Everyone living in Maine understands that we’re in the middle of a housing affordability crisis.
Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) and the Maine Housing Authority reveal that the problem is much more severe than you may think.
Put simply, the housing situation in Maine is worse than at anytime in nearly three decades — and the trend line suggests things aren’t going to get better anytime soon.
According to MaineHousing’s “Affordability Index,” which measures the ratio between median home price and median income required to buy a home at that price, 79.1 percent of Maine families were unable to afford a home in 2023.
The Affordability Index for last year was 0.55 — lower than any year since 2000.
The index was only above one — indicating median income was high enough to purchase the median-priced home — in two years during the period the data cover, 2014 and 2015.
In Maine’s First Congressional District, the index has never been above one in the 23 years included in the data.
In the Second Congressional District, the index was above one from 2009 to 2020; however, the affordability measure fell precipitously from 1.04 in 2020 to 0.63 in 2023.
MaineHousing’s chart showing the percentage change in home prices versus incomes is the economic equivalent of five-alarm fire. It reveals a yawning gap between the skyrocketing cost of housing and flatlined growth in personal income.
It’s a problem of basic supply and demand. In July 2016, there were close to 14,000 active housing listings. In May there were less than 3,000.
Despite the increasing price homes are fetching, Maine has yet to see a surge in new housing construction.
Following the 2008-2009 recession, and the resulting collapse of the housing market, Maine saw steady growth in the number authorized housing units, but that trend reversed in 2021.
Even the rental market is squeezing Mainers.
According to FRED data, the vacancy rate for rental housing in Maine was 2.9 percent for 2023 — lower than any time since 1986.
The generational housing crisis Mainers are living through comes as Gov. Janet Mills (D) has created the Office of New Americans and espoused the goal of re-settling 75,000 “New Mainers” throughout the state.
Perhaps someone on her payroll should get to work figuring out where all of those people are going to live.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="28679 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=28679">9 Comments
Democrats ruin everything.
Part of the plan to own nothing and be happy?
This is another factor in destroying the middle class in America. Home ownership has always been a staple of a stable middle class. The elites despise the middle class which is the backbone of this country. All you have to do is just look at the mess they have made of things to know they don’t give two whits about you or me. They are selfish, power hungry, leftist, prevaricating demagogues looking out for themselves. You are just an annoyance to them.
The more gov. the more screwed up
This idea that the Democrats are responsible is propaganda you have bought into promoted by putin and ping to destabilize our nation…. reagan and trickle down economics. ( that trump promoted by slashing corporate taxes ) is what shrunk the middle class… democrats fight for unions, affordable health care, higher wages , affordable education…. so many things to help middle class but all the uninformed vote for a sleazy conman because they have been convinced that gay people or brown people or some other is trying to keep them down…. so silly that you all fall for that narrative and vote against you interests… clinton had deficit at 0…. trump spent more than any president in history and gave the corporations everything….. start reading or stop voting please….
Nobody cares as long as the dems get their kickbacks… yawn 🥱
Marxists trying to drive out any & all blue collar/middle class Americans from District 2 so they can replace them with “New Mainers”. Our State officials are a bunch of treasonous rat bastards.
Hey “Wise”-man. If anything you said was REMOTELY accurate, then what’s your explanation for the current economic state of affairs? Y’all have been in power for this entire downswing. The best you can do is “muhhhhhhh…orange man bad…”. Your disgusting party left those ideals years ago. They have done nothing but make a concerted effort to DESTROY the middle class. You guys were @ your finest with Jack Kennedy and the garbage you’re spewing died with him that day in Dallas.
I’m sure bringing in 100,000 foreigners that don’t speak English, have no money, very little education, and are looking to sign up for Welfare is the solution to the problem in the eyes of Democrats!
Kamala (who has never built a thing in her life) claims to know how to fix this…
Ironically, California is worse off than Maine, where Kamala’s roots are from…
She was the California AG, she’s a SF Democrat, the city that is the worse of all in California…
And people believe she has the solution…
It blows my mind that anyone with any common sense whatsoever could think of voting for Kamala/Tim… One’s a Knucklehead, and the other is Pathetic…