Huh?

Not wrong though.

Despite the vitriol in these comments, Freeport does have a sizable affording housing stock compared to other "wealthy" Portland suburbs. Freeport High School has about 15% free/reduced lunch. Compare that to other high schools in coastal towns within 20 minutes of Portland:

Scarborough - 8%

Yarmouth - 6%

Greely - 4%

Falmouth - 3%

Cape Elizabeth - 3%

Brunswick is slightly higher at 21%.

It's all about squeezing the maximum amount of property taxes out of each new resident. Everyone loses their mind at the thought of property taxes going up, so the developments that get approved are $700,000+ units on a private road that is directly off of a state road. This isn't coincidental. Freeport at least has a decent commercial tax base that keeps the mill rate low.

But still good public schools, so people with children pay big money. Freeport prices are comparable to Yarmouth and Cumberland which are similarly sized towns.

Two different people and the police chief is a her.

This isn't the first time Freeport residents have tried to block a housing development. The area is still growing quickly, but it's all $700,000+ houses like Renee Rd and Peter Robin Way. Pownal and Durham are lockstep in this too.

Yes. Former police chief and someone who has lived there for 40 years.

They are mailing physical checks instead of direct deposit?

Another great recommendation.

I can vouch for Meridian's.

Propane combination boiler.

The silver lining here is that evictions are still lower than in 2019 and every year in the chart before 2019 except for 2009. I don't think we've seen the bottom fall out yet, however. Mainers are resilient and are scraping by but at some point something has to give.

That's not bad at all. Our house is around ~1800sq ft and we also use around 400-500 gallons of propane a year (combination boiler, gas range, and gas fireplace). I'm looking to add an R32 heat pump to our open first floor because we have a slightly oversized solar array. Have you received your January 2023 CMP bill yet with the 50% supply-side increase?

Probably. I know geothermal systems are always ducted and air source ducted systems are less common in colder climates due to being less efficient.

Ducted geothermal?

Nice. That's my HVAC dream but retrofits seem so expensive due to the ductwork. Was your ductwork already present?

68 downstairs and 64 upstairs during the day. Reversed at night.

I mean, there are almost 200 million R32 units deployed worldwide. It's North America that took forever to adopt it because of Honeywell. The alternative A2L refrigerants, R452B and R454B, are less efficient and proprietary blends. Honeywell's own R-466A isn't getting much traction either.

Regardless, even if companies are going to eventually move away from R32 - they are already mandated to move away from R-410A so R32 is still a better purchase at this time.

Energy Star reports simply list SEER/EER and HSPF. Heat pumps perform differently depending on the outdoor temperature. When I was sizing heat pumps for my Portland house I used degree-days data along with the Energy Star rating of my existing boiler and the setting of my thermostat to determine how many BTUs I used. Any response I get here might be anecdotal, but the response could still be cross-referenced against degree-days data.

Yeah, I have all of the submittal sheets and whatnot but if there's someone here who has used both at the same residence they might have an idea of the kWh impact each one had on their monthly usage.

It's what houses cost in Southern Maine right now. These are on the lower end of pricing too.

Prices in our neighborhood have been in the range of $210/sq ft - $288/sq ft. Ours was around $235. This is in Durham and includes the land.

Fortin Construction. They offer turnkey packages so you don't need a construction loan. You'll likely need 20% down, however, unless you already have land. It's worth mentioning that you will pay more to build now that homes aren't appreciating by 20% a year any longer. You also will be in a holding pattern waiting to find out what your mortgage rate will be as the building process is likely ~2 years at this point. All that said, we love our Fortin Construction home and would choose them again in a heartbeat.

Your employer's plan will easily be the best option if you don't qualify for anything else due to income level.