Portland realtor Tom Landry’s clients are acting fast and early this year to list their homes amid economic uncertainty.
One of his clients is a couple looking to move abroad because of concerns with the administration of President Donald Trump. They have a son who works in the federal government and may lose his job, Landry, broker-owner of Benchmark Real Estate, said.
The couple are two of many Maine homeowners now factoring in the long-term uncertainty created by the current administration’s policies — particularly around Trump tariffs that are raising fears of a recession — into their housing decisions, real estate agents say. One of the immediate results has been a jump in homes on the market in southern Maine.
“We’re hearing from people who are looking to reduce exposure, cash out second homes, or rebalance their investments,” Landry said. “With economic volatility looming, many want the comfort of liquidity.”
It’s still far from clear whether the changes in the market will persist or that the recession fears will come true. Maine home values have leveled off over the past year compared with earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Zillow. In a recession, the lack of supply here could lead prices to hover longer before falling, according to a recent Realtor.com outlook.
But things are changing in southern Maine. The number of single-family listings in Maine’s biggest city has jumped 61 percent from this time last year, according to March data from Benchmark Real Estate. In Cape Elizabeth, new listings with realty agency Advisors Living are up 140 percent this spring compared to last year, said Caleb DeVries, an agent with that firm.
“My phone’s ringing a lot more this year than it was last year for, interestingly, both buyers and for sellers, but primarily sellers,” said DeVries, adding that most of his clients are selling their second homes.
The trend is not so strong statewide. The number of new listings is up 23 percent from the previous year, according to Maine Listings data. But even in areas outside of Portland where inventory is growing slower, sellers are keeping an eye on the stock market and national economic conditions before listing their properties.
“What a lot of people are doing is calling us and saying, ‘What do you think? How’s the market? Is it safe for us to go in?’” said Chris Lynch, founder of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Portland. “The answer right now is yes.”
Unlike other investments, real estate is a safe bet. While sellers might have concerns because of fluctuations in the stock market that influence the timing of their decisions, they’re unlikely to make hairpin trigger decisions about whether to list or not based on that alone, Claire Dorwart, owner of Bar Harbor-based realty firm The Knowles Company, said.
It won’t be clear for a little while how heavily federal economic policy is weighing on individual decision-making in Maine, but what’s undeniable is that the state’s real estate market is balancing as more homes come online. Inventory is now back to 2020 levels.
To DeVries, that is a cyclical thing: The more homes that are listed for sale, the more options would-be sellers looking to move or downsize have. Other reasons could be that the peak pandemic-era demand for Maine homes is finally subsiding or that the state’s efforts of late to boost housing production are finally trickling down to the market.
But limited new construction and high mortgage rates continue to stifle new buyers. Lynch, who’s based in southern Maine, is seeing a delay in the usual flurry of springtime seller activity this year because of the winter weather. The overall increase in seller activity is a sign that things are starting to move, though.
“For buyers, this is the best market we’ve seen in years: more options, less competition, and motivated sellers. But buyers need a strategy. Not everything is flying off the shelf,” Landry said.