This story is part of the BDN’s Home Buying series that shares stories of Mainers who became homeowners despite the state’s volatile real estate market. Want to share your experience buying a home in Maine? Email kobrien@bangordailynews.com.
One of Bangor’s newest homeowners put in an offer on his house 10 hours after it hit the market, ending a months-long search.
Harland Newman and his two young children began moving into their new three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Bangor’s Tree Streets neighborhood in June, the same day he closed on the property.
Newman had been searching for a house since March, and the quick move helped him dodge a looming rent hike of $200. That uptick — the third in two years — would’ve brought his monthly housing costs to $1,750, he said.
“If I didn’t find anything by August, I would’ve been locked in for another year, so the pressure was on to find something,” Newman said. “The housing market is just ravenous for anything that’s worth anything. I was checking the apps and talking to my realtor every day.”
Newman’s experience highlights how competitive the Maine housing market is, especially for quality homes in desirable neighborhoods that are appropriately priced. It also shows how difficult it can be for buyers to save for a house when rent payments continue to rise, and to act quickly in a tight market while juggling a full-time job.
“It feels like we’re in a world where the expenses go up faster than the paychecks do,” Newman said.
This is the second house Newman has owned. His first house was on Cottage Street, which he lived in for two years before selling it and renting a home in Milford.
Newman launched his housing search in March after receiving notice that his rent would climb again this summer.
He toured at least a dozen homes in the area and made offers on a few other properties, all of which were denied despite being “several thousand” over the asking prices, he said.
“I went through a lot of letdowns putting offers in on places,” Newman said. “Everything worked out in the end, but it was a hairy couple of months for me. All of my spare time went into house hunting.”
Eventually, Newman toured the house he bought soon after it hit the market and submitted an offer within hours, he said.
His offer was a few thousand dollars over the home’s asking price of $246,000, Zillow records show. Newman began moving in on June 18, the same day he closed on the property, he said.
Newman’s new house was more affordable than the median sale price for a home in Penobscot County in April through June, which hovered around $304,000, according to the Maine Association of Realtors.
While Newman’s new house was within his budget and in an ideal location, he was perhaps most excited to see its essential systems, including the furnace, had been recently updated. The sellers also replaced the aging sewer line, which saved him $13,000.
The nearly 150-year-old house “has some character,” such as uneven wood floors. But, the property offers a fenced-in backyard and nearly 1,300 square feet of space for his young children to grow.
“The kids really like the place because they get their own spaces now,” he said.
While Newman’s mortgage payments are a bit higher than what his rent would be, he said the jump is worth it because he’s able to build equity and make changes to the property.
His first project on the house was installing security cameras outside. In the coming weeks, he plans to replace some carpeting upstairs and move laundry machines from the basement to the main floor.
Aside from price and availability, working full time was perhaps the biggest barrier to buying a house because properties that matched the size and price he was looking for were scooped up so quickly, he said. Newman had to schedule tours on the weekends, but by then, many properties were already gone.
“It’s not very friendly out there for buying a house right now,” he said. “You have to be extremely motivated to even get a glimpse at something you want and then luck has to carry you over the finish line. If you half-heartedly look for a place, you’re never going to find anything.”