As home sales and prices increased throughout the state over the year of 2021, Belfast saw the most growth in home sales over the last year.
The midcoast city saw a 26 percent increase in home sales over the past year, according to MaineBiz. Alongside that growth in sales, the average price for a single-family home rose from $245,000 in 2020 to $300,000 in 2021.
Despite housing sales growth, the city continues to struggle with affordable housing, and a number of proposals have been considered over the past year to help ease the lack of accessible housing.
In December, Belfast greenlit a new housing development, which will have 36 new units located at the site of the city’s former public works garage at 115 Congress St., as well as approving two new senior housing complexes that will provide a total of 50 new units and will only cost residents 30 percent, at most, of their income.
For the first time in its history, Presque Isle made the list of top ten cities in Maine with the fastest growth in home sales. In 2021, the number of homes sold in the Aroostook County city jumped by 21.6 percent, coming in at the second place spot on the list behind Belfast.
In Portland, sales grew by 20.6 percent, in Old Orchard Beach sales grew by 16.8 percent and Westbrook saw sales increase by 15.2 percent, rounding out the top five cities on the list.
Coming in on the tail end of the list, Lisbon saw a growth of 14.5 percent, Naples saw a growth of 12.1 percent, Bangor saw an 11.2 percent increase in home sales, Augusta had a 9.8 percent growth since 2020 and, at the bottom of the list, Scarborough saw a meager growth of 7.4 percent.
Across the state, demand for housing stayed high in 2021, as demonstrated by the statewide data compiled by the Maine Association of Realtors in its 2021 report. However, statewide sales were constrained by tight for-sale available inventory.