>https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-taxes

I spent some time once trying to find state SPENDING numbers, and although it ends up getting skewed because of states that in general are net contributors vs net beneficiaries of Federal dollars + military spending + deficit spending, over time, net revenue from taxes and spending will need to balance out. I basically took this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_budgets#cite_note-26 and tried to reason about it.

My guess is that state differ in how they treat local taxes & services vs state provided ones, as well as some states that have large 'external' income streams such as oil/timber/resources/tourism/federal spend, like Alaska & Hawaii, but have relative low populations end up spending more pr. capita.

The ~$1500/pr capita spend for Maine vs New Hampshire could all be state tax revenues from lobster rolls at Red's + federally subsidized BIW salaries, for example.

Watch "Blow the Man Down", to get a feel for the area (and the locals?), then try to hit as many filming locations as you can..giant staircase, cribstone bridge, and the restaurant on the other side is there, for instance.. great movie too!

https://www.landwatch.com/ is the best I've found, especially to search by region and acres.

Often, camps/cabins that may not be fully permitted aren't mentioned directly, but occasionally show up on photos and sometimes some reference might be made .

We were able to get some nice undeveloped land early in the pandemic. Seriously thinking about going back and taking another look some of the large 100acre, clearcut, "ugly" and inconveniently located parcels of land that we looked at that were relatively cheap. Seems like in 10-15 years from now the demand for such land might be vastly higher than now...

I'd highly recommend getting out the islands, although you might be a little short on time, depending on how long the conference goes, but if it's in downtown, the ferry beats driving and is like $10 or less. Peaks is the closest, and has the most restaurant options as well. Long Island is good. Others are less 'available' to the public unless you're staying there.. Come to think of it, that might not be a bad thing to just get a place on the island especially if work is paying for it..Peaks ferry runs something like hourly or more until fairly late, and takes15-20min

If not staying out there, should still be able to fish off the docks or walk to somewhere close (use Google Maps) . Have only fished off Cliff on my own boat, but have seen folks fishing on other islands.. Others may know more about specific spots.

Here's the Casco Bay Ferry schedules and site.. be sure to read about the islands & do some research! https://www.cascobaylines.com/schedules/

I looked at a yurt, but they are not cheap, nor particularly expandable or a whole lot better than a $200 bell tent (IMHO). especially if you're heading towards a cabin in the future. It all depends on the land you get and how undeveloped it is, but in our case it started with access. We needed a driveway permit, which starts the dialog with the CEO. In fact, as soon as you buy the land, you'll be interacting with the town folks over things like taxes. You can probably scoot by a few years "camping" for weekend getaways (we did, with a 16ft bell tent+cots) , but pretty quickly there will be questions about how you're handling the waste water disposal situation.