Maine homes are sitting on the market for longer today than they have been at any time in the last five years, according to data from real estate brokerage Redfin.
While it’s usual for Maine real estate to move slower during the winter months and after a presidential election, homes are sitting for an average of 10 days longer than they were this time last year, according to Redfin.
Some homes may sit for longer because they’re located far from the interstate and major job centers or because they’re in poor condition, but realtors say the greater days on market points to broader industry trends.
Chief among what’s driving the long wait times is the stubbornly high median sale price of Maine homes, according to Jeff Harris, president of the state’s association of realtors.
“The median sale price remains right around $400,000,” said Harris, a Farmington-based broker with Harris Real Estate. “Affordability has become really tough for a lot of buyers, and some sellers are staying put, because if they sell, they’re going to have to spend more to get into another home.”
Some of those high list prices are due to sellers overestimating how much their home is worth based on the volatility of the COVID-era real estate market, Harris said. Usually, you can spot those homes because they’ve not only sat on the market longer, but have seen price cuts, he said.
“There are certainly times when houses are priced more than they should be,” agreed Newport-based realtor Sherri-Lynn Hanson. “It may be about a seller’s expectation of what their home is worth versus perhaps what they were told.”
Higher sale prices and interest rates are not only shutting buyers out, Hanson said, but leading fewer homeowners to refinance their mortgages. A rate cut would loosen the market for both sellers and buyers, she said.
Another factor driving the market is that as demand for Maine homes has cooled post-pandemic, more inventory is finally — and sure, slowly — coming online, giving fewer buyers more choices.
“I think having very smart pricing strategies will keep the days on market down,” Lisa DiBiase, broker-owner of Landing Real Estate in South Portland, said. “But we have experienced a lot more inventory in today’s market [than] this time last year.”
In southern Maine, where DiBiase is based, the impact of more inventory has been negligible for pricing. Demand for homes in Maine’s largest cities and along its coast is still strong, and DiBiase said the last two offers she’s written were for homes in Portland and Falmouth that were under contract within a week of being listed.
In January, a slow time of year for real estate, a $12 million home in Kennebunkport was sold 90 minutes after being listed, showing the resiliency of the luxury market in that area, too.
“You go outside the Greater Portland area, you will notice that some properties are staying on the market perhaps a little bit longer,” DiBiase said. “Maybe the buyers are being a little more picky about the price they’re going to pay, and not wanting to necessarily overpay in today’s market, in those outskirts.”
These factors are all signs that Maine is returning to a softened, more traditional real estate market a few years out from the pandemic, especially if there’s a rate cut in the coming months.
“I think it’s going to be a good year,” Harris said.
