Maine is on track this year to add just more than 725 new homes that are considered affordable, according to the state’s housing authority.
But the new analysis offered a mixed outlook for Maine’s housing market.
About 775 new affordable housing units came online in Maine last year. MaineHousing said if bipartisan funding and support continues, the state could continue this pace of development into the future.
Still, it’s well below the pace that Maine needs to maintain if the state wants to meet its goal of building roughly 84,000 new homes by the end of the decade.
But the rising costs of building new homes or buying an existing one poses more uncertainty.
Median home prices rose by more than 50 percent over the last four years in Maine. Average wages for Maine workers, though, grew by just 33 percent.
Construction costs have also increased in each of the last three years, and topped out at nearly $300,000 per unit last year.
The rise in construction costs may be leveling off, but MaineHousing suggested recently proposed tariffs would increase the costs of building materials.
A bright spot in the analysis: Maine’s construction labor force grew by 7.3 percent from 2023 to 2024.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
