Waterfront property values in Greenville have jumped 205% on average after the lakefront community’s first market adjustment in decades.
The increase is pushing up tax bills for many property owners in the Piscataquis County town that has a mix of multimillion-dollar homes and more modest ones surrounding Moosehead Lake, an area where home values have surged since the onset of the pandemic.
“The whole Moosehead Lake region is exploding,” Town Manager Mike Roy said.
Greenville is the latest small Maine town where residents are seeing a spike in property taxes as land values across the state rise, driven by the nationwide housing shortage and spiking demand from out-of-state buyers. It is leading to complaints similar to those aired last year in unorganized areas around Maine’s largest lake.
The 205% property value increase does not mean a similar increase in taxes. The town cut its mil rate — the amount charged on every $1,000 of property — from $20.85 to $11.47 after the adjustment.
Roy said there has not been a revaluation or market adjustment since “way before” he started the job seven years ago. When a town’s property tax records are out of date, the state limits how much property owners can get from relief programs like the homestead exemption, a system which shifts some of the tax burden on those with second homes.
The state’s assessment of property values in town, which is not used for local taxes but determines how much of a county’s budget each town has to contribute, deems Greenville the most valuable town in Piscataquis County. That means it has no choice but to pay a growing chunk of the budget each year.
Tax burdens will hit lakefront property owners, many of whom do not live in Greenville full-time and cannot claim the homestead exemption. A Tuesday scan of Zillow showed five homes on the market now at more than $1 million, some on stunning lakefront lots, as well as smaller ones that are near or on Moosehead and another nearby pond.
Retired teacher Anne Zeller has a modest waterside property with no running water. She said she has long imagined passing down her property in Greenville, a rustic “magical place,” to her children and grandchildren. With property taxes rising, that might not be possible.
Zeller said she remembered when “people who were not wealthy” could afford waterfront property in town. In the 55 years she and her husband, also a retired teacher, have owned land there, she’s seen those neighbors replaced.
“It all starts with real estate sales,” Roy said. “It’s an awful loop.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.