Why are so many retirees flocking to Maine anyway given its climate?
If you're from someplace like Chicago or Buffalo, the Maine coast is "temperate" to you.
Rural areas go into a death spiral from two trends:
1. Outflow of young, working age people seeking job opportunities elsewhere.
2. Inflow of old, nonworking people who are on a fixed income and attracted to the low housing costs.
You can't have a viable city/community unless you have people at every stage of life. If you just have a bunch of old mouths to feed and no one to (literally or financially) feed them, you've got a problem.
