Housing is the biggest problem facing the state according to 3 in 10 Mainers, a poll from the University of New Hampshire has found.
That’s a significant bump from around the same time last year, when 1 in 4 Mainers said the same thing in another UNH survey. Housing dwarfed all other issues in both polls: This year, 11 percent cited cost of living as Maine’s biggest issue, 9 percent said jobs or the economy and 6 percent said homelessness. All other issues came in at 5 percent or under.
The poll shows how heavily Maine’s housing crisis continues to weigh on the minds of residents. Though some real estate agents are hopeful that the housing market is cooling, and some bastions of affordability still exist in more rural counties, sale prices and rents continue to rise sharply in job centers and along Maine’s southern coast.
Maine has taken some action, including by passing a landmark housing reform law in 2022 and commissioning a study that came out last year saying the state needs at least 76,000 more homes by 2030 to meet current and future demand. The state is leading the rest of New England in housing production but that level is still far short of the need.
While housing is at the top of voters’ minds, nobody in particular seems to be getting blamed for the affordability crisis. The survey released on Thursday found that only 5 percent of voters who disapproved of Gov. Janet Mills said housing had been the issue she has handled the worst. The Democrat had a 53 percent approval rating in the survey.
With home sales dipped slightly nationally in July, those numbers in Maine were up nearly 11 percent compared with this time last year, according to monthly real estate data released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday.
That data showed the median statewide sales price up 5 percent since July last year, reaching $399,250. To afford a home that expensive, you’d need to make more than $100,000 a year, yet the average Maine family makes just under $70,000.
The UNH Survey Center polled 951 likely Maine voters between Aug. 15 and Aug. 19. The poll has an error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percent.
