For the first time in at least two decades, owning a home is not affordable for a household earning the median income in any of Maine’s 16 counties.
That’s according to new data from MaineHousing, which has been tracking and publishing data on home affordability since 2000.
“There used to be a time when we [knew] that housing was unaffordable, say, in our southern counties and our coastal communities,” says Dan Brennan, the agency’s executive director. “That over the last several years has spread to the entire state. And so this year, unfortunately, no county in Maine is affordable to the extent that the median income will buy a median-priced house.”
An Aroostook County household making the median income of about $43,000 a year can no longer afford the median price of a house there, which was $150,000 in 2022.
Statewide, the median home price was $334,000 last year, up 13 percent over the year before. That’s considered unaffordable for 72 percent of Maine households, despite a modest jump in median income levels last year.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
