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Nearly half of the roughly 140,000 Maine households that rent are spending more than they should on housing costs, newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.
More than 48% of renters in Maine devoted at least 30% of their income on housing in 2020-24, according to the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey. That’s a slight improvement from the previous four-year period, even though median rent across Maine rose more than 8% from 2015-19 to 2020-24. The median rent was $1,139 during that recent four-year stretch.
Most financial guidance recommends people pay no more than a third of their monthly income on housing, whether that means paying rent or a mortgage. Those who devote more of their income to housing are considered “cost burdened.”
Paying more for rent that leaves residents with less income to pay for other necessities such as groceries, or save for emergencies. It also cuts how much renters can sock away to eventually buy their own home one day, keeping homeownership further out of reach. This creates yet another challenge at a time when Maine is facing a stark housing shortage and prices haven’t dropped since spiking during the pandemic.
“We all make choices in our budgets, but when it gets down to those basic needs, you’re making choices between food, health care or even whether you can afford to have a child,” said Laura Mitchell, executive director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition. “It’s not helpful for our economy to have people struggling to meet basic needs.”
Rental costs are most burdensome on Oxford County residents, as more than 54% of renters there spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2020-24, according to Census data. That’s a slight improvement from 2015-16, when more than 55% of renters in the western Maine region spent roughly a third of their income on housing.
However, average rents in Oxford County dipped slightly to $836 in 2020-24, Census data shows. The region tied with Picataquis County to have the third lowest median rent after Washington and Franklin counties, which had median rents of $783 and $802, respectively, during that time period.
Rents were highest in Cumberland County and have only risen in recent years, according to the Census report. In 2020-2024, median rent in the region hovered just below $1,600 — the highest in the state and more than the national median rent of $1,413.
Those high prices resulted in roughly half of renters in Cumberland County, which holds the greater Portland area, to spend more than 30% of their income on housing in 2020-24.
York County had the second highest median rent in 2020-2024 at $1,330. That’s a more than 11% jump from 2015-19 when average rent fees sat at roughly $1,200.
Despite the increase in costs, the percentage of cost-burdened residents in York County dropped from 47% in 2015-19 to 44% in the following four years.
Lincoln County has seen the most dramatic drop in cost-burdened renters over the last decade. In 2020-2024, less than 36% of renters there were cost-burdened compared with more than 45% of renters who were spending more than they should have in the years before.
This decrease happened even though median rents in Lincoln County rose slightly between the two time periods to reach $1,055 in 2020-24, according to the Census report.
The rise of median rents and cost-burned renters across much of Maine shows wages are not keeping up with rising cost of living expenses, Mitchell said. It also emphasizes Maine’s need for more housing, especially affordable units.
Mitchell said she hopes the recent Census statistics will push local and state lawmakers to reduce barriers for developers looking to create more housing, as that will help the state’s affordability issues and chip away at the state’s housing dearth.
Those barriers to building can look like stringent rules on what type of development is allowed where, pushback from neighbors or lengthy reviews by local officials before permits can be issued, which slows down production.
“We need to be bold in decreasing the amount of regulation that is placed on the development of housing,” Mitchell said. “We also need to be producing units that are affordable for Maine people. It’s not helpful for us to just be producing units that are unaffordable.”
Ensuring rents are more attainable would especially help younger Mainers, who hope to buy a home one day but need to save money to afford a down payment and high interest rates. This is further complicated by the fact that home prices in Maine skyrocketed during the pandemic and haven’t shown signs of deflating.
“Renting should be that early stepping stone to get your feet under you and prepare for homeownership so you can build equity and raise a family,” Mitchell said. “If you can’t attain that because you can’t afford your rent, we’re cutting off an entire generation of people.”
Aside from forcing residents to make tough decisions about what necessities they can afford and delaying homeownership, Mitchell said unaffordable rents force Mainers to forgo pleasures like vacations or take on second jobs to make ends meet.
“Is that what we want for people living in our state?” Mitchell said. “I don’t think so.”
