By Zara Norman, BDN Writer
There are only six Maine counties in which the typical family can afford the average home, and one stands far above the rest in more ways than one.
In northernmost Aroostook County, homes are affordable to households that made $25,000 less than the median household income measured between 2018 and 2022. Aroostook and the five others where most homes remain affordable — Franklin, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset and Washington — are rural regions with lower demand.
By contrast, the gap between household incomes and home values is $42,000 in York County along Maine’s southern coast. You can buy three typical homes in Aroostook for the price of just one in Cumberland County. It paints a bleak picture of affordability for many between those areas, especially first-time homebuyers.
“Our new first time homebuyer market price level has increased dramatically since the COVID epidemic, and it’s put a pinch on a lot of local folks,” Jonathan Leaver, the designated broker and co-owner of Bath-based Maine Home Realty, said. “It’s slowed down a little bit, but there’s still a huge pent up demand for that type of housing, and that price bracket.”
Leaver’s company listed a $335,000 single-family home in the Portland suburb of Buxton last week that went under agreement Tuesday after 18 showings. While still hot, that is less than the 30 to 40 showings Leaver was doing on each property during the height of the pandemic.
In York County, the median family income is $99,041, which can buy a home of up to $365,000 with a $20,000 down payment, according to Zillow. But the average home there in York County is valued above $506,000. To afford it, a household would need $141,094 in income.
In Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, all desirable southern or coastal regions of Maine, there’s a more than $25,000 income gap between what the average family makes and what the typical home is valued at. Leaver worked with one buyer who recently closed on their first home after roughly three years of searching.
Gulfs exist outside of Maine’s priciest areas. In Androscoggin, Kennebec, Oxford and Waldo counties, the typical home value is closer to the median family income but still unaffordable. Local buyers are competing for thin housing inventory in these regions, while buyers pushed out of pricier regions further south and along the coast are competing, too.
Another one of Leaver’s buyers just had to do that last week. The Bath Iron Works employee had been looking for something in that city but is now settling for something within 40 minutes, expanding her search to central Maine communities as far north as Augusta and Gardiner. Some people are searching even wider, going up to the rim counties.
“We find a lot of people coming up here because of the disparity,” Matthew DeChaine, broker-owner of Madawaska-based Crown Lakes Realty, said. “It’s hard to find anything below Bangor or south in terms of your traditional Maine home price.”
One of DeChaine’s listings in Madawaska is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, single-family home on the market for $199,000, a price point that would only fetch a tear-down property or seasonal shack in southern Maine. But in Aroostook, where the median home value is just under $165,000, that’s affordable for a typical household.
“I used to live in Portland, I owned a home in Portland, I was a Realtor there. When you look at the value, it’s crazy. A fixer-upper down there is $400,000,” DeChaine said. “Right here, you got move-in ready, really nice houses in a beautiful area starting at $150,000.”
Part of what makes these homes affordable is that there is much less demand far from job centers. But with the rise of remote work, and with hospitals, mills and other employers in rural regions, things are changing.
“Affordability is a good driver,” he said. “We have a lot of people coming up here, enjoying nice houses for a reasonable price, and making a good life out of it.”
