A small garage on less than an acre in the coveted coastal town of Harpswell is listed for sale at just under $300,000.
Built in 1993, the garage has deeded access to the water’s edge in scenic Potts Point and to an on-site well. It would take some ingenuity and “creative” septic system design to turn this garage into a home, listing agent Shirley Wedell said.
It could be bundled with a nearby $1.1 million home for sale, but people have shown interest in buying the garage as is. Wedell thinks it’s most likely that a local or someone looking to move to Harpswell will buy it for their cars, as storage space or perhaps as an artists’ studio.
“We do have a person interested in it as a garage,” Wedell, a broker with Coldwell Banker, said. “The location is amazing. … It has access to water; that’s almost priceless around here.”
The listing goes to show just how in-demand coastal real estate has become. In Harpswell, a fishing town with more than 200 miles of coastline and a population that doubles in size each summer, the median home sale price is $766,500. That is a 12.5 percent increase from this time last year, according to Redfin. Only five years ago, that figure sat below $400,000.
The reasons for the explosion is the same in Harpswell as it is everywhere else, Kevin Johnson, the select board chair, said. Incredibly high demand for low housing inventory has pushed prices up to levels unaffordable for the young families, seniors, essential workers and fishermen.
Johnson was unsurprised to hear of a garage selling for the price of a single-family home. He even pointed to a “tear-down” property on Bailey’s Island going for nearly $375,000.
“The average kid living here in town is not making that kind of money,” he said.
The influx has steepened competition for Harpswell homes affordable to the average household, which makes roughly $85,000 a year. There are currently only 7 properties for sale for less than $400,000 in Harpswell, which is around what the median household here could afford. One of those properties is the garage, and several others are either seasonal or in need of renovations.
Rental offerings are even more scarce: only three rentals are listed in town, and the cheapest one goes for $1,250 a month.
Though homes under $700,000 sell “right away” in Harpswell, Wedell said the market for pricier properties is competitive but cooling. That alone is a big change from just last year. The broker attributes that chilling effect to high inflation. Buyers are seeing interest rates start to drop “little by little” and might even wait to see the outcome of the presidential election this November before making large investments, she said.
“I think we have seen a definite slowdown,” Wedell said. “It’s not the same market as it was in the previous three years.”
