Very familiar with the area you are talking about. I would personally recommend Eastport over Jonesport. There’s a much greater sense of community in Eastport and your closer to Calais. Not sure if you have kids but the schools aren’t great in either Jonesport or Eastport but the Calais schools are the best in the area IMO.

As far as internet goes, if you don’t live down a long road then you’ll most likely be able to get Spectrum. Someone I know down there just got Starlink and they said that it works great. They do a lot of gaming and they have no complaints.

There is a lot of heroin use throughout Washington County but violence from drug use is rare, outside of domestic violence. Most of the jobs in this county are manual labor and often result in injuries leading to a higher level of opiates being prescribed which is in part why there is such a high level of heroin use.

Many people moving into this region from away really struggle with how remote the area is and making new friends. This is in part why I recommend Eastport over Jonesport. There are more community events in Eastport and your closer to Calais which has more going on. Calais also has the only movie theater in the county, unless Milbridge got there’s up and running. Also, if you have a passport, you can pop over into Canada and there’s a ton to do.

As far as housing goes, it’s near impossible to find a rent so I would recommend buying if you can afford it. You might be able to find someone that rents on AirBNB to rent to you for the off season while you find a place to buy. As far as buying goes, right now is a great time (I mean the market sucks but it’s better now than other times). Buying can be difficult from May to October while people from out of state are looking to buy a vacation home. If your going to settle for Eastport I’d look at buying in one of the surrounding towns. These could be Whiting, Robbinston, or Perry as some examples. Listings up towards Eastport are usually a bit less than down towards Jonesport, so long as it’s not waterfront. You should be able to find a decent house for $200-250K with a little chunk of land. If you want to go for Jonesport, I would buy something in Addison, Columbia, or Harrington. You’ll be able to get a nice house for $250-275K.

Best part of Downeast is the access to the outdoors. Spend your off time exploring the area. Pick a new hiking trail in a different town to hike each weekend. If your into hunting and fishing, join one of the sportmens clubs, good people there. Volunteer for one of the many nonprofits in the area. Check out the events going on at the University of Maine at Machias and get to know some people there.

If you have any other questions or want more info on the area feel free to PM me.

Edited to add: wherever you decide to live just make sure it’s within a 30 minute commute to your work. We don’t get as much snow in this region as we use to but lots of ice. Not uncommon for a 30 minute commute to become an hour commute in the winter, even with having AWD and snow tires.