Home sales continued to decline in Maine in June as rising interest rates weakened the purchasing power of many prospective buyers.
Sales of single-family homes declined 9.83 percent last month, according to data released Wednesday by the Maine Association of Realtors. There were 1,779 home sales across the state from June 1-30, down from the 1,973 homes sold during that same period last year. Overall, home sales were down nearly 14 percent for the three-month period ending June 30.
“We are beginning to see homes staying on the market for weeks instead of days, price adjustments and fewer buyers competing for new for-sale listings as rising mortgage interest rates have cooled some segments of buyer demand,” said Madeleine Hill, the president of the Maine Association of Realtors and designated broker at Roxanne York Real Estate in Harpswell.
“Statewide in Maine, the for-sale inventory of single-family properties remains historically low with 1.8 months of supply available for-sale. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market.”
Despite sales easing across Maine, home values have continued to rise steadily, reaching a median price of $360,825 in June, a 16.4 percent surge over June 2021, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. For the three-month period ending June 30, the median price for a home in Maine was up by 16.7 percent.
On the county level, the most significant increase in median home prices was in Aroostook County, where the median price has risen 33 percent for the three-month period ending June 30, compared with the same time last year. Aroostook still has claim to the lowest median home price overall at $155,450. The highest median home price for the period was in Cumberland County, where it reached $525,000. The median home price rose the least in Franklin County, where it jumped just 0.87 percent to $232,000. The median home price rose in every county.
On the sales front, sales were down in every county except Sagadahoc County between April and June, compared with the same time last year. Sales fell most sharply in Waldo County, where they are down 36.9 percent. Sales grew by an incremental 0.87 percent in Sagadahoc County during the three-month period.