More than 121,000 Maine households moved during and in the years following the pandemic, newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed.
The data, which comes from the American Community Survey, shows how many residents in different parts of Maine moved during and immediately following the pandemic when the state’s housing market reached a fever pitch.
Of the nearly 600,000 Mainers who responded to the survey, more than 121,000 households moved during and since the pandemic.
Meanwhile, more than 75,000 others have lived in their homes for more than 30 years, according to Census data.
The report reveals how many people moved in the last six years when the cost of and demand for housing in Maine skyrocketed, in part due to a lack of inventory. The small number of homes for sale during that time aligns with additional data that shows more Mainers stay in their homes for longer than the national average, keeping properties off the market.
Nearly 20% of respondents in Cumberland County — Maine’s most populous region — reported moving in 2020-22 while another 4% moved in 2023 or later, according to the Census. Altogether, almost 31,800 housing units in Cumberland County changed hands since 2020, the most in the state.
York and Penobscot counties took the second and third spots, as those regions had more than 17,000 and 14,000 households move since the beginning of 2020.
Mainers who were interested in moving likely felt additional pressure to sell during and following the pandemic as the housing market heated up, which shortened the typical buying cycle, said Harrison Wolfington, partner broker at Laflin & Wolfington Realty.
“It also seems like we have people coming back to us to resell sooner, sometimes because they felt a little rushed during the pandemic,” Wolfington said.
Wolfington’s team ran into so many cases like this that the agency now offers to resell a client’s home without a listing fee if they want to move within a year of buying, he said.
While thousands of Maine households have moved in the last five years or so, many others have stayed put for decades, the Census data revealed. In fact, Mainers appear to stay in their homes for longer than the national average.
Almost 13% of the Mainers who responded to the survey reported moving into their current home in 1989 or earlier, whereas less than 10% of people nationwide stayed in their homes for that long.
Another 10% of Mainers have lived in their home since the 1990s and another 18% of residents moved between 2000-09, both of which are higher than the national average, Census data shows.
Some residents might want to move into a home that better fits their needs, but they don’t want to take on the high interest rates, Wolfington said. This is especially true if they secured a low rate when they bought or refinanced their home years ago.
“We hear feedback from buyers who want a bigger house, but the rates just won’t allow it,” Wolfington said. “They don’t want to trade for a worse interest rate, which definitely keeps people where they are.”
Others may have paid off the mortgage on the home they’ve lived in for decades, so they’re reluctant to leave and take on another.
Wolfington said he often works with clients who have lived in their homes for decades while they raised their children. Now, they’re empty nesters and looking for something smaller and single-story, so they can age in place comfortably.
“When I think back on my childhood, so many of my friends’ parents are still living in the homes where my friends grew up,” Wolfington said. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all that Mainers move less than everyone else.”
