Rent prices in Rockland are virtually as high as they are in Portland, hovering above $2,000 and going up by nearly $500 a month over 2020, according to Zillow data.
At $2,200 per month, median rent in Rockland is just 10 percent lower than it is in Portland, based on the real estate site’s analysis of listings ranging from homes to apartments as of Sunday. There were just 16 available rentals in Rockland at that time.
The supply shortages that have marked Maine’s housing affordability crisis since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have mostly been observed in the southern part of the state. Rockland’s situation highlights the related issues facing midcoast areas that have grown as tourism destinations but have not grown their permanent populations.
Other cities in Maine have tried to get a handle on the issue with limiting short-term rentals, including Portland’s rent control ordinance and Bar Harbor’s cap on non-owner occupied short-term rentals. Rockland has neither. It also has an extremely low supply of housing.
That is the major factor driving the high prices, with barely any multi-family buildings available for buyers, local real estate agent Martin Cates said. There is no incentive to build more, Cates said, calling the situation a “Catch-22.” With nowhere to live, people can’t move to Rockland. Since almost nobody is coming, little housing is being developed.
The city’s population grew slightly to crest above 7,000 between 2020 and 2021, but it has lost 1,000 people since 1998 and is smaller now than it was in 1860.
“We need single-family homes, we need single-family rental homes, we need duplexes, triplexes, and there’s a market out there that will pay a fair rent, will pay good rent, if it was available,” Cates said.
Rockland also has some unique economic issues. A single parent would have to make $80,000 a year to afford a two-bedroom apartment for $2,000 per month, noted Becca Gildred, chief development officer for the Knox County Homeless Coalition. Those jobs are in much higher supply in southern Maine, but three-fourths of Rockland residents cannot afford median rent.
“I just don’t know if we have enough jobs that pay that kind of annual salaries to be able to support people living and working in the area,” Gildred said.
Rockland Mayor Louise Maclellan-Ruf agreed the city needs more people being able to live and work there. But there are few solutions in sight from the council.
Last year, Rockland struck down an ordinance to limit short-term rentals. The short-term rental tracking site AirDNA lists 57 available rentals in Rockland with average revenue rising 4 percent in the last year. Some say these rentals are taking up housing units that could be rented by those living in the city.
Some smaller projects are active. The homeless coalition is working with Habitat for Humanity and other organizations to build a neighborhood with affordable housing, Gildred said. The project, which has some nearly finished duplexes, the foundations for six cottages and plans for some single-family homes, is in progress.
The coalition also worked on a pilot project called Rapid Re-Housing to help people get into rental spaces, but the project isn’t guaranteed to continue since it needs to be renewed each year. They’ve been providing some people to cover utilities or helping them out of debt in order to get into an apartment.
There have been anecdotes of residents having to move out of their apartments after rent has increased or landlords have stopped accepting housing subsidies. Given a choice between accepting subsidized housing and renovating an apartment to bring in more money, the economic answer is obvious, something that Gildred called an issue in the city.
“Without being mission-based, it’s difficult to see why anybody would [accept housing subsidies],” she said.
