As we enter the March spring season, (Note: March is Maine’s snowiest month! )  it seems the residential markets of greater Portland have significantly heated up as attractively priced first time home buyer properties are selling in days with multiple offers at above asking prices!  What a change from a year prior!!  It is this authors belief that this mini-frenzy will continue to pick up momentum throughout the expiration of the housing tax credit on April 30th.

As of today there are approximately 380 homes and condo’s on the market in Portland with a median asking price of 249K.  To date in 2010 a total of 80 residential real estate transactions have transpired with a median sales price of 210K with the homes sitting on the market for a median of 60 days and selling at approximately 96% of their asking price.

Click here for a complete list of Portland Maine homes for sale.
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For the month ending January 2010 the York County residential Maine real estate markets saw 119 transactions transpire at a median sales price of 209K which represents an increase of about 13% year over year  when the median sold price in January for 185K.  Volume was also higher by 30% year over year.  Inventories clocked in about 100 higher in February compared to January.
For more information on southern ME real estate please visit www.mymaineproperty.com or feel free to contact me directly at 207-650-5383 or via email at john@greentreemaine.com

The southern Maine real estate markets posted continued solid results in the month of January.  I think most Realtor’s including myself  are a bit relieved after seeing a VERY slow holiday season and early January.  Lately things have picked up significantly with many active first time home buyers in the market as well as parties looking to relocate to the region.

Year over year transaction volume in January was way up in all 4 counties of York, Cumberland, Lincoln and Sagadahoc.. a trend that has been underway for quite some time.   Pricing continues to stabilize and in the city of Portland median home prices were surprisingly up 6% month over month in January.

Please visit my Maine real estate site for the complete report as well as housing statistics for the various communities in the region.

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How did the largest city in Maine fare in 2009.  It seems on average most municipalities  lost about 10% of their market value in 2009 compared with 2008.  Overall prices in the southern and mid coastal real estate markets have retraced to 2003/2004 values.  Portland Maine real estate appears to have fared a bit better than the average.  Combined single family and condo values were down approximately 5% whilst broken out single family homes lost only 3% to4% of their value and condo’s were closer to 10%.

Transaction volume was down slightly relative to 2008, but most of this drop came from less condo’s selling as single family transactions were flat to slight up.

Going forward it seems the stage is set for a buying and selling frenzy in the real estate markets of southern Maine with prices having stabilized, the deadline of the tax credit looming and continued low interest rates.

For the 4 counties followed Cumberland and Sagadahoc posted the best results dropping only 6% and 8% respectively in median prices compared with 2008 figures.  The southernmost  real estate markets of York county lost 14% of their value whilst mid coastal Lincoln county dropped a whopping 17%.  Volume in all 4 counties held strong in 2009 posting similar transaction volumes to those seen in 2008 thanks  to a 2nd half surge resulting from the tax credit and low interest rates.

Despite these price drops home values did stabilize throughout the year. Inventories across the board are currently lower than where they were last year at this time and the median days on market average has dropped in all counties except for Sagadahoc.

Going forward I expect the first half of 2010 to be quite strong as rates remain low and buyers continue to take advantage of the housing tax credit that expires April 3oth.

The complete Maine real estate report can be viewed  at www.mymainepropety.com as well as individual reports on the greater Portland Maine residential markets and the Maine coastal  housing markets.

The focus of this coastal Maine real estate market report  is on the lower mid coast region including Bath, Brunswick, Freeport, Phippsburg, Georgetown and Arrowsic.   The median sold price for the region as a whole in 2009 was 228K, down about 9% from 250K in 2008.  Thanks in large part to the strong 2nd half of the year, volume remained relatively unchanged, actually up 2% from 2008 levels.    The City of Ships, Bath Maine saw the largest swings in volume, up 50% whilst the coastal waterfront peninsulas of Phippsburg, Georgetown and Harpswell were hit the hardest with volume down about 20%.  The real estate market of Brunswick Maine is the largest in the region accounting for approximately 1/3 of all volume.   The time it took to sell a home aka the Days on Market (DOM) was down about 3% for the entire region with Bath seeing a 49% decrease helping to lead the way.

Please click here for the complete 2009 mid coastal real estate housing report.
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The residential real estate markets of Portland Maine posted another solid quarter of results for the 3 month period ending Dec 2009.  A total of 147 single family homes and condos sold, up 19% from the 4th quarter  2008.  At a median price of 207K, values were only down 4% from a year prior and for the most part values have held stable with pricing for the first 3 quarters of 2009 being 206K, 219K, 203K.

The median days on market had a surprising uptick in the 4th quarter coming in at 80 days compared with previous reading in the first 3 quarters of 68, 44 and 47. Watching this metric in the first and second quarters of 2010 will help determine if this is an anomaly or a larger trend forming.

December and this first week of January have been a bit slow from my own perspective and personal business activity, but I am optimistic the lower interest rates and first time tax credit will help keep the Portland housing and real estate markets moving forward.

For more information on Portland Maine homes for sale and/or the tax credit please reach out anytime at 207-650-5383 or by email at john@greentreemaine.com

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

Today Bloomberg released a report that housing values were up on 20 cities throughout the nation for the 5th consecutive month.  For the last 5 months starting in July the median sold portland Maine home prices have been 207K, 198K. 204K, 200K, 212K repsectively.  Thus one could infer that our region market is fairly stable.  Volume on the other hand has been way up both in Portland and the surrounding neighborhoods. The first time tax credit coupled with historically low interest rates have helped keep a healthy supply of buyers in the marketplace.

Going forward anything could happen though and it seems volatility and media hype, both positive and negatively, will continue to dominate the industry.

For more detailed housing statistics on Portland or Southern ME real estate in general please feel free to contact me at 207-650-5383 or john@greentreemaine.com

The month of November marked another great month for the southern ME real estate housing markets, specifically Cumberland and York counties.  Transaction volume was up 44% and 55% respectively whilst median prices month over month continued lower, off 6% and 12%.

Pricing continues to stabilize month over month with little to no price depreciation seen for the past 6 months.   The month of December thus far has been pretty quiet however, but assuming interest rates remain low and that the harsh winter storms don’t hammer us too too badly I believe in the new year we will continue to see strong rebounding of volume and pricing in  all market segments including the single family, condo and multi unit markets.

Inventories for the southern Maine markets are lower than they were a year prior and many individual towns, including Portland Maine even saw  a bit of price appreciation month over month in November.

For more detailed Maine housing statistics and analysi please contact me directly at 207-650-5383 or via email john@greentremaine.com or sign up for a complemantary Maine real estate buyers packet.

Wow… we are off to a great start as I begin tabulating the monthly housing statistics for the southern maine real estate markets.  Portland Maine posted 55 closed transactions for the month of November whilst South Portland added another 27.  These volume was up about 8% for Portland year over year and almost 100% in South Portland where only 14 homes sold in November 2008!!

The more exciting news though is the median pricing for the 2 communities. South Portland actually saw a 4% increase from 2008 whilst the Portland Maine real estate market saw a 4% drop year over year, still lower but half as much as the 10% year over year drops we have been seeing!  Month over month, a 4% increase was even seen, but the monthly figures fluctuate a bit more and the bigger story is that prices have not been deceasing for over a half year and may even be seeing a slight rebound.

Thanks for reading,

John Herrigel
Portland Maine real estate agent