbay and he sais his taxes are a lot compared to other surrounding towns. And no, he's not on the water. Interestig thing about Boothbay is their water system is at capacity, so they cannot draw more from their sources. This means conservation efforts in the summer. They are exploring tying in with Bath, but it'd be a lot of money to do so.

Never considered southport since coastal property usually means much higher taxes than comparative inland towns. My apologies if my assumption is in error.

Boothbay tying in with BATH'S water supply?
Where do you get this stuff from? What size pipe are they going to run up Rte 1 and down 27?
Actually, Boothbay has two water supplies, sometimes in the summer they draw from #2.
Waterfront property everywhere is expensive and assessed highly.
Boothbay's tax rate is $7.67.

Where do I get this stuff from?

I work for one of the parties involved. THAT is where I get it from, firsthand knowledge. If it didn't cost so much due to ledge, it would be a viability and explored with more veracity. As it is right now it's a pipe dream (pun intended) due to expense. One large obstacle that was overcome was the river crossing, but unfortunately, Bintliff messed up when they did it since it's too small to expand that far out. If they had bothered to ask about pipe sizes, some guidance could have been given that would make life easier down the road for everyone on that side of the river.

Bath has the last, best water source of any size until you hit Bangor. All the ones in between are too small to accept any noticeable increase in population expansion without some issues.

All of these taxes look pretty low compared to what we pay right now in Auburn. Southport's are the lowest, by far, for the houses I've been looking at, followed by Jefferson. Wiscasset seems right up there with Auburn, but not *quite* as bad. Right now we pay $2600 for .17 acres, for our 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1000 sq.ft. house with 1 car garage and carport. The next street over pays over $5000 for less than an acre, 3-4 bedrooms and 2 baths. It's insane.

And on that note, anyone want to buy our house??? :):) Your kindergartner will get an iPad! And maybe learn how to write with a pencil... maybe...