PORTLAND, Maine — Penobscot County followed the state with a rising number of single-family homes changing hands, but as prices rose statewide, regional prices were flat.
Maine closed out 2015 with a 10 percent increase in single-family home sales and a 3 percent rise in prices. The year-end figures were the outcome of growth in most counties, including the state’s most active residential real estate markets.
Home sales volume in Cumberland County rose by 13.3 percent as prices climbed about 2.5 percent; volume in York County rose by 11 percent with a 5 percent jump in the median price; and sales volume in Penobscot County rose 14 percent as prices remained flat.
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And sales remained strong through the end of the year, though prices dipped in December. Figures from the Maine Association of Realtors showed 15.5 percent more homes sold in December 2015 than the same month in 2014.
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Ed Gardner, president of the Maine Association of Realtors, said in a news release the year-end figures show growing confidence in the economy as the inventory of homes has decreased in many markets.
“Only Maine’s most rural counties experienced slight sold price declines,” Gardner said.
Piscataquis County had the largest decrease in median sale price for single-family homes, dropping about 8 percent to $87,500 last year. The median price of homes in Knox and Aroostook counties fell, by about 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively, as prices in Lincoln, Hancock and Kennebec counties dipped by less than 1 percent.
Overall, the median sale price for the year rose by 3.8 percent, which was the balance of increases for 10 months of the year and decreases for January and December.
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