Home values are expected to rise more in the Lewiston area than any other part of Maine next year, according to Zillow data.
The list is led by Minot, the town of 2,600 people just west of Auburn, where values are expected to increase by 7.5 percent by January 2025. That would bring median prices there to around $374,000. Values are also expected to rise by more than 7 percent in Lewiston, Auburn and Livermore Falls, as well as the Augusta suburbs of Hallowell, China and Fayette.
Lewiston’s average home value is less than $274,000, which is roughly half of what it is in Portland. While southern Maine has been the epicenter of the state’s housing affordability crisis since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the projections show that no part of the state has gone untouched by the changes in the market.
“This area has never experienced such a quick and strong climb in value,” said Norm Brodeur, broker-owner of Legacy Realty, a Lewiston-based real estate agency.
The same factors are driving up home values across the state: there is high demand for a lack of housing inventory. Maine has been underproducing housing for decades and is currently short an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 homes, an October state study found.
Very few properties go onto the market in Lewiston and Auburn now for less than $300,000. When they come online, they “sell like hotcakes,” said Tessie Poussard, a realtor with eXp Realty. More expensive homes are sitting on the market longer, Poussard said, and modest homes can now easily sell for more than $250,000 due to the demand in that price range.
What’s more, an increase in interest rates and taxes in the last few years means that financing a home is becoming difficult, especially for first-time buyers.
“My entry level buyers cannot afford the price of a modest home when they become available,” Brodeur said. “Some of our clients that are exploring the market are thrilled with what their homes are worth, however, not so thrilled when they discover that there are few choices to look at and the high cost of what is available.”
That’s the case across Maine. Every zip code that Zillow collects data on is projected to have increases in values over the next year. In each one of these areas, it’s the suburbs of Maine’s major cities that are supposed to see the biggest increases.
Last spring, Zillow expected the Augusta area to see the biggest increases in value over the ensuing year. That region is still projected to be on the heels of Lewiston-Auburn. Home values in the Portland area are supposed to increase the most in the suburbs of Falmouth and Gorham, while Orono and Lee are going to see the biggest rise in the Bangor area.
Lewiston may be leading the pack due to an uptick in interest and investment in the region, including proximity to the pricey Portland region, Craig Saddlemire, a member of the city’s housing committee, said.
“Whereas Androscoggin County was previously more of its own housing market, I think homebuyers in southern Maine have broadened their area of [interest], and L-A is being included in those investments much more than previously,” he said.
