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

As we head into winter and landlords try and embrace the often roller coaster ride of heating costs and frozen pipes I thought I would provide a quick snapshot of the current multi unit markets and attempt to put them into context with recent year sales.

The multi unit market of Portland Maine has held its value SIGNIFICANTLY better than any of the other markets in the region.  To date 77 units have sold in 2009 at an average price point of 292K compared with an average price of 302K in 2007.  Contrast this with the worst performing market of Biddeford that saw an average price of 133K in 2009, compared with 221K in 2007, wow!!
The mid coastal markets of Bath and Brunswick currently have 36 multi units for sale  offered at median prices of 157K and 198K respectively.  In 2009, a total of 17 units sold at significantly lower median prices of 155K and 144K on average.
To read the full Southern Maine Investment Report, please visit my site www.mymaineproperty.com and sign up for an Investment Package or simply shoot me an email at john@greentreemaine.com or call me anytime at 207-650-5383.
Thanks for reading,
John