Maine
Maine home prices finally fell last month, but don’t celebrate yet
After six years of relentless increases, Maine home sale prices finally decreased last month. It’s a welcome change of course after 72 straight months of year-over-year rises and real estate agents say there are signs of a more balanced market ahead. But others caution that one month of good news does not mean the crisis is over.
Maine home buyers paid a median of $376,260 in March, just shy of a 1% dip compared to the same time last year, according to data released Thursday by the Maine Association of Realtors. The median is the price at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
Home sale prices have been steadily decreasing each month since December’s median of $400,000. But the last year-over-year decrease was in March 2019, when prices fell 0.94% to $200,000.
Meanwhile, 848 houses changed hands last month — a more than 12% increase over the prior month but a roughly 6% drop from March 2024.
January, February and March are typically the state’s quietest months for home buying and selling.
But the busy spring market is ramping up, and according to Jeff Harris, president of the Maine Association of Realtors, it could finally spell good news for buyers.
“We’re seeing the inventory of homes for sale inch upward with nearly 14% more homes on the market in March 2025 compared to March of last year,” he said in a prepared statement.
The increased inventory also means that sales are slowing down, with the average Maine home staying on the market for 22 days, up from 15 days last March. Last year, during the warmer months, homes spent less than a week on the market.
“For many markets, the pace is becoming more reasonable for buyers,” said Harris, who is also a broker with Harris Real Estate in Farmington.
But it’s not a buyer’s market yet. Statewide, there is a 3.6-month supply of unsold inventory, Harris said in an interview. A balanced market is a six-month supply.
“There’s so many buyers out there looking for something more affordable,” he said.
NOT YET A TREND
Paul McKee, the Maine association’s immediate past president, said he’s glad to see prices decrease but cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“We need things to slow down price-wise. That’s good,” he said. “But there’s always an anomaly somewhere. Until you get a couple of months of this, it’s still one snapshot. … I’m glad to see it but I wouldn’t call it a trend.”
In a month with fewer than 1,000 sales, it doesn’t take much to skew the numbers, he said. For example, there could have been an $8 million sale last year that didn’t happen this year, thus dropping the average.
Michael Sosnowski, co-owner of Maine Home Connection, stressed that while prices have been decreasing, there’s no sign of a market crash.
“It’s more of a stabilization,” he said. “There’s been this phenomenon of price increase fatigue. Where we were was unsustainable.”
While houses may be sitting on the market for longer, on average, competition is still hot, particularly for houses priced below $500,000 in southern Maine.
Sosnowski said a property listed for around $350,000 in Gray recently had about 30 offers.
“Under $500,000, there’s not much different than there was a year ago,” he said. “There’s just not enough properties that are affordable.”
PRICES UP NATIONALLY, REGIONALLY
Maine’s slight price drop bucked national and regional trends.
Nationally, prices increased about 3% to a median sale price of $408,000, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales, however, fell just over 2%
Regionally, sales were flat in the Northeast, but prices jumped more than 7% to a median of $468,000.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the national association, said March’s sluggish sales were a reflection of high mortgage rates and ongoing affordability challenges.
Interest rates have hovered around 7% for the last year or so. Thursday, the average rate for a 30-year loan was 6.81%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac.
“Residential housing mobility, currently at historical lows, signals the troublesome possibility of less economic mobility for society,” Yun said.
SALES, PRICES A MIXED BAG
The Maine Association of Realtors also looks at three months of data in county-by-county comparisons to get a larger sample size of sale transactions.
The median price increased just over 5% to $382,353 between Jan. 1 and March 31 compared to the same three-month span the year before.
Cumberland County held its spot as Maine’s most expensive county with a median sale price of $550,000. York County was the second-most expensive, with a median sale price of $495,000. Cumberland County saw prices increase by about 3% from the year before, but similar to the statewide trend, York recorded its first decrease — 0.80% — since the three-month span between January and March 2019.
Aroostook County remained the state’s most affordable county, with a median sale price of $143,550. Washington County, with a median of $199,900, was the only other county with a sale price below $200,000.
Prices increased the most in Hancock County, which saw a 15.6% increase, while they had the steepest drop — about 14% — in Piscataquis County.
Sales were flat in Washington County, but they increased a whopping 81.6% in Waldo County, with 49 sales between January and March last year and 89 over the same period this year.
Androscoggin’s 21% drop in sales was the sharpest in the state.
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This story will be updated.
The Maine Department of Transportation is moving to slash up to $400 million in projects from its agenda, a shocking and abrupt cutback that is rattling the state’s construction industry at the start of building season.
Roughly $50 million across six pavement projects have already been delayed, according to a memo exclusively obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The agency plans to cut or delay another $150 million in bridge, highway, intersection and multimodal projects later this month. A further $200 million or more in cuts are planned in the next three-year work plan.
Those figures were outlined by Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty in the May 18 memo to Gov. Janet Mills that has since circulated widely in the transportation sector, which has been getting drip-by-drip details on the wide scope of the cuts over the past three weeks.
It comes at the beginning of the state’s relatively narrow construction season. Companies have hired workers and ordered materials for projects they expected to begin this summer. The severity of the transportation budget problems was not raised to lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, called the shortfall “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“We stand ready to work with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” Flagg said. “Maine cannot afford to fall further behind.”
Insiders saw this first.
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The cuts stem from a structural funding gap of at least $130 million in the state’s current work plan, according to Doughty’s memo. Losses are magnified because state money from the gas tax and other revenue sources is matched by federal funds. Lawmakers have long grappled with politically difficult long-term problems with the state’s transportation budget.
A Mills spokesperson said Wednesday morning that the administration was working on a response to questions from the BDN. The department says it needs roughly $240 million more in state capital funding annually to maintain the existing system, and that anything less than $200 million will erode it over time.
Doughty’s memo the only near-term solution is a series of bonds beginning as soon as possible. Lawmakers would have to return to Augusta to authorize that if one is going to appear on the November ballot.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
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