With a coastline of 5,300 miles, how much is left for commercial fishing endeavors? A study a few years back revealed only 20 miles total left with 2/3rds of this being leased land subject to future sales. 2 years ago the state of Maine population overwhelmingly supported a 2 million dollar bond initiative to provide matching state funds for fisherman who want to purchase the land they use. (Currently there are 6 projects in the works.)  A ¾ of a billion dollar industry directly competing with  the 2^nd home property market. Awareness and preservation of the “working waterfront” is critical to keep this wonderful state in balance

As inventory levels continue to escalate throughout the spring season an alarming reduction in transactions levels was seen for the month of May. Total sold transactions for the 4 counties followed in May 2007 was 672 versus 816 in May 2006, an 18% reduction.    The Days on Market for all 4 counties jumped significantly, but average sold prices rose in 3 out of the 4 counties.    My thoughts: Higher interest rates + market volatility = Uneasy feeling for the short and mid-term market outlook.
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Reading my morning real estate blog posts sent to me by google, this article here re-reminded me a serious problem we as a state must figure out: access to the working waterfront.  As parties from away continue to move to the state, people like myself sometimes are perhaps to quick to see the dollar signs that can come with helping parties looking for waterfront and coastal maine property find homes in pristine coastal villages that were once 100% year round populations but now are 50% or more summer populations now.  What can we do to balance the influx of parties looking to retire and relocate to Maine while preserving a working waterfront?  Awareness is key.  Real the article in the begining link and spread the word.

Today the house voted 87 to 49 in favor of passing the controversial tax package. Here is a another good article, and it seems the verdict is still very mixed over what the ultimate outcome of this bill will be, beneficial, extremly harmful to Maine real estate or simply a shifting of the burden from one group of taxpayers to another.  The sales tax will remain at 5%, the income tax rate will become a flat 6% across the board, real estate transfer taxes will increase but the homestead exemption credit will be increased as well.

Reading about this on a fellow Maine bloggers website I thought it worthwhile posting on my site as well.  Here is the link to the article.  A brief overview is that it stops two major problems: That of “Equity Stripping” and hybrid loans that start of at low rates and then accelerate quickly forcing the howeowner to refinance and thus pay more closing costs.  For the Maine real estate world I believe this to be a great step towards ensuring our industry remains fair and ethical. 

As with any legislature compromise I personally believe was found. Here are the proposed changes to the transfer tax that were voted on 11-2 in favor by the taxation committee given that before is was $4.40 per $1000 for all Maine real estate transfers:

.6% or $6 per $1,000 for primary residences $200k or under
.8% or $8 per $1,000 for primary residences $200-400k
1% or $10 per $1,000 for primary residences $400k-1m
1.5% or $15 per $1,000 for any residence $1m or over
And 1% or $10 per $1,000 on all commercial properties and land transfers.

 The belief is that these changes will net an additional 43 million for the state coffers.  Only time will tell if the increase will have a significant impact on slowing the the housing markets in Maine.  

Taking my statistics I run for the month and comparing them to the year 2004, I found these results. The level of transactions, not a surprise, were down in all 4 counties with Sagadahoc seeing the largest drop, 34%.   York county had the smallest decrease down 10%.  Price increases were the highest however in coastal Sagadahoc at 27%  for the 3 year period and the smallest in Lincoln at a measly 2%, both Cumberland and York saw about 10% increases for the 3 year period.