My sister in law lives in Maine and said people in Maine call people from Massachusetts "Mass-holes" and people in Massachusetts call people from Maine "Maine-iacs".
Cold, long winters and few if any really big cities. Have family who live just outside Manchester (Hookset) and enjoy the rural NE scenery when I visit. NH ranks high on most top ten lists.
My nephew and his family live in Portland. It's an attractive city, especially in the summer, but home prices have gotten insanely expensive due to Boston people relocating up there. I personally couldn't afford anything decent there, but coming from SF, the market might look good to you. Lots of older stock.
You've likely never known cold in the U.S. unless you've done a New England winter (maybe the Dakotas are close.) The east coast has high humidity, and the cold in the northeast goes right through to your bones. You also pay high heating bills.
Maine in the summer is heavenly, but winter is a whole 'nuther story. New Hampshire has a lot of similarity. A number of my high school friends inherited family summer vacation homes in either Maine or New Hampshire.
The Mormon presence is negligible. New Englanders can take a long time to warm up to you, but once they do, you have a friend for life. Maine people don't have a lot of patience for glitz and glamour. L.L. Bean is more their speed.
Oh, and if you are in the U.S., you always, always go "down" to Maine, not up. See if you can figure out why. :)
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2021 07:03PM by summer.
TY, Yeah I know winter is a long cold beast up there, but I'd rather deal with that than a hot muggy summer in TX/MS/AL/GA the weather is weirdly perfect in California, that's why everyone wants to live here and why housing prices are nuts.
I lived in Portland for 2 years, ya, it's cold in winter [as in nor'easter cold] if you ski, lots of resorts within 2 hr drive, affordable health care, clean, safer than most places I've lived, spectacular autumns, great lobster rolls, didn't see a lot of sand beaches with the exception of Old Orchard Beach a fun summer resort town, south of Portland, I would live there again, Boston is 100 mi. away and the mo is insignificant there from my experience
NH offers tax advantages: no income or sales taxes. That's partly old Yankee philosophy of expecting people to look after themselves, and not depend on government largess. Also, public services are determined at the local level, which means property taxes may be high, especially so close to the Massachusetts border. The further you get from the southern border, the lesser the local taxes, with desirable vacation/resort areas being the exception.
Credit NH for providing the essential services at good costs. NH pays about 1/2 of Massachusetts does, but you'll notice the superior work the moment you you cross into the Granite State: smoother roads, wider berms and breakdown lanes, better guard rails, etc.
Winters? You get used to them. Most towns have snow plowing down to a good system.
Regarding Maine winters? Mark Twain said, "Maine is a state of two seasons: winter, and July."
Last: the reference to direction in Maine is actually "Down East" or "Downeast." (There is, or was, a state magazine with that name.) The phrase comes from navigating by sail from Boston: Your direction is "east(erly)," and "down-wind." Hence, "Down-East." This is especially true of the coastal region northeast of Bar Harbor, up to the Maritimes.