In a major demographic shift, growing numbers of wealthy retirees are moving to rural communities across a large swath of the country. This new migration trend portends significant changes to many quiet communities, increasing demand for products and services sometimes unavailable in out of the way places., such as wireless and other broadband internet access.

Some of the significant changes taking place as a result of this new rurally bound migration are outlined in an interesting article from The Wall Street Journal.

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Freeport, Maine is located only 12 miles by sea from Portland (15 miles by land), and two and a half hours from Boston. The population was around 7800 in the 2000 census. In addition to being the home of L.L. Bean, it’s also located near the Desert of Maine.

History & Development
Freeport was first settled around 1700, and was officially incorporated on February 14, 1789. The town developed as four villages – Mast Landing, Porter’s Landing, South Freeport and Freeport Corner.

Mast Landing is located at the head of tide on the Harraseeket River. The main industry their was shipping timber that was generally used for ships’ masts (hence the name). There was also a gristmill, sawmill and fulling mill, along with limited manufacturing.

Porter’s Landing was primarily involved in shipbuilding.

South Freeport was the largest of the seaside villages, and at one time had four shipyards. There was also fishing, canning and farming. In 1903, the Casco Castle and Amusement Park were built here to attract tourists on electric trolley cars. The castle was built mostly with wood, but did have a stone tower that still stands today (most of the castle, which served as a hotel, burned to the ground in 1914).

Freeport Corner was an inland village for farming and trade. In 1849 the railroad was established there and made it the commercial center of Freeport (which it still is today). In 1912, Leon Leonwood Bean opened a store in the basement of his brother’s apparel shop here, selling the “Bean Boot”, or Maine Hunting Shoe. L.L. Bean became so popular that in 1951 they started staying open 24 hours a day, and are now a multi-million dollar international mail-order company.

Recreation & Attractions
The Mast Landing Audobon Sanctuary is located at Mast Landing. This 140 acre sanctuary has open fields, a salt marsh, apple orchard, freshwater stream, and a mature evergreen forest. There are 3.5 miles of marked trails throughout the sanctuary. Mast Landing Camp has been operated as a summer day camp since 1965 for kids grades 2 through 10.

Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park is only five miles from the center of Freeport’s shopping district. The park consists of more than 200 acres that includes varied ecosystems including climax white pine and hemlock forests, a salt marsh estuary, and rocky shorelines. Ospreys are the park’s signature residents and nest on nearby Googins Island.

The Desert of Maine is also close by. The Desert was originally the Tuttle family farm, but due to overgrazing, lack of crop rotation, and land clearing led to soil erosion which exposed a dune of sand-like glacial silt. The initial exposed patch of sand gradually spread and overtook the entire farm, creating a “desert”. The Tuttles abandoned the land, sold it to Henry Goldrup, who created a tourist attraction out of it in 1925 (it’s still operated as a tourist attraction today).

Wolfe’s Neck Farm was established in 1947 by Eleanor Houston Smith and Lawrence M.C. Smith of Philadelphia. They began their natural farming operation with 9 cows and a bull and by 1959 had a herd of 40. Eleanor was a conservationist and wanted to preserve the open spaces of the farm (the farm has 626 total acres). They now provide educational programs and agricultural internships and have a strong alliance with the surrounding community. Visitors are always welcome. There are trails for hiking, space to kayak, fish or swim, and in the winter, there are opportunities for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

Other recreational opportunities fishing, beaches, botanical gardens, camping, cruises, golf, hiking and nature walks, lighthouses, shopping, theaters, sightseeing and more. There are plenty of restaurants in and around Freeport, especially seafood restaurants, but also ethnic, pizza, pub fare, vegetarian and natural and organic options.

Real Estate
Single family homes in Freeport start at well under $200,000 and top out at around $3.5 million. Condos start out at less than $120,000 and max out at less than $430,000.

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The most viewed vacation home on 2ndhome.net for the past week was this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom log home on .94 acres in Park City / Tollgate Canyon, Utah. It’s offered at $529,000 by Pine Meadows Properties.

The second most viewed vacation home was this 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom home in Port Aransas / Mustang Island, Texas. It’s listed at $995,000 by Port Aransas Realty.

The third most viewed vacation home was this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom waterfront home on .33 acres in Antioch, Illinois. It’s listed at $499,900 by All Waterfront Real Estate Plus.

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History
The city of Savannah (and Georgia itself) was officially founded on February 12, 1733 by James Oglethorpe. In 1751 Savannah and the rest of Georgia became a Royal Colony, and Savannah was made the colonial capital of Georgia. Savannah was under British and Loyalist control during the American Revolution, and in 1779 at the Siege of Savannah, American and French troops tried unsuccessfully to retake the city.

The Savannah Squares

The city of Savannah is built around squares. The first squares were originally intended to give the colonists space for military exercises. A square was established for each ward of the new city, and originally there were four: Johnson Square, Wright Square (originally Percival Square after Lord Percival, but renamed in 1763 to honor James Wright, the last of Georgia’s royal governors; it’s also known as Court House Square of Post Office Square), Ellis Square, and Telfair Square (originally known as St. James Square in honor of a green space in London, renamed in 1883 to honor the Telfair family; this was early Savannah’s most fashionable ward). The next two squares were Reynolds Square (originally Lower New Square), and Oglethorpe Square (originally Upper New Square). In the 1790’s came Washington, Franklin, Warren, Columbia, Greene, and Liberty Squares. In the nineteenth century Elbert, Chippewa (where Forest Gump was filmed), Orleans, Lafayette, Pulaski, Madison, Crawford, Chatham, Monterey, Troup, Calhoun and Whitefield Squares were all added.

After 1851, the grid of wards and squares was abandoned. Forsyth Park, just south of the Monterey Ward, was set up to serve as a single large park for Savannah’s southern population.

Attractions
Savannah has a large historic district which includes all of the wards and their respective squares mentioned above. Historic homes, cemeteries and forts are abundant, as are boutiques, restaurants and cultural activities. Savannah was named “America’s Most Haunted City” by the American Institute of Parapsychology in 2002, and there are ghost tours offered in the historic district. The Oatland Island Wildlife Center is a local zoo that features wildlife currently or previously found in the area.

There are a number of annual events and festivals including the Savannah Irish Festival in February, Savannah Music Festival in March, the Annual Tour of Homes and Gardens in March and April, Savannah Scottish Games and the Tybee Beach Bum Parade in May, the Blessing of the Fleet and Seafood Harvest Festival in June, Savannah Greek Festival, Oktoberfest and the Savannah Film Festival in October, the Tybee Kite Festival in November, and the Holiday Tour of Homes and the Festival of Trees and Lights in December.

Tybee Island is only a twenty minute drive from Savannah, and boasts miles of beach, historic forts and museums, an historic lighthouse, and endangered bird and animal species.

Accessibility
Savannah is easily accessible via Interstates 95 and 16. There is an airport in the area, and Amtrak has a passenger station that is serviced by the Palmetto and Silver Service trains that run from Boston to Miami (there are three northbound and three southbound trains every day). Savannah is also located on the U.S. Intracoastal Waterway.

Real Estate
Small homes in older subdivisions dating from the 50s through the 70s can be found for well under $100,000 (some start as low as $40,000). Historic properties in and around Savannah top out at over $5 million.

For more information about Savannah, visit SavannahVisit.com or Savannah.com.

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With another set of family holidays behind us, and a New Year before us, what is ahead in the rocky world of real estate? Will the mortgage crisis ease soon, or worsen? Will we tip into recession, or skate over the thin ice to firmer footing?

It might be wishful thinking on my part, but it seems that there are signs that a further plunge may be averted. To get there, it’ll take concerted efforts by both government and the private sector. Most important will be the attitude of the public toward what is happening around us. It is, after all, consumer spending and consumer confidence that is the primary engine of our vast economy.

Will the government, through our elected representatives, make smart moves to help those in need? And by those in need, I don’t mean hedge funds and mega banks. It is the mainstream, Main Street Americans, who are under siege that I worry about. And will those in the private sector who benefited from the boom times make the moral and rational choice to become constructively involved in helping the nearly 2 million homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure, due to rate resets?

This mess is a collective problem. John Kennedy said of the U.S. economy that a rising tide lifts all boats. We are not as yet in a rising tide. At the best, we are at slack tide. The issue is, is the water receding, or coming back in toward the shore? We can hope for the rising tide. But hope alone is insufficient. It will take hard work by families who are at risk, to tell their stories, for legislators and mortgage holders to hear those voices and heed the warnings and cries for help.

The fast-receding tide of a recession will wreck both leaky and sound boats. If something can be done to avert that threat, all of us will have to sacrifice something for the common good. And those of us lucky enough to own second homes need to be and ought to be supportive of those who are at risk of losing their only homes.

As my late brother used to say: hope for the best, expect the worst and take what comes. Here’s to the hopes for a more prosperous New Year. And here’s to hoping that the right things will be said and done by those in power to avert disaster. And as always, we all will have to resolve, since there isn’t any other choice, to take what comes.

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