In several surprising areas of Maine, the housing market appears to be slightly cooling after years of soaring sale prices.
Sale prices in these communities — particularly those in southern Maine — still sit well above Maine’s median home sale price of $380,000, unaffordable on the average household income. But the downturn in prices signals that demand for housing might be steadying. A huge, pandemic-era wave of in-migration has since settled, and high interest rates — expected to top 7 percent in the coming weeks — mean homeowners are hesitant to enter the market, realtors say.
“Some buyers that were thinking they would be active in the market right now have pumped the brakes, or slowed down their search, in hopes that the interest rates might come down a bit,” Julie Williams, the designated broker and owner of Bangor-based ERA Dawson Bradford Co., said.
Those high interest rates, coupled with low housing inventory, mean it’s not only buyers holding back. Sellers are, too, Williams said, with many unsure if they’ll find a place to move to once their property is sold.
Here are four Maine cities (and one town) where we can see this dynamic playing out. Though home values appear to be increasing in these towns, according to Zillow, Redfin has home sale prices dipping in these places in the last year. A couple might surprise you.
Bangor
Redfin has median home sale prices in the Queen City down about 3 percent compared with last year, though the number of homes sold has increased by 10 percent in that time.
South Portland
Despite it being a suburb of Maine’s largest city, Redfin has the median home sale price in South Portland dropping around 6 percent in the last year.
Waterville
Redfin has the median home sale price a whopping 34 percent lower than it was this time last year in Waterville — averaging at $170,000.
Kennebunk
Surprisingly, median home sales prices in Kennebunk, a pricey coastal town in York County, have dipped 8 percent compared with February last year, according to Redfin.
Belfast
Though home prices are still skyrocketing in nearby Camden and Rockland, Belfast had home sale prices drop by 14 percent compared with this time last year, according to Redfin.
Maine’s Multiple Listing Service also has median sales prices here decreasing 23 percent from March 2023 to 2024, but Becky Nightingale Johns, a Belfast-based realtor with Worth Real Estate Inc., cautioned the dips seen in Belfast and in other Maine communities are part of expected fluctuations in the market.
“There’s no indication that in the long-term, prices are going to decrease. It’s going upwards, just not as fast as it did in the ‘unicorn years,’” Nightingale Johns said. “It’s like weighing yourself every day. Don’t look at the [Multiple Listing Service] every day.”
Correction: An earlier version of this report used data from Zillow that was later updated to reflect home values increasing in these towns, not decreasing.