Homes in Maine are 8.68 percent more expensive than this time last year — reaching a median sale price of $409,450 — according to a press release from the Maine Association of Realtors.
5.39 percent more homes were sold last month compared to September of 2023, coming in at a total of 1,486 completed sales.
Despite there being more homes for sale in September 2024 than at any point since October 2020 — forty-seven months ago — President of the Maine Association of Realtors Paul McKee explained that “it is still below the level needed to fully balance the market.”
McKee noted last month, based on data available at the time, that “Maine’s for-sale inventory” was at a 3.2 month supply level, “well below the six-month supply level that is indicative of a more balanced market for both buyers and sellers.”
The “months supply” refers to the number of months it would take for the current inventory to sell given the current pace of sales. According to the National Association of Realtors, a six-month supply is associated with “moderate price appreciation,” while anything lower “tends to push prices up more rapidly.”
[RELATED: Home Prices in Maine Are 7.53% More Expensive Than Last Year]
County-level data reveals that Piscataquis saw the greatest decrease in the number of houses sold since last year, dropping by 14.15 percent, while the greatest increase occurred in Hancock County, where sales rose by 19.29 percent.
Home prices increased by 20.78 percent in Franklin County since September of last year, followed by 18.97 percent in Somerset and 18.75 percent in Sagadahoc.
As has been the case in prior months, Cumberland and York Counties had the greatest sale volume in September of this year, with 915 and 708 homes sold respectively.
The most expensive median home sale prices were also registered in these same counties, coming in at $580,000 in Cumberland and $527,000 in York.
There did not appear to be any clear correlation between the percent change in the median home price and the percentage change in sale volume when examining county-level data.
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Nationally, home sales decreased by 2.3 percent between September 2023 and September 2024, while prices rose by 2.9 percent to a median of $409,000.
New England’s regional trends saw home sale volume dropping 6.1 percent and prices rising 6 percent to a median of $467,100.
The rising cost of homes in Maine has caused many homeowners to face substantially larger property tax bills as a result of revaluations being conducted throughout the state.
[RELATED: Sticker Shock — Maine Homeowners Burdened by Property Tax Hikes Following Recent Revaluations]
Under Maine’s constitution and state law, real estate must be assessed “according to [its] just value,” which according to case law, is equivalent to its market value, or the price for which one could reasonably expect it to be sold.
A law approved by the Legislature in 1975 directed municipalities to have a minimum assessment ratio of 70 percent, meaning that the tax assessed value of a given property is not supposed to be less than 70 percent of its market value.
Generally speaking, municipalities undertake revaluations when they fall below this 70 percent threshold, whether that be due to the passage of time or a significant shift in the housing market.
Tied to this ratio are the value of residents’ property tax exemptions — such as the homestead exemption. For example, if a municipality’s property assessment is calculated to be at 80 percent of market value, homeowners are only eligible to take 80 percent — or $20,000 — of the state’s $25,000 homestead exemption.
Since 2019, home prices in Maine have nearly doubled, according to data tracked by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Those new sale prices contribute to the new valuations of houses that aren’t on the market, which means Mainers who have owned their homes for 20 years or more are suddenly on the hook for paying twice the property tax — even if their income has hardly grown.
Leftists are trying to end home ownership.
Marx said in his manifesto that private ownership should be done away with.
These crazy prices and taxes on unrealized gains are also driving up rents to unaffordable levels. But leftists want that too.
In the Portland area a 400 sq ft studio is about $2000 per month.
The current regime is also trying to end small business ownership with their designation of all owners being possible terrorists.
See Gateway Pundit
We are looking at it the wrong way. When they tell you that a home cost 9% more this year they are really telling you the dollar buys less than last year buy 9 dollars for each 100 dollars
Sweet, mills can explain to my neighbors why I sold my house to an extended family of 50 from a third world shithole while I take the money and move to the free state of NH.
Much of this is generated by carpetbaggers coming up here and throwing money at people for their houses. Then you have the illegal chinese buying houses to grow dope that, I guess with orders from the Mills regime the state cops are strictly hands off. And finally all the new affordable housing was given to illegals, so Mainers are just sh*t out of luck for housing while we all pay with our tax dollars for illegals housing, food, clothes, cars, and spending cash, while we also pay for state cops to look the other way on hundreds of dope farms. Just more costs of living under the fascist regime of Maine!!
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