As we head into 2025, all parts of Maine continue to be embattled by a shortage of attainable housing.
That low housing inventory has been caused by an aging housing stock, decades of underproduction and a recent wave of in-migration. They have pushed rents and home prices up to unsustainable levels in recent years — so much so that the state’s median home is unaffordable to any family making less than six figures.
The state has laid out a lofty plan to meet housing demand in Maine by 2030, though regional planners doubt it will get there in time. If it does, it will be because cities and towns do interesting and creative things to get more attainable housing permitted and built.
Here are five places that are candidates to make progress in 2025.
Augusta
The state’s capital sits in the center of a region that continues to see the largest increase in home prices in Maine. But it has also made strides in recent years to add needed housing to its downtown area.
It’s a place to watch because of the city’s recent push to transform its decaying retail areas into mixed-use developments. It also has more than 200 units of housing either beginning construction or coming in the next year, economic development director Keith Luke said.
A $48.5 million transformation of an 8-acre shopping complex near the State House will bring 60 units of market-rate housing. The project will also include retail, a hotel and an office space. It will be interesting to see if the city finds uses for other underutilized shopping centers and whether or not other places in Maine follow Augusta’s lead.
“The council has prioritized housing by using all of the tools at its disposal, from making underutilized city-owned parcels available for housing development, to adopting contract zones that support multi-unit infill development,” Luke said.
Bangor
Bangor’s city council declared 2024 its “year of housing.” Between the city’s tight rental market, tiny home park, its dispute with the owners of the decaying Bangor Mall and a fight by residents to preserve a mobile home park, you can expect to see plenty of housing news here next year.
One of the first housing projects to open in the new year will be the Pine Tree Inn, which next month will become 41 units of permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless and may have mental health disorders. BangorHousing will also break ground on a new, 100-unit senior housing project on Sunset Avenue in the spring, according to Mike Myatt, executive director of Bangor’s housing authority.
Last year was a banner year for housing production in Bangor, as the city permitted more units in 2024 than it had in the previous three years. Myatt expects to see that momentum continue.
“Bangor is a [city] that is a strong supporter of housing and one of the few in Maine doing something about it,” Myatt wrote in an email.
Biddeford
Biddeford has established itself as somewhat of a maverick city in southern Maine. While nearby communities like Cape Elizabeth and Cumberland have rejected housing projects in recent years, Biddeford officials — particularly Mayor Marty Grohman — have announced they’ll be “rolling out the red carpet” for developers shunned elsewhere.
The city welcomed the rebuffed developer of a housing project voted down in Cumberland, and got them to build in their city. That project is one of a handful that will break ground in Biddeford in 2025, with Grohman saying there are more than 2,000 housing units in construction in a city of just over 22,000 people.
Expect to see other rejected developments scooped by the city next year. There are also city-owned parcels that are ripe for new projects.
“We like to hear from people and hear about good projects all the time,” Grohman said.
Rumford
The western Maine mill town of Rumford is a place to watch for housing news in 2025 as it launches a cascade of housing opportunities across all income levels through adaptive reuse of old buildings.
The conversion of a former paper bag mill into long-term hotel lodging and a school into 59 units of assisted living will add needed housing supply, George O’Keefe, the town’s economic development director, said. The hope is that these projects bring historic properties back into use while freeing up units for those struggling to find options in a tight rental market
“In our view, an assisted living facility is, in effect, also a housing opportunity, because it’s going to open up other housing in the area that has needs,” O’Keefe said.
Rockland
The midcoast city of Rockland is a regional leader in housing production, Mathew Eddy, executive director of the Midcoast Council of Governments, said. But local officials say they’re still struggling to meet their housing demand amid today’s costly building climate.
The city is a place to watch in 2025 as it passed a referendum in November that leaders say gave them a mandate to explore out-of-the-box ways to develop housing for the “missing middle” — households who make too much to receive federal assistance but not enough to buy market rate housing — in 2025.
City Councilor Adam Lachman said the city will pursue a local housing bond next year that will allow for the creation of a system of local incentives for housing development.
Though residents agreed to the idea of exploring affordable housing in November, it will be interesting to see if they actually take to those ideas once they are concrete.
