Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Maine’s housing market has been forever changed by the five years since the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset.
A wave of migration in the pandemic years coupled with historic underproduction of new housing pushed prices and values up, and middle- to low-income earners out of affordable homeownership. While the heavily populated southern part of the state has gotten most of the attention, Zillow data shows that home values have actually skyrocketed most in an odd mix of inland towns.
Here are three areas of Maine where housing prices have risen the most since the pandemic began.
Kennebec Valley
The Maine towns with the sharpest rise in values in the last five years are in the Kennebec Valley — specifically the Skowhegan area. The Somerset County seat as well as the outlying towns of Madison, Solon and Detroit have all seen over 90 percent increases in their average home values since March 2020. Winslow, near Waterville, has as well.
“When I came to Whittemore’s Real Estate in the fall of 2016, I believe there were 95 houses on the market in Skowhegan. We’re now at 15 to 20,” said broker Garrett Quinn. “There were many days [during COVID] we would look online, and there’s between one and three houses on the market.”
The area offered people cheaper homes in a beautiful, rural area with plenty of recreational opportunities, Quinn said. Cash offers were flying in from out-of-state residents looking to work remote or home school, or from investors looking to flip homes into short-term rentals.
That’s been detrimental for low-income residents now squeezed for options, especially first-time buyers with no equity. But the market is stabilizing, Quinn said, with more inventory, longer days on market and even price cuts.
“It is a little bit of a better environment for them, but it’s still certainly a tough game to get into if you’re just starting out,” he said.
Western Maine ski towns and suburbs
These towns also stand out on the list of the places most affected by the housing crisis. But they stand out for two disparate sets of reasons.
No city or town in Maine had its housing market disrupted by the pandemic more than Newry, the home of the Sunday River ski resorts. Its 111 percent increase in housing values since March 2020 is partially due to the hillside mansions being put up there on spec. Home values there now exceed $500,000.
Things are different in the towns of Rumford, Dixfield and Livermore Falls, where home values have also spiked tremendously in the last five years. While average values still hover around $200,000 — a far cry from southern Maine figures and the state’s average home value of just over $400,000 — that’s a huge leap from where they sat in 2020.
Part of what’s driven the spike is the fact that homes in the area have been undervalued for years, said area realtor Jake Stewart, an associate broker with The Maine Real Estate Experience. These towns are within commuting distance of job centers in Lewiston and Auburn, but are steeped in rural charm and rich in outdoor recreation opportunities.
As a result, new residents have flocked to these towns in recent years, and the mill town of Rumford is seeing economic growth and more job creation. The ensuing rise in valuations is causing more residents to list their homes for sale, Stewart said.
“I actually work with a lot of first time homebuyers,” the Livermore-based agent said. “It certainly feels like there’s a lot of momentum in this area … and it will continue to climb, I imagine.”
Lincoln
One outlier in the mix is the Penobscot County town of Lincoln. With just under 5,000 people, it saw a 96 percent increase in home values from March 2020 to March 2025 — bringing values to just over $200,000 in the historic mill town.
“Lincoln continues to grow, we’ve got new businesses all the time,” local realtor Ken Moody with Allied Realty said.
As with the Lewiston-Auburn suburbs, Lincoln’s proximity to Bangor — where home values and prices are higher — has made a difference and led more people to choose to settle there instead, Moody said. Yet the spike in values in an area where incomes are lower has shut many first-time buyers out of the market.
“There’s not too much in town under $200,000 right now, there’s only one or two,” Moody said. “First time home buyers, I don’t think they’ll qualify for over $200,000.”
