Despite volatility, coastal market trending up
A new analysis of the residential real estate market in Maine’s coastal communities shows that, while there is some volatility among small sample sets, the market is trending up in recovery from the economic downturn of 2008.
Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty recently produced the first of what is expected to be quarterly reports to help prospective buyers and sellers understand marketplace directions from a unit volume pricing perspective.
“We had a lot of requests from our clients for more-local, market-specific information,” said the agency’s owner and president, Chris Lynch.
Overall, the analysis shows that single-family home sales throughout Maine, from August 2014 to August 2015, rose by 6.1%, from 1,567 to 1,663. The median sales price rose 4.5%, from $179,000 to $187,000, while the average number of days on the market declined, from 124 to 107.
The report breaks the numbers down by county and town. Most coastal counties saw gains in the number of single-family units sold and in the median price, and most saw declines in number of days on the market.
Hancock County was an exception. From August 2014 to August 2015, the number of units sold declined 23.7% and the median price also dropped, by 5.4%.
It’s important to remember, however, said Lynch, that the numbers are volatile.
“Because there are so few data points in each particular market, time period by time period, there can be a fair amount of volatility,” he said. “This is the first step in helping clients understand how the market progresses. So Hancock County could be down, but the next time around, it could be up just as much.”
Depending on where the baseline is set, general trends show the coastal real estate market, while difficult throughout 2009, 2010 and into the first half of 2011, began its recovery in July 2011, Lynch said.
“We’ve been in a very solid upward trend,” Lynch says. “Like any market movement, it starts in areas of higher concentration — the greater Portland area, York, Kennebunk and Rockport — and expands outward. Prices are coming up, volume is going up. Some markets were up early on. Southern/Midcoast recovered very quickly from the downturn. What we see is that Maine is growing in popularity. Portland in particular has been very successful in bringing people to the rest of the state.”
Read more
Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty’s report on coastal market real estate trends
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments