Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Meg McGarvey is selling her modest Down East cabin for one of the most affordable ocean views in Maine. To her, this place is priceless.
Nearly 60 years ago, McGarvey’s husband Bill built this cabin perched high on a headland in Eastport. Bill was a ship captain who ran a herring carrier for many years, but he was handy and learned woodworking by growing up around builders.
“That’s where I started married life,” the 77-year-old McGarvey said. “We raised our children there.”
It’s a basic ranch on an acre with two beds, one bath and 900 feet of living space. But it boasts broad ocean views and a right of way to a private beach that would push the property into a luxury price point farther south. The asking price is now $450,000.
“It’s just an unbelievably gorgeous spot,” said listing agent Mike MacPhee of Due East Real Estate. “It’s got a 180 degree, beautiful panoramic view of Passamaquoddy Bay.”
The property boasts a large deck that serves as a “front row seat” for watching whales, porpoises, seals and the occasional otter as they pass by. Sitting out there feels like you’re sitting on the front of a ship, McGarvey said.
“I have my bedroom facing the water and in the mornings, I just sit on the end of my bed, and I can just gaze at the birds and the dawn,” McGarvey said.
The home itself is cozy. Among its unique features are the wooden carvings McGarvey had a local sculptor carve into her cabinets and backsplash, depicting nautical symbols like a ship or a seal.
Though the home is within walking distance to Eastport’s downtown shops and restaurants, it is fairly remote at the edge of Washington County. In part due to that and because it was listed during the winter, the property has been on the market for six months, MacPhee said.
It was originally listed at nearly $700,000. Since the price reduction, MacPhee said traffic has increased and he now expects it’ll be under contract soon. It already has a strong rental history, with people coming out to stay from as far as Louisiana. The potential for a property to generate rental income is a big selling point in Maine’s tight real estate market.
McGarvey, who has another, larger Eastport home she now lives in full-time, hopes the sale of this cabin will help fund some of her community work, which includes improving infrastructure at the local school. She is also a weaver and spinner who works with stained glass.
She’s taken note of the trend around Maine in which modest oceanfront homes are bought and flipped into multimillion-dollar properties. While she hopes that another community-involved artist-type takes it over, she’s not too upset by that prospect.
“You know, at some point you have to realize, you just let these places go,” she said.
