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.
Gaining a foothold is difficult for a middle-income family in Maine, where median home prices are far from attainable to the average household.
Though the concept of a “starter home” is largely a casualty of the affordability crisis, there are opportunities for first-time buyers to purchase a smaller property with government loans or conventional financing. That’s especially true in central, northern and rural parts of the state.
We rounded up four examples of properties that could be considered starter homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000 on the Maine market today.
A Bangor-area home with a pond
Orrington, $215,000
This cozy home for sale 15 minutes from Bangor went on the market Tuesday night, and already prospective buyers had been blowing up listing agent Sarah Ryan’s phone all Wednesday long.
“It’s just insane,” Ryan, an agent with NextHome Experience, said. “There is a lot of competition around houses that are listed in that price range.”
The home sits on 1.6 acres and includes a barn and small pond out back. It has one bedroom and one bathroom, but could be easily converted into a two bedroom house as it has been in the past, Ryan said. She believes that the listing will mostly attract first-time homebuyers and seniors looking to downsize from the Bangor area.
“This is actually very affordable for even Orrington,” the agent said.
This cape in a city center
Lewiston, $215,000
This three bedroom, one bathroom home right across the street from Lewiston High School would be an ideal starter home, said listing agent Sue Dube of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group. Within two days, it went under contract, but it’s now back on the market due to no fault of its own, she said.
It’s mostly been first-time home buyers interested in the property, which has a fenced-in backyard and a 1-car garage. That class of buyers is finding few options on today’s market that don’t need significant repairs, Dube noted. Like many of today’s starter homes, this one needs minor upgrades but nothing significant, the agent said.
“It is tough to find something, especially if you’re doing government financing, [for which] you have to have a move-in ready property. Those are hard to find in that price range,” she said.
A newly renovated home in a subdivision
Augusta, $240,000
This starter home for sale is in the capital city, which has topped Maine in projected home value growth for the last few years now. It’s a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom home with 960 square feet of living space, a 1-car detached garage and a backyard.
The home was built in 1948 but recently updated to have a modern look with fresh paint, new floors and a renovated kitchen and bathroom. Listing agent Kelly Webb-Quinn of the Fontaine Family Real Estate noted that the property in the Mayfair neighborhood on the city’s east side is close to a park and several state government buildings.
A New England-style home in southern Maine
Sanford, $299,000
When Portland got too expensive, first-time buyers looked to Biddeford. Now that Biddeford’s getting pricier, those buyers are looking to Sanford, said realtor Joshua Lagasse of RE/MAX Realty One.
“Sanford tends to be a little bit lower priced than other areas,” Lagasse said of the York County town located about 45 minutes from Portland.
Lagasse has listed a starter home in downtown Sanford with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, nearly 1,200 square feet of living space and two porches. It’s mostly attracted first-time buyers, but it has sat on the market for a few weeks because it’s behind a multi-unit building, the agent said. He recently reduced the price by $20,000 because of that.
Though the property is move-in ready, it may not qualify for the government-backed loans that many first-time buyers rely on to secure their starter home, he said. That’s typical for this price point, especially in southern Maine, where most properties under $300,000 are rural, fixer-uppers or mobile homes.
“It’d be easier to go conventional,” Lagasse said.
