This morning at our Greater Portland Board of Realtor‘s meeting we were lucky enough to get the chief economist for the National Association of Realtor’s, Lawrence Yun, to come speak about the current state of our housing economy, from both a local and national perspective.  As optimistic as he tried to be.. he was very realistic and basically said it was a challenging environment and the recovery is slow, but Portland Maine has fared better than the average city!

With that said… here is some data on how the greater Portland residential housing market fared in the 3rd quarter of 2010.   490 homes and condos sold at a median price point of 250K representing a transaction volume decrease of 37% and a pricing increase of 9% year over year although this pricing increase is more  a function of less first time home buyers in the marketplace than of real price appreciation.  Read the full 3rd quarter Maine report here.

It seems the markets of southern Maine have come alive as of late, but don’t expect any drastic gains in the near future. More than likely prices will flat line for a while, but with price stablizing buying has never been more attractive in this humble Realtor’s opinion.

You can search all Maine homes for sale here  if you would like or leave a comment and let me know where you think the market will go.

Yesterday the Maine Association of Realtors released their monthly housing statistics on median home prices and transaction volume for all the counties in Maine.  The statewide median home price clocked in at $169,900, down just under 2% from a year prior whilst transaction volume in September 2010 was off over 20% compared with 2009 figures.

Here is a look at National, Regional and Maine Housing Statistics

If you dig into the specific county data, see here… one can see that that the southern ME real estate markets fared much better than average with Cumberland up almost 3% in median pricing and York county up a whopping 21%, go figure!!  Homes in mid coastal Maine also saw improved pricing with median prices up 9% and 10% respectively for Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties.

As rates continue to remain close to 4% the real estate markets, despite being slower than normal, currently offer some great possibilities. Search all homes in Maine for sale here and thanks for reading!

Blogging from an ipad on a bus from Boston….

Having recently published my October housing newsletter on the real estate markets of York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln  counties it was no surprise to find that volume continues to remain off about 20% in the southern ME real estate markets compared with a year prior.

Statistically speaking prices were up in September, but these increases are more the result of a less first time home buyers in the marketplace  than of actual price increases.  Overall I feel the regional marketplace continues to see price stabilization.

Thus far through October buyer traffic has been stronger and with interest rates pushing 4%, if one qualify for a loan..DO IT!!!… these rates will not last!

Some questions going forward will be…How will the foreclosure fiasco play out…What will rates do?…Will title companies insure foreclosed properties? Will the Economy start generating jobs!!

The coastal and southern Maine regions including the counties of York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln saw more of the same for the month period ending in September 2009.  Housing inventories continue to decrease as do the days on market for residential real estate!  Median prices were down a bit more significantly year over year this September but on a 3 month rolling average, prices are off about 10%.  The markets have for the most part been pretty stable since the start of the summer and since January 1, little pricing decrease has been seen and volume has been steadily increasing, both great signs for a continued improvement.  The full Maine housing report can be seen here.
Thanks for reading,

John Herrigel
A southern and mid coastal Maine buyers agent.

For the 3 months ending September 2009, the greater Portland real estate markets saw market improvement over the first half of the year.  The towns of Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth saw a combined total of 431 transactions compared with 372 in the 2nd quarter and 399 for the same period 2008, representing a 7% year over year increase.
The average median price for all 5 communites was 238K, down 12% from266K in 2008 for the same 3 month period.  Median prices in the 1st and 2nd qtr 2009 was 263 and 250K respectively.

You can view the entire report with individual Maine community housing statistics here.

Thanks for reading!

John

Maine Buyers Broker

Doing a bit of research this AM for a client looking to purchase a home perhaps in a rural location within 30 minutes of Portland Maine, here is a real estate snapshot of the current inventory of Maine homes for sale and the median sold prices for these neighborhoods.

As one goes a bit west and north of Portland Maine, property values tend to hold their own but you do get a lot more for your money, both in sq footage and land with your purchase.