Spring Home Sale Price Decreases

Posted on July 28, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine housing statistics, Maine real estate news, Southern Maine real estate | Leave a Comment

Southern Maine Housing transaction volume remained down holding steady for the 2^nd month in a row at 82% of its 2006 levels. Average prices were down in 3 out of the 4 counties with a cumulative weighted sales price drop of 2% overall, but one should take note in York County 10 properties sold for over 1 Million in June; an abnormally high number. Removing these from the equation brings the average sales price in York down to 282K and more in line with the other 3 counties. The net result then being a 5-7% overall price drop for southern Maine real estate in June

Southern Maine Real Estate Housing Statistics

Posted on July 23, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine housing statistics, Southern Maine real estate, Coastal maine real estate | Leave a Comment

Maine State Housing Authority recently released a newly designed website www.mainehousing.org that offers a wealth or great housing statistics to peruse. Here is the direct link to these statistics. For a good oveview of the current real estate prices in Southern Maine this new website seems to do a more indepth job of historical analysis of pricing as well as some interesting ratios than any other site other then my own that I have come across. June Housing statisitics shall be released on this site by the weeks end as well

Bath Maine Housing Statistics released

Posted on July 17, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine housing statistics, Bath Maine real estate | Leave a Comment

Having enjoyed putting together the housing statistics on Portland Maine, here are some current statistics on the Bath Maine real estate markets. To date there are 120 or so properties on the market, with all but 15 being Single family homes. There are an additional 32 multi unit properties for sale right now as well. Given 126 total homes sold in 2006 for an everage price of around 180K, the inventory is extremely unhealthy and high right now as the market absorbtion rate is around 1 year. I personally can’t believe how many great deals there are in houses under 150K out there right now, yet nobody seems to be buying. In 2005 the average Days on market was 69 for residential. In 2006 it was about 85, thus far in 2007 it is at 120! For all the housing statistics on Bath Maine as well as tons of fresh, new overview information recently compilied, check out the new improved real estate in Bath Maine page on my site.

Maine Business rankings released by Forbes Magazine

Posted on July 14, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine investment real estate, Maine real estate news, Maine real estate development | Leave a Comment

The verdict is in once again, 48th out of 50 on best places to do business. Well at least it can’t get much worse. The only states outranking us were Louisiana and West Virgina. Coming as no big surprise since as 2 years prior we tallied a 46th ranking in the same pole. Broken down into 5 categories, the one area we did rank in the 25, a 16th in quality of life, so just because nobody wants to do move their business here, plenty still want to relocate and retire in Maine. We ranked 27th on labor (educational attainment, net migration and projected population growth), 30th in economic climate (current job, income and gross state product growth, unemployment and the presence of large employers), 42nd in growth prospects (projected job,…income and GSP growth, business openings and closings, and venture capital investment), 43rd on business costs (labor, energy and taxes) and we bottom out at 46th on regulatory environment (regulatory and tort climate, incentives, transportation and bond ratings)

Oh well, the Maine Lobster will have its day.. Read the complete story here

Portland Maine Market Report

Posted on July 11, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Portland Maine real estate, Maine housing statistics | Leave a Comment

As I sat around tonight wondering what I should research in the Southern Maine real estate world, acknowledging that I that I love numbers and that my niche seems to be in compiling housing statistics on I thought why not take some market snapshots for individual towns and then revisit a couple months later to get a great handle on the status of an individual market, so here we go with real estate in Portland Maine. As of today, 471 current residential properties are on the market in Portland, 253 SF and 218 Condos. The median ASKING price for a single family home clocks in at 387K vs 328K for a condominium. Despite the high average, the lions share of properties for both types fall between 200-300K, about 40% of the total inventory. As far as Days on Market, single family homes are moving much quicker, 85 days, versus 112 days for condos. Another interesting factoid I by accident stumbled across while messing up my average vs summation function in excel was the total dollar volume of asking prices. 98M and 71.5M respectively for SF and condos, thus with a couple hundred million, you could BUY Portland. View all the stats here

Month by Month Transaction Levels explored

Posted on July 9, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine housing statistics | Leave a Comment

Here is an analysis of the month by month real estate transaction levels for Cumberland, York, Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties in Maine.

2007 Month by Month Transaction Levels

!	2007	2006	!
Jan	407	422	96%
Feb	438	454	96%
March	533	623	86%
April	619	654	95%
May	672	816	82%
!	2669	2969	90%

After seeing such a significant drop this month, I thought best to view it relative to the rest of this year. An average drop of 10% for the first 5 months can be seen for all residential transactions in the 4 counties followed.