Maine
Maine’s severe rental shortage spreads to its small cities
The BDN is exploring Maine’s housing disaster from each potential angle, from the way it impacts dwelling costs, to what it means for Mainers throughout the state. Learn our ongoing protection right here and fill out this kind to inform us what you wish to know.
You may depend the variety of obtainable residences within the Augusta space on one hand.
The state of affairs displays Maine’s total housing disaster. Similar to dwelling gross sales, condominium costs have been escalating over the previous couple years, and dozens of persons are responding to adverts inside days of an inventory.
Some potential renters are providing to pay a better hire, creating bidding wars like one seen in Portland earlier this yr. Others are even providing a yr’s hire up entrance. The state of affairs illustrates the vital scarcity of current and deliberate housing in Maine that’s holding away potential employees who can’t discover a place to dwell. Airbnb, Vrbo and different short-term leases are also consuming into the quantity of accessible long-term housing.
“There’s a sure franticness and desperation on the market,” mentioned John Lawrence, a rental agent for the Bean Group in Gardiner. “Right here we’re in rural Maine, and we’re having big, big points, like a giant metropolis.”
Augusta, Lewiston, Westbrook, Biddeford and Scarborough are among the many smaller Maine cities and cities with fewer than 5 one- and two-bedroom rental residences obtainable, a July survey by on-line actual property market Zillow discovered.
Flats.com mirrored related low vacancies, as did native actual property brokers. Some cities, together with Rangeley, Bar Harbor and Bethel, had no vacancies on Friday.
Lawrence known as the state of affairs “an reasonably priced housing disaster.” He just lately acquired 100 emails for an condominium inside a couple of days of promoting it.
Equally, an $850 studio condominium within the small metropolis of Hallowell drew curiosity from 30 individuals the primary day of the advert and rented the identical day, mentioned Kim Gleason, proprietor of McAllister Actual Property in Hallowell.
She has had individuals provide to pay extra monthly or pay your entire lease up entrance and serves many consumers who work remotely and who’ve moved in from out-of-state.
“Of us from Connecticut, Massachusetts or Chicago discover our rents to be a deal, so providing $100 extra monthly isn’t a giant factor for them,” she mentioned.
As available in the market for houses, condominium shortages have prompted rents to escalate. Lawrence estimates his rents have risen a minimum of 25 % up to now two years to $1,600 for a two-bedroom unit. Rents have develop into more and more unaffordable to many Mainers, particularly for youthful individuals carrying excessive scholar debt, he mentioned.
In 2020, a median two-bedroom condominium in Maine rented for $1,088, together with utilities, based on MaineHousing. A renter would want to make $43,517 per yr or $20.92 per hour to afford that.
Nevertheless, the median renter family revenue in Maine is $38,231 per yr, making that stage hire unaffordable for many. Some 55 % of the 163,185 rental households in Maine wouldn’t have the ability to afford that hire, MaineHousing discovered.
“I don’t see this ending anytime quickly,” Lawrence mentioned. “The issue is one in all provide and demand.”