Homes in Maine are continuing to get more expensive, and there are still fewer of them for sale, according to a report from the Maine Association of Realtors.

Data from Maine Listings shows the median sales price of a single-family home hit $353,000 in January, up 8.6% from $325,000 in January 2023. All the while, fewer houses are changing hands in the state. Just 743 units sold last month, down 2% from 758 homes during that period last year.

That continues to reflect trends of “historically low” housing inventory amid record demand in Maine, said Paul McKee, president of the Maine Association of Realtors.

“Next month, if I’m telling the same story that unit sales are down and prices are up, I won’t be surprised,” McKee said.

But McKee, a Portland-based broker with Keller Williams Realty, believes the data also indicate inventory is finally trending upward, bringing some hope to prospective buyers of an easier house hunt.

“Inventory is still low, but the inventory has gone up. Homes have been on the market a little bit longer, that rush to buy is slowing down with the major bidding wars route, which turns people off,” McKee said. “And I do think (inventory) will continue ticking up.”

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Prices have been up and sales low since the start of the pandemic, when Maine’s population boomed and the state’s demand for housing followed suit.

Maine’s January median sales price, the price at which half the homes sold for more money and half sold for less, was $200,000 in 2019. That number ticked up to $220,900 in 2020, to $255,300 in 2021 and $292,300 in 2022.

Maine broke its record for housing prices in Maine last year, with a $360,000 annual median sales price.

Last month, Cumberland County topped the list with a median sales price of $543,500, a 21.3% increase from last year. Others with lower median prices saw different rates of popularity. In Waldo County, the median sales price increased by 58.4% to $384,000 from $242,500 in January 2023.

The high prices are in part caused by historically low inventory, which McKee said has prolonged the buyer’s market.

But prospects are starting to look brighter. While the median sales price has increased, it’s the lowest increase since January 2020. And last month ended with the largest inventory in two years, with 2,396 houses on the market, according to Maine Listings.

Even so, McKee thinks it will take time to create a balanced market, which real estate professionals see as a six-month supply of houses. Right now, McKee estimates Maine has about 3.5 months of supply.

“We need to be able to build faster than we’re (selling) before we can really see the turning of the tide,” he said. “I don’t know how long it will go but knowing we’ve been two and a half years seeing pretty much the same thing, without seeing a lot of new (housing) developments on my agenda, I don’t think it’s going to change quickly.