The Maine State Housing Authority’s 2026 Housing Outlook Report reveals several positive indicators for Maine’s housing landscape but highlights how affordability remains the biggest hurdle for Mainers when it comes to achieving homeownership.
The twenty-two page report details a number of statistics pertaining to housing production, affordability, homeownership, and homelessness.
While the median income in Maine has risen 44 percent between 2015 and 2025, the median home price has increased by a whopping 187 percent. Rising prices have also impacted the rental market, resulting in an increasing share of tenants bearing an outsized cost burden for their housing.
In the real estate market, demand for homes continues to outstrip supply, a phenomenon that the report posits may be due in part to fewer homeowners being willing to put their homes up for sale right now in light of high interest rates.
The report also points out that while initial data shows rates of homelessness in Maine have begun again approach pre-pandemic levels, the organizations responsible for looking after this population are struggling, something they suggest is due to “years of underfunding.”
One element that MaineHousing indicates is crucial to solving Maine’s housing problems, is housing production, both at the subsidized and market-rate level.
The Maine State Housing Authority notes in its report that its own affordable housing production has remained “well above historic averages” with a “future production pipeline” extending into the next few years.
“Moving into 2026, Maine shows evidence of progress on several fronts of the housing crisis, but there is still much work to be done,” the report argued. “Market-rate production, overall economic health, and interest and foreclosure rates will all be important indicators of overall direction in the coming year.”
In 2025, 755 affordable housing units were constructed by the Maine State Housing Authority, and another 826 are expected to be available for occupation by the end of this year.
Although the affordable housing income tax credit has already been made a permanent fixture in the state, MaineHousing suggests in its report that “additional sources of funding, or expansions of existing sources, will be required to maintain the current pipeline volume.”
The costs associated with constructing affordable housing have been on the rise in recent years, but data indicates that increases have since slowed and potentially leveled out. Due to the lengthy nature of construction projects, however, the effects of this change will likely reveal themselves either this year or next.
That said, the report further noted that the federal Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act — which essentially requires construction materials to be purchased domestically — may result in future cost increases for construction projects. Should HUD-financed programs be exempted from this requirement, as has already been proposed, this law will not have a direct impact on the price tag of affordable housing construction in Maine.
Mortgage rates were found to have hovered around 7 percent for most of 2024 and 2025 and are now beginning to drop into the 6 percent range.
The rate for MaineHousing’s First Home Loan Program was briefly lowered to 5.375 percent in late 2024 before returning to 5.95 percent, but should mortgage rates continue to drop, the report explains that the program will again follow suit.
Lower mortgage rates play a key role in housing affordability, as higher rates equate to higher monthly payments, potentially pushing homeownership out of reach for some Mainers, especially when coupled with rising prices.
In the past, home prices in Maine typically grew more slowly than those nationwide, but over the past few years, they jumped by nearly 37 percent, while nationally, they grew by just over 19 percent.
During this same period, salaries and wages in Maine increased by just 27 percent, an “impressive” number, but still short of what would be necessary for maintaining accessibility.
While ten years ago, median incomes exceeded the amount necessary to afford the median home price by 21 percent, today’s median income was found to be just 61 percent of that which would be necessary to afford the median home sale price.
Although home sale volume is significantly lower than it was at its peak in 2022, figures have remained relatively stable for the past two years.
Consistent home sale volume coupled with rising prices is typically indicative of demand outstripping supply, MaineHousing explained, something which they argue may be the result of high mortgage rates discouraging current homeowners from making the decision to sell.
They suggest that this effect may be lessened, however, if homeowners expect that mortgage rates will remain high for the foreseeable future.
Loan origination figures presented in the report back up this prediction, as the number of mortgages issued in 2025 was up from 2024 despite a lack of meaningful changes in key metrics.
“Those conditions did not change in any obvious way in 2024, so the most likely explanations for the moderate increase in home sales are fading expectations of lower future mortgage rates and mounting financial pressures on potential buyers and sellers who have been waiting to make a move,” the report said.
MaineHousing predicts, however, that mortgage rates will not increase further and may begin to slowly decline, a change that would greatly lessen the financial barriers to homeownership in Maine.
With respect to the rental market, the report revealed that the vast majority of households making less than $50,000 a year are “cost burdened,” meaning that they spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their income on housing costs.
Around 80 percent of those making below $35,000 each year are considered to be cost burdened, alongside just over 60 percent of those earning between $35,000 and $50,000.
These figures are up notably across the board compared to prior years, particularly for those in the latter income bracket, where less than 50 percent were in this situation just three years earlier in 2021.
MaineHousing’s second annual report also explored several metrics related to homelessness in Maine.
The average length of time spent in emergency shelters has increased consistently over the past several years, which the Maine State Housing Authority explains is indicative both of individuals’ willingness to remain in shelters, as well as the “difficulty of finding viable housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness.”
Point-in-time estimates of Maine’s homeless population show consistency between 2023 and 2024, with levels returning to those comparable to the figures recorded pre-pandemic.
Click Here to Read the Full 2026 Report
“MaineHousing is moving the needle on the state’s housing needs. This annual review reaffirms that, but we know more needs to be done,” said MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan in a statement accompanying the report’s release Friday.
“With the help of Maine’s Governor and Legislature, and our many partners, public and private, we have dramatically accelerated the rate of affordable housing production, and we are proud of that work,” Brennan said. “We are also proud of this detailed review of the state of housing in Maine and the guideposts this report will provide in helping policymakers and the public make sound housing investments and decisions moving forward.”
