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October 22, 2021

Maine home sales fall but prices rise, continuing a new trend

Photo / Jessica Hall Maine home-sales volume fell from last year, but remained above pre-pandemics levels.
By Jessica Hall

For the third month in a row, sales of existing single-family homes in Maine fell last month, down almost 10% from the number in September 2020. But prices in September surged 17% statewide, mirroring national and regional trends. In Portland, the market calmed somewhat.

Throughout Maine, the median sales price for the 2,067 homes sold last month reached $320,000, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. The median price is the level at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

“Buyers are rapidly purchasing for-sale inventory as it comes on the market, and we’re experiencing a 2.1-month supply of for-sale single family properties — much lower than a six-month supply, which is considered a balanced market,” Maine Association of Realtors President Aaron Bolster, owner of Allied Realty in Skowhegan, said in a news release Thursday.

Sales volume for September 2021 was 9.7% below the total in the year-ago period, but 10.7% above the volume in pre-COVID September 2019.

Overall, 2021 was strong for single-family home sales. For the nine-month period of January through September 2021, sales were 8.4% higher than the year-ago period and 11% higher than the same period in 2019.

Nationally, single-family existing home sales across the country dipped 3.1% over the past year. The National Association of Realtors reported a national median sales price of $359,700, a jump of 13.8%.

In the Northeast, sales across eased 8.3% and the regional median sales price of $387,200 reflected a 9.2% increase.

“The dynamics of the tight market are challenging for buyers and for sellers,” said Bolster.

For the three months ending Sept. 30, statewide sales fell 6.5% and the median sales price rose 19%. Aroostook and Sagadahoc counties were the only two in the state to show higher sales volume. Every county except for Washington saw price increases.

In Portland, in the that same third quarter, the market stabilized somewhat and the number of days a home stayed on the market increased, said Benchmark Real Estate owner Tom Landry.

The third-quarter days on market for single-family home in Portland increased to six days, up from five a year ago.

While the median price of Portland real estate is up 27% over the third quarter of last year, it's flatlined when compared to the previous two quarters of 2021, Landry said. That, combined with an increase in the number of days on market, has been an opportunity for buyers, many of whom gave up in the hot seller’s market of the winter and early spring.

"After a year of the craziest market we’ve ever seen, the market started to ease up in July,” Landry said. “Because sales statistics always lag a couple months behind, we’re just now seeing the evidence of the market returning to a more typical cadence."

Landry said that while many believed the price of real estate skyrocketed this year, the statistics prove otherwise. 

“The median price of all Portland property types hasn’t materially changed in 2021. The big jump came in the last half of 2020 and the prices haven’t come down,” Landry said.

He said the inventory crunch and influx of out-of-state buyers in 2020 first drove prices up.

“The market continued to favor sellers through the winter and early spring until listings started to catch up with demand,” he added.

Landry said that he and other brokers are now seeing an uptick in activity that could result in an increase in the median price when the Q4 numbers come out in January.

“We still have a lot of people and companies moving in. People from away have realized what we Mainers have known all along," he said. "While price value increases have slowed, I don’t see them dropping.”

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