More and more real estate buyers are thinking Maine, live here, work anywhere.
The Maine real estate calls into our rural Aroostook County office tell the tale.
It’s families moving in, houses filling up, schools gaining student enrollments, and small businesses welcoming new customers.
Remote work is turning Maine around — not just in Portland or the coast, but right here in Aroostook County, all the sixteen counties.
It’s no longer the old story of “no jobs in Maine.” It’s a new story: “Live here, work anywhere.”
Online living in Maine but working anywhere is a reality.
Reliable high speed Internet connectivity is the game changer.
No longer does a young family wanting to raise their kids in wholesome Maine pack the wagon.
Have to leave for more higher paying jobs in a population center.
Remote worker employment often means higher incomes than the local average, which helps support schools, municipal budgets and small Maine town community programs.
What’s the roof like on a property or is there a garage is just as critical as another question asked with greater frequency.
How’s the Internet broadband service at that Maine real estate property listing location?
Remote work is reshaping opportunities. Maine no longer has to rely on job loss replacement for timber, paper mills, potato farming, fishing and small manufacturing industries.
Grab a bar of soap and keep it handy for the local resident that still growls or mutters “no jobs in Maine”.
Ask many young people who outward migrated to southern New England for higher paying jobs if there was more employment opportunities, would you stay in Maine?
Remote work is a game changer that shifts the focus away from lack of traditional, in-person small Maine town and rural county employment opportunities.
The rise of telecommuting and online work is showing geography matters less.
That you can hold a job with employers in Boston, New York or even California while calling Maine your home. Many big companies are seeing it is cheaper to sub contract the freelancing, consulting, online business functions to online remote telecommuters.
Before Internet connected the state of Maine, rural meant woods, water, wildlife, few people.
Off the beaten path, taking hours to travel back and forth and a harder option for rural remote Maine to compete for business.
The Internet removed the “too far away” aspect. Blew open the Maine real estate market restriction to an audience that is now global not just local.
It made it easier to deliver information on Maine tourism.
To serve up personal experience testimonials from case after case of telecommuters who packed their current job there.
And moved it along to a new Maine location with all their other personal belongings and loved ones to “Vacationland.
Remote work makes if more realistic for younger Mainers or newly relocated to the state folks to stay, to buy homes and contribute locally while working globally.
Maine markets itself as a “quality of life” state. Loaded with natural four seasons beauty, the 4th lowest crime stat, no traffic and an intimate small town community vibe.
With remote work, these unspoiled Maine advantages tug hard on the heart strings of workers who are fed up, sick and tired. Who no longer need to be near corporate urban bub population centers. Local communities, organization and the state got on the bandwagon early. Live here, work anywhere. Maine.
Rural Maine where I live is ahead of the Internet connectivity curve.
In the East Grand Lake region as a recent example, Fidium has strung glass fiber high speed Internet broadband all over the northern Washington and southern Aroostook County. You want 500 meg speed of thought Internet connectivity? Pioneer Broadband Internet is another local Maine company options leading the charge to offer Internet in places that did not have it.
Dial in the speed like remember the old Sunoco gas pumps? To boost performance with street legal race track high performance octane 360 grade in your muscle car back in the 1970’s.
If you work online remotely it is a given that all your higher income goes to support the local small Maine town economy? Probably not. But having the Fed Ex or UPS truck deliver whatever you used to get in the higher population city setting is part of the decision making moving to work remotely in Maine.
You no longer have to trade off all the perks thanks to the same Internet connection that offers go away you want to live employment options.
The influx of new remote online works has helped cause the shortage of affordable housing and the knee jerk for local contractors and communities to get behind new home construction. The what is being built to sell though has to match the market.
Your typical Maine home buyer is looking for affordable not luxury unless parked amount the pricey coastal zip codes of Maine.
The Internet has helps home buyers consider their lifestyle choice and where best in Maine to live it out completely.
Like say your passion to ski. It meant the Sugarloaf or Sunday River area built golf courses. Uses the snow ski lift for fall leaf foliage color peeking. Other events added to the local Maine landscape to make what used to be seasonal resorts into to year round full service ones.
Horse lovers are invited to build a new house complete with a stable to bring Flicker or Bullet with you to ride the Maine mountain woods trails.
Remote work can reverse out migration trends and help young Mainers stay home while building careers.
Working remotely helps attract newcomers drawn by Maine’s quality of life. Clean air, community spirit, safety and outdoor year round recreation. The higher income strengthens small local community economies.
Freelance, consulting and digital businesses are giving people more job employment options than ever before.
For Maine, the benefits are telecommuting and working remotely retains young people who want to stay close to family but still build careers.
The challenge is building new housing stock to fill the needs of local and new incoming house buyers. Developers have to consider what the market needs, what is lacking and would quickly sell if it was built to meet the price point.
The building a house in Maine loaded with a slew of convenience features is great if you can afford it and for your own personal preferences.
But simple, affordable ranch and cape style house structures are what is needed in rural Maine. Maine is 450 small communities, plantations and a handful of cities and the housing stock
has to match the need and price range the new home buyer can afford.
It’s now new jobs not no jobs in Maine.
For years, people described Maine — especially rural Maine — as a place with “no jobs.”
The story was familiar: paper mills shut down, farms consolidated, manufacturing moved away, and young people left for Boston, Portland, or beyond in search of salary and career opportunity.
But today, that story is changing in Maine.
Live in Maine, work anywhere!
Remote work and telecommuting are quietly reshaping our state — and a Maine real estate broker, it is exciting to see the change up close, every single day.
Young Mainers that had to leave the state to “make a living” are returning home.
Their current out of state employer does not want to lose them and their rural Maine work ethic. The moving back to Maine family brings the job they already have.
Out of state buyers are moving in, sometimes sight unseen, because they can pack their current job and don’t need to replace it.
Retirees looking for a slower pace now have child or grandchildren who can follow them north because remote work is possible.
Today broadband availability in Maine matters as much as proximity to a mill or employer once did.
If Maine leans into the shift from live here, work anywhere. And if she continues to invest in broadband and promotes the clean unspopiled, simple lifestyle and supports new housing development.
Then Maine can turn “no jobs” into “new jobs”. Housing demand in Maine is the earliest signal of population and job trends. And the job trend is move, stay, live in Maine, work anywhere.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton Maine 04730