Buying a Home in the Portland, Maine Area: Casco Bay, the Islands, the Suburbs, the York County Coast and the Midcoast

At 56 Commercial Street on the Portland waterfront, the Casco Bay Lines boat to Peaks Island is loading cars. It is the only ferry in the bay that carries them, and it runs every day of the year. Seventeen minutes out, it ties up at an island with more than 900 year-round residents and its own elementary school. Five more islands, Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long Island, Chebeague and Cliff, get their mail, their freight and their neighbors off the same terminal, on a schedule that thins out in winter.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Maine through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work from Bluffton, South Carolina, and I wrote this page for anyone thinking about buying a home somewhere in the Portland area. If you are buying in the Portland area, the first thing to find out is which town the home is in, because that town sets the property tax bill and the rules on what you can add or build. I go town by town below, from the waterfront out, then cover the trains, buses and boats. After that comes the homework a Maine purchase asks for: the town's property tax rate, the water and the septic system, the road, and the flood map.

Portland: the peninsula, the neighborhoods and the islands

On Munjoy Hill, the Portland Observatory is the last maritime signal tower of its kind left in the country, and Greater Portland Landmarks runs it. Below it, the city lists the Eastern Promenade at 68.2 acres, and East End Beach at the foot of the hill is the only public beach in the city of Portland, according to the city's parks page. Across town, Deering Oaks covers 55 acres between Park Avenue and Interstate 295 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The market's own page has the Portland Farmers Market in Deering Oaks on Saturdays in the warm months, with the Wednesday market in Monument Square instead. Congress Street keeps changing too. Paak, a fast-casual café whose name means vegetable in Thai, opened at 650 Congress Street on September 12, 2026, according to Portland Food Map. Sawyer's Butcher & Delicatessen opened on August 7 with a whole-animal butcher counter and a sandwich café. Pho Viet opened in early August at 865 Forest Avenue, in the former Mekong Asian Bistro space.

The Bayside neighborhood is where the city's new housing is going up. The Portland Housing Authority began demolition early in 2026 on the block bounded by Cumberland, Oxford, Mayo and Boyd streets. It is replacing 40 apartments with 173 in three phases, with completion planned for late 2028 or early 2029, as the Press Herald reported in March 2026. Nearby, the planning board approved about 96 apartments on the former Oxford Street shelter site, by Avesta Housing and Reveler Development, as Maine Public reported in January 2025.

Portland's train station is moving. Federal funding will put a new Downeaster station on the main line along St. John Street, with two platforms, as the Press Herald reported in August 2026. The station stop that takes about 15 minutes today is expected to take about two.

If you are looking at a two-, three- or four-unit building in Portland and plan to live in one of the units, the city's rent control is worth reading before you count the rent. It has been in force since January 1, 2021, and it caps most rent increases at 70% of the change in the Greater Boston consumer price index each year. The City set the allowable increase for 2026 at 2.2%, according to Mainebiz. Units in an owner-occupied building of four or fewer units are exempt, and so are accessory dwelling units, so an owner-occupied small building is outside the cap.

On January 13, 2024, a storm pushed the tide in Portland Harbor past the record set in 1978. Wikipedia's account of the 2024 flood puts it at 14.57 feet above the average low tide that the tide charts measure from, with water in the Old Port and around Back Cove. Afterward the city commissioned a new coastal flood study and sent FEMA a Letter of Map Revision for some coastal properties, as Maine Public reported. If you are looking at a home near the water in Portland, the current FEMA map for that address is worth pulling. A revision like that can move a property into or out of the zone where a lender requires flood insurance.

Casco Bay Lines runs passenger, freight, mail and vehicle ferries from 56 Commercial Street to Peaks, Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long Island, Chebeague and Cliff islands 365 days a year, and its schedule thins sharply in winter. Peaks Island is about 17 minutes from the terminal and has more than a dozen departures a day, according to the Island Institute's community profile. It is part of the City of Portland, with its own branch of the Portland Public Library. On the other five islands, the Casco Bay Lines boat carries passengers and freight but not vehicles. So if you are looking at a home on one of them, your furniture gets there on the freight boat's schedule, and getting a car over is a separate question for that island. Please ask about both before you plan a move.

MaineHealth's Maine Medical Center in Portland is the largest hospital in the state, and MaineHealth is the region's largest employer, according to Greater Portland Inc's major employers list. Northern Light Mercy Hospital has been consolidating onto its Fore River Parkway campus and leaving its State Street building, a project Mainebiz has followed. Unum and TD Bank are large employers in Portland, and WEX is headquartered in South Portland, IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook and L.L.Bean in Freeport.

South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough

Bug Light Park in South Portland has the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse and, as the city's parks page tells it, a memorial to the Liberty ships built on that ground in the Second World War. Willard Beach looks out at Cushing Island and Ram Island Light, and the paved Greenbelt Walkway crosses the city with its eastern end at Bug Light. On November 3, 2026, the city is asking voters to approve a general-obligation bond for a new fire and police station. That kind of bond is a loan the city pays back out of its taxes, and the ballot wording is on the city's election notice.

On Route 1 at Exit 4, MaineDOT is rebuilding the road between Billy Vachon Avenue and the I-295 southbound on-ramp, including the ramp from the Veterans Memorial Bridge. The work is expected to finish in fall 2026, so a commute over that bridge runs through it until then.

Cape Elizabeth owns Fort Williams Park, about ninety acres around Portland Head Light, and the town lists athletic fields, an off-leash dog area and a small beach inside it. Two Lights State Park and Crescent Beach State Park are in the same town.

Scarborough Marsh is the largest salt marsh in Maine, and Maine Audubon's center there runs guided walks and rents canoes in season. The Eastern Trail crosses the marsh on an old rail bed from its trailhead on Pine Point Road, and the town's beaches include Higgins Beach, Pine Point Beach at Hurd Park and Scarborough Beach State Park.

The Downs is a master-planned community on the 577 acres of the former Scarborough Downs harness track, with 2,000 homes planned and more than 700 complete. M&R Development is building it, with Risbara Bros. Construction of Scarborough as the general contractor, and Mainebiz has followed the sales. If you are looking at a home there, the town keeps its own Scarborough Downs project page with the approvals and plans, so you can see what is approved around the lot you like.

On November 4, 2025, Scarborough voters approved a project to demolish and rebuild Eight Corners School and add one-story additions at Blue Point and Pleasant Hill to replace portable classrooms. The town's election results show the same vote covered work at Wentworth and Scarborough Middle School. Scarborough has also charged a school impact fee on new homes since 2002. An impact fee is a one-time charge on new construction that helps pay for the schools, parks or roads the new homes will use, and the current amount is on the town's impact fee page. If you are buying new there, please ask the builder whether it is already in the price.

Westbrook, Gorham, Windham and the Sebago side

Rock Row in Westbrook has been under construction since 2019 on a former quarry, and its developers announced a third phase in April 2026. The Press Herald reported that construction is expected to start in April 2027, with retail, restaurant and office space opening later that year, then a 119-room Element by Westin hotel and 279 homes finishing in 2028. Mainebiz reported that Northern Light Mercy Hospital is opening primary and cardiovascular care at the Rock Row Health Campus, including echocardiography and cardiac stress testing.

Downtown Westbrook has its own project on the south bank of the Presumpscot River. WGME describes about 110 market-rate apartments and restaurant space on the former Sappi power plant lot and the old American Journal building. It comes with an extension of the Downtown River Boardwalk toward Saccarappa Island, and it still needs Maine DEP and MaineDOT approval. Riverbank Park, behind Main Street, already has paved paths along the river, and the city library is in the 1894 Walker Memorial building on Main Street.

The Press Herald reported in May 2026 that Gorham had the largest one-year population gain of any town in Maine in 2025, in its report on the shift to the suburbs. A high school bond is headed for the November 2026 ballot. The Press Herald reports that most of it would replace two portable classroom buildings that were put up to last 15 years and have been in use for about 35. Gorham has also asked the Maine Department of Education for a new high school and a new elementary school that would consolidate Narragansett and Village elementary schools. Baxter Memorial Library lends state park passes, telescopes and games on a library card.

The Gorham Connector was a proposed four-lane highway from South Portland through Westbrook and Scarborough to Gorham. The Maine Turnpike Authority stopped work on it in March 2025, the same month Westbrook withdrew its support, as the Bangor Daily News reported. MaineDOT is to lead a study of rush-hour traffic across Gorham, Scarborough, South Portland and Westbrook. In July 2025 the Press Herald described the project as "dormant, but not dead." If you will be commuting from Gorham, Standish or Windham, I would judge the drive by the roads that are there today.

In a July 2025 report, the Press Herald called Windham's new middle school the most expensive state-funded school project in Maine to date, with about three-quarters of the cost paid by the state. On Tandberg Trail, M&R Development's Windham Village is 172 one- and two-bedroom apartments and condominiums for middle-income households, some for sale and some for rent. Mainebiz has the first 36 scheduled to be ready by the end of 2026. Windham also charges an open-space impact fee on a new home that varies with the bedroom count, so please ask the town for the current schedule.

The state's fishing guide puts Sebago Lake State Park on the north shore of the lake in Casco, with one of the improved trailered launches, and the Town of Standish launch on Route 35 is another. Dundee Park is the one public beach the Town of Windham runs. A camp on one of these lakes brings Maine's shoreland zone with it, and often a private road with its own plowing bill.

Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport

Falmouth Town Landing, at the end of Town Landing Road, has the largest mooring field in Maine, and the town's harbor page notes a small public beach beside the ramp. A causeway reaches Mackworth Island, where a 1.4-mile loop trail runs the shoreline, and Maine Audubon keeps its headquarters at Gilsland Farm, a 65-acre sanctuary on the Presumpscot estuary. OceanView at Falmouth, the retirement community, broke ground on 34 apartments and three cottages with completion targeted by the end of 2026, per Mainebiz.

The Press Herald reported in August 2025 that Yarmouth passed a building moratorium for the part of town served by the Royal River Pump Station, about 19% of the town's land, because the station had reached capacity. It paused construction that would add sewer flow in that area, including detached dwelling units and renovations that add bedrooms.

The Town Council amended the moratorium in December 2025 to allow a new ground-floor bedroom for a person with a disability, and extended it in February 2026 through August 31, 2026. The town posts the current status on its Building Moratorium Updates & FAQs page, so if you are buying in Yarmouth with plans to add on, that page is the one to read first. Royal River Park follows the river through the middle of town, past the falls the old mills were built on, and the Yarmouth Farmers Market runs Thursday afternoons at 200 Main Street from May through October.

The Press Herald covered the September 2026 reopening of L.L.Bean's flagship store on Main Street in Freeport after a closure of nearly two years. The company calls the overhaul "the Freeport Experience," and it brought a redesigned entrance, a larger multi-level trout pond and an enlarged café over Main Street. Downtown, two housing projects will add 96 apartments and condominiums, one of them Depot Terraces, a four-story 45-unit condominium building, per Avesta Housing. Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park is day use, on the neck between the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay, and Winslow Memorial Park at the end of Staples Point Road has a tidal beach, camping and a launch onto the bay.

Brunswick and Bath: the Midcoast end

Brunswick Landing is the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, redeveloped by the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, and apartments keep going up there. Mainebiz reported that Atlantic Pointe's second phase adds 64 apartments to the 181 built in its first. On August 19, 2024, a fire-suppression system at Hangar 4 at Brunswick Executive Airport discharged 1,450 gallons of PFAS firefighting foam concentrate, the largest accidental spill of that foam in Maine's history. If you are looking at a home near the Landing, Maine DEP's release on the spill and its follow-up pages are the place to read about the testing and cleanup.

MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital, a 93-bed hospital at 123 Medical Center Drive in Brunswick, serves the Midcoast end of the metro. Curtis Memorial Library lends fourteen museum and attraction passes, more than any other library in the Brunswick and Bath area, and Bowdoin College runs the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on its campus. The Brunswick Farmers Market runs at Crystal Spring Farm in the warm months and moves indoors to the Fort Andross mill complex on Maine Street for winter.

Bath Iron Works builds the Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers on the Kennebec. The Press Herald reported in May 2026 that the Navy awarded it another, DDG-149, to be named for Robert R. Ingram, a Navy hospital corpsman and Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. Downriver, the Maine Maritime Museum is on the grounds of the old Percy and Small shipyard. Morse High School has been on its Shipbuilder Drive campus since 2021, shared with the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center. In 2022 the Press Herald covered the City of Bath taking over the old Morse High building, with plans for a fire station in part of it. Downtown, the Bath Farmers Market runs on the waterfront in the warm months and moves into the Freight Shed on Commercial Street for winter.

Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Sanford

The city's planning department describes Biddeford's Mill District as about two million square feet of mill space along the Saco River being turned into homes, offices and a RiverWalk. Named projects include Lincoln Mill, with 148 lofts, a restaurant, a rooftop pool and a 33-room hotel, and The Eleven at 50 Laconia Street, with 76 apartments, per Mainebiz. Some mill conversions are rentals and some are condominiums, and on a condominium the association's dues become part of your monthly payment.

If a mill loft is on your list, you have a lot of open space close by. The city's parks page lists Rotary Park at 72 acres on the Saco River, with the city dog park, a boat launch and a swimming beach. Clifford Park covers more than 240 acres on Pool Street, with trails for walking, biking and skiing. Southern Maine Health Care, part of MaineHealth, is the hospital in Biddeford, with a second campus in Sanford. Across the river in Saco, the Saco Museum shares its Main Street building with the Dyer Library, and Ferry Beach State Park is off Route 9 on Bay View Road, between Old Orchard Beach and Camp Ellis.

Old Orchard Beach's pier runs 500 feet into the Atlantic, and The Maine Beaches dates it to 1898, rebuilt several times after storms and fires. On April 21, 2026, the town held a public hearing on 18 single-family homes proposed for 2.05 acres at 4 New Colony Drive. The developer asked for a contract zone, which means the town would approve zoning written for that one parcel in return for conditions the developer agrees to, and the town's hearing notice has the details. The town library is on Staples Street, a few blocks back from the pier.

In Sanford, Chinburg Properties is converting the Jagger Mill at 5 Water Street into 86 market-rate apartments, with units expected in fall 2026. The City of Sanford has called it the largest mill redevelopment in the city's history. Gowen Memorial Park, 20 acres willed to the town in the 1930s, has a stone gazebo built above Number One Pond in 1937. The Sanford Farmers Market runs Saturdays on Main Street from the first Saturday in May to the last Saturday in October.

Kennebunk, Wells, York and Kittery

The Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport calls itself the oldest and largest electric railway museum in the world, and its visitor page includes a ride on a restored trolley with admission. In Kennebunk, Mainebiz reports a 24-unit condominium project under construction, and Gooch's Beach needs a town parking sticker in summer, sold at Kennebunk Town Hall.

WGME reported that Kennebunk has been reviewing about 100 new homes from three developers: single-family homes on Alfred Road, duplexes on Thompson Road and multi-family on Water Street. A planned 192-unit manufactured-housing community in West Kennebunk, with at least half the homes priced for households at or below 80% of the county's median income, is targeted to start construction in summer 2027.

In Wells, you have two large protected stretches of coast to walk. The Wells Reserve at Laudholm manages 2,250 acres of coastal habitat with seven miles of trails, and the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge's headquarters trail on Port Road is a one-mile loop built for wheelchairs and strollers. Wells Beach is reached down Mile Road off Route 1, and Drakes Island Beach is 2,800 feet of sand backed by natural dunes at the end of Drakes Island Road.

In York, you will want to know how the beaches work in summer before you count on them. York Parks and Recreation runs metered parking along Long Beach Avenue at Long Sands Beach and keeps a public restroom at the halfway point, and Short Sands parking is in the Ellis Park lot off Ocean Avenue. Behind the beaches, the Mount Agamenticus Conservation Region takes in about 10,000 acres, one of the larger undeveloped forest blocks left on the New England coast. If you plan to rent a York home short term, the town posts a short-term rental FAQ, and the current rule is the one to read before you count on the income.

Kittery is across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in Kittery, on the Maine side of the river. More of its civilian workers live in Maine than in New Hampshire, and the shipyard's own list of hiring obstacles includes local housing supply and cost, per Mainebiz. If you are relocating to the shipyard on orders or buying as a veteran, how VA loans work in Maine covers entitlement, the funding fee and the veterans property tax exemptions you file with the town by April 1. Fort McClary's 1844 blockhouse stands at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and Fort Foster Park is on the southwest tip of Gerrish Island, on a fort that was active from 1901 to 1946.

Getting around: the Turnpike, 295, the train, the bus and the boat

The Maine Turnpike carries I-95 through the area, and I-295 is the interstate through Portland itself. The Maine Turnpike Authority is repairing the Broadturn Road, I-295 southbound and Maine Mall Road underpasses in Scarborough and South Portland, with completion projected for November 20, 2026.

Amtrak's Downeaster runs five daily round trips over 145 miles between Boston's North Station and Brunswick, with 12 stops, and its schedule page has a new schedule taking effect October 19, 2026. Greater Portland Metro's BREEZ is the express bus between Portland, Yarmouth, Freeport and Brunswick, with 17 weekday round trips and six on Saturdays, per Metro. A BREEZ pilot to Bath Iron Works ran from July 7, 2025 and ended in the fall of 2026, and Metro's new Route 25 along Route 1 in Scarborough was scheduled to start October 4, 2026. Residents, freight and mail reach the six islands on the Casco Bay Lines boats from 56 Commercial Street, every day of the year, and the Peaks Island boat also carries cars.

The homework: what to look up on any Portland-area address

Each item here is a thing to look up on an address, and most of them take one phone call or one web page.

The town's property tax and its mil rate

Maine property tax is a town matter. The town assessor values the home, and the town sets one mil rate. A mil rate is the tax on each $1,000 of assessed value, so a rate of 12 means $12 of tax on every $1,000 the assessor says the home is worth. That one rate covers the schools, the town and the county's share, and the bill is the assessed value times the rate. Each town publishes its current rate, and South Portland's is on its FY26 tax bills notice.

Portland revalued its property for FY26, and Mainebiz reported that assessed values rose while the rate fell. So when you compare two homes in two towns, please compare the actual tax bills rather than the rates. Maine's Homestead Exemption takes a fixed amount off the assessed value of a home you live in, and it is filed with the town office where the home is. That is the same office that handles the veterans exemptions covered on the Maine VA loans page.

The transfer tax is split in half by statute

Maine's real estate transfer tax is figured on the price, and 36 M.R.S. § 4641-A puts half of it on the seller and half on the buyer. Your half is a line in your cash to close that you can estimate the day you know your price, and the Maine page explains why that split is unusual. If this is your first home and you are using a MaineHousing loan, the first-time buyer exemption can take the transfer tax off the deed.

Radon, the well and the septic system

Maine CDC estimates about one in three Maine homes has radon in the air above the EPA action level, and it publishes county-by-county estimates on its radon page. Once a home is listed for sale, a tester registered with the state has to run the test, and a home on a drilled well gets a separate water test. My article on who can run your radon tests in Maine walks through how to fit both inside an inspection window.

More than half of Maine homes draw their water from a private well, and Maine CDC recommends testing every three to five years for arsenic, uranium, radon and the rest of its list. Maine's seller disclosure form asks whether the water has ever been tested, what the results were and when. The same form asks about radon in the air and in the water, so please read those answers before you book anything. State law also requires that information about arsenic in well water be given to the buyer in a sale, and Maine CDC's real estate fact sheets are what you will be handed.

A great pond is Maine's legal name for a pond of more than ten acres. On a home with its own septic system within 250 feet of a great pond, a river or a saltwater body, Maine law puts the inspection on you as the one buying, before the purchase, by a state-certified inspector. A system found malfunctioning has to be repaired or replaced within a year after the transfer. Buying Maine shoreland property covers who may inspect and the four situations that work differently.

The shoreland zone and what you can add to a camp

The same 250-foot band back from the water is Maine's shoreland zone, and inside it the town's rules set how far from the water a structure has to be and how much an existing camp can grow. A structure that was lawful when it was built can stay and can be sold, even if it is closer to the water than today's setback allows, according to Maine DEP's handbook for shoreland owners. The limits are on expansion: the rules measure growth against the structure's footprint on January 1, 1989, and nothing within 25 feet of the water can be expanded at all. If you are buying a camp with a renovation in mind, the town's code enforcement office can tell you what that footprint allows before you make an offer.

Private roads and road associations

Many lake and coastal homes here are on private roads, and Maine has a statute for who pays to keep them up. Under 23 M.R.S. § 3101, when four or more parcels use a private road, any three owners can call a meeting through a notary public and form a road association. Without an association or a written agreement, 23 M.R.S. § 3121 has each owner who uses the road as their main access share equally in reasonable repair and maintenance. The statute's definition of maintenance includes plowing, sanding, grading, gravel, culverts and ditches. That cost is not part of the asking price, so please ask the seller for the road agreement and last year's share before you compare the home with one on a town road.

Flood insurance

A standard homeowners policy does not cover flood, including the storm surge from a nor'easter, so a coastal or riverfront purchase carries a separate flood policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private carrier. South Portland keeps its own FEMA flood map page, and Portland sent FEMA a map revision for some of its coastal properties after the January 2024 flood. For a property in FEMA's high-risk area, the Special Flood Hazard Area, a lender requires flood insurance and the premium is part of your monthly payment. Buying a home in a flood zone shows how to price it in before you make an offer.

Heat, and the age of the home

The Bangor Daily News calls Maine the most heating-oil-dependent state in the country for home heating. The state reached its goal of 100,000 new heat pumps in 2023, two years early, and set a target of 175,000 more by 2027, per the Governor's Energy Office. So on any home you like, please ask what heats it, whether a heat pump has been added, and what the fuel cost last winter. That number is part of your monthly budget even though it is outside the mortgage payment.

MaineHousing's overview ranks Maine's housing stock the eighth-oldest in the country, with 56% of homes built before 1980, and Maine CDC says about 80% of homes built before 1978 could contain some lead paint. The seller disclosure form asks about lead paint, asbestos and radon, and on a pre-1978 home you will also receive the federal lead disclosure. An inspection that looks closely at the heating system, the wiring and the paint is worth scheduling on an older home.

Condominiums, and who runs the closing

If you are buying a condominium, in a downtown building or a converted mill, the association's dues are part of the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on. For the sale, the association hands over one packet, called the resale certificate, with its budget, the money it has set aside for repairs, its dues and its rules, so you can see what those dues cover. Please ask for it early, because Maine gives you five days after it arrives to read it and decide. Maine is not a mandatory attorney-closing state, so you can close with a title company or with an attorney, and the Maine page explains what a settlement agent can and cannot do for you.

These facts and your mortgage payment

Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York counties share one set of 2026 loan limits because they are one metro area. HUD lists all three as high-cost counties, the only three in Maine. So the FHA loan limit here is set higher than the base FHA limit, the lowest one used anywhere in the country, which is what applies in the state's other 13 counties. The limits are in the box below this article, and conforming versus jumbo loans explains what changes when a loan goes above the conforming limit.

Property tax at the town's mil rate, homeowners insurance, flood insurance where the map requires it, and any condominium dues are all part of the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on. Your half of the transfer tax is part of your cash to close. A road association's share and the heating bill are in your household budget rather than in the loan, and I would rather we look at them together up front than have them surprise you in February.

Once you're ready, you can run your numbers for a purchase anywhere in these three counties: rates for your scenario and Maine closing costs, with no credit pull and no account. Choose a rate option that works best for you, and the application opens from there. That selection is not locked in, and you can change it as your plans or the market change.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The assessed value of a specific home and the exemptions on it are set by that town's assessor, so please confirm them with the town office.

Common questions

Is Brunswick, Maine in Cumberland County or Sagadahoc County?

Brunswick and Harpswell are in Cumberland County. Topsham, across the Androscoggin River from downtown Brunswick, and Bath, on the Kennebec, are in Sagadahoc County. All three of this metro's counties share one set of 2026 loan limits. Maine property tax is set and billed by the town rather than the county, so the county matters less to your purchase than it would in most states.

Can I take my car on the ferry to Peaks Island?

Yes. Casco Bay Lines runs vehicle service to Peaks Island from 56 Commercial Street in Portland, and Peaks is the only island in the bay whose ferry carries vehicles. The boats to Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long Island, Chebeague and Cliff carry passengers and freight, so on those islands please ask how a car and your belongings reach the island before you plan a move.

Is the Gorham Connector still happening?

The Maine Turnpike Authority stopped work on the proposed four-lane highway from South Portland through Westbrook and Scarborough to Gorham in March 2025, the same month Westbrook withdrew its support. MaineDOT is to lead a study of rush-hour traffic across Gorham, Scarborough, South Portland and Westbrook. In July 2025 the Press Herald described the project as "dormant, but not dead." I would judge a commute from Gorham, Standish or Windham by the roads that are there today.

Does Portland, Maine have rent control, and does it apply to a building I live in?

Yes, Portland has had rent control since January 1, 2021. It caps most rent increases at 70% of the change in the Greater Boston consumer price index, set each September, and the City set the allowable increase for 2026 at 2.2%. Units in an owner-occupied building of four or fewer units are exempt, and so are accessory dwelling units. So if you buy a two-, three- or four-unit building and live in one of the units, the cap does not apply to the others.

Who pays to plow a private road in Maine?

The owners who use it. Under 23 M.R.S. § 3101, when four or more parcels use a private road, any three owners can form a road association through a notary public. Without an association or a written agreement, 23 M.R.S. § 3121 has each owner who uses the road as their main access share equally in repair and maintenance. The statute's definition of maintenance includes plowing, sanding, grading, gravel, culverts and ditches. Please ask the seller for the road agreement and last year's share.

Is Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine or New Hampshire?

It is in Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. More of its civilian workers live in Maine than in New Hampshire. If you are relocating there on orders, how VA loans work in Maine covers entitlement, the funding fee and the veterans property tax exemptions you file with the town by April 1.

Do I need an attorney to close on a home in Maine?

No. Maine is not a mandatory attorney-closing state, so a title company or an attorney can conduct the closing, and you choose. A settlement agent cannot give you legal advice, so if you have a title question or a dispute, that part stays with a lawyer. The Maine page explains the difference.