The typical home in Maine’s largest city costs nearly $300,000 more than it would have a decade ago, a new study revealed.

Median home prices in Portland surged from $263,000 to $558,000 over the past 10 years, according to an analysis of nationwide real estate data from Construction Coverage. That’s a 112% spike in the last decade, earning the city the 85th spot among all small U.S. cities ranked by housing price growth.

Meanwhile, the median Maine home cost about $193,000 in 2016 and $407,000 in 2026. That 111% growth makes Maine the state with the third highest real estate price jump over the last decade.

The report reveals that Maine’s housing has not only become unaffordable to most people in the state, but that Mainers are feeling the pressure of rising home prices more than almost every other state while wages have struggled to keep up. Nationwide, home values jumped more than 81% in the last decade.

The report includes data from Zillow, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

While median housing prices across the state rose 110% over the last 10 years, median household income rose by 53%. It shows that many Mainers aren’t able to afford the rising costs.

The Maine Housing Outlook Report, released in January by MaineHousing, noted housing prices outpacing wages as an “ongoing concern.”

“In 2015, the median income in Maine exceeded by 21% what was needed to afford the median home price in the state. In other words, an average earner could afford an average home,” the report stated. “This is no longer the case.”

Only Idaho and New Hampshire have seen housing prices grow more than Maine, according to the analysis.

Idaho saw the highest jump, as median property values rose 137% to surpass $473,000 this year when the same home there would’ve cost just under $200,000 in 2016.

In New Hampshire, median home prices rose more than $270,000 over the last 10 years to $507,000 this year — a 114% spike.

Meanwhile, median household income in Idaho and New Hampshire climbed by 64% and 50%, respectively, during the same period.

PORTLAND (WGME) — A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

UNE is suing the city after leaders approved a 180-day moratorium on university development earlier this year.

“Litigation wasn’t our first choice,” UNE VP for Legal Affairs Ron Schneider said.

UNE is suing the city for disrupting approved projects through a development moratorium the city established in January.

Schneider says while they believe there is no straightforward reason for the moratoria, they think it was sparked by the university’s push to replace an existing pier with a new one along the Saco River.

“The full year-round permanent pier will allow students to engage in research and work on the water year-round,” Schneider said.

The project first initiated in 2009 is still being debated by city leaders. According to the city’s website, the project violates a long-standing permit that requires new developments to “retain and maintain a 250-foot-wide vegetative buffer along the entire shoreline,” the pier’s proposed access road would violate that permit.

However, the project has already been approved by the city planning board.

“Now politics seems to have taken over,” Schneider said.

The city held a meeting just for public comment on the pier in October, with many opposed to the location of it, and at least one other saying it could affect boat moorings.

“There are at least seven that have to move so UNE can even use this pier,” Sean Tibbets, who has a mooring near the UNE pier, said.

A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. (WGME)

Meanwhile, the university disagrees.

“In many respects, it’s a false narrative,” Schneider said. “A narrative that says, ‘This pier is going to go out into the federal channel, into the middle of the river,’ and it’s not.”

The City of Biddeford says it does not comment on ongoing litigation. When CBS13 asked UNE if they think this has affected their relationship with the city, they said with city leaders, but not the city itself.

Blueberries have grown wild in Maine for 10,000 years. These aren’t your typical grocery store blueberries. They’re smaller, sweeter, and healthier. They’re the backbone of a valuable industry in Maine, especially for Indigenous groups who’ve returned for generations to hand-harvest the fields. But in 2025, wild blueberry farmers in Maine experienced one of the worst seasons this decade, losing $28 million. So what happened? And how are farmers, processors, and scientists racing to save their ancestral wild blueberry?