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. 
 

The Eroding Working Waterfront

Posted on June 29, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate | Leave a Comment


 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 2nd home property market. Awareness and preservation of the “working waterfront” is critical to keep this wonderful state in balance

Maine Newsletter Volume 2.5 released

Posted on June 22, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine housing statistics | Leave a Comment

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.
Click here to read the full newsletter with housing statistics
or
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Selling of the Maine Coast

Posted on June 18, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate | Leave a Comment

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.

Maine real estate legislature update

Posted on June 14, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate | Leave a Comment

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.

Maine predatory Lending legislature

Posted on June 13, 2007
Filed Under General Maine Real Estate, Maine real estate law | Leave a Comment

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. 

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