Maine saw the median price for a home climb last month even as sales continued to drop.
Buyer scooped up 743 homes in January, a nearly 2 percent fall compared with the 758 sold in January 2023, according to the Maine Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, the median sales price for a Maine home rose nearly 9 percent to $353,000, compared with January 2023.
Paul McKee, the president of the Maine Association of Realtors and a broker affiliated with Keller Williams Realty in Portland, said that the market is looking better for buyers as we start off the year.
“While still historically low, for-sale inventory has been trending upward, mortgage interest rates have softened since their highs late last year, and year-over-year price appreciation has been in the single digits for three straight months,” McKee said Thursday.
The fall in home sales here mirrors a broader decline in the Northeast and across the country.
Nationally, home sales fell 1.4 percent in January, compared with the same time the year before. In the Northeast, home sales were down nearly 6 percent in January, compared with January 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Like in Maine, the median sales prices for homes have been rising nationally and in the Northeast. Nationally they are up 5 percent to $383,500, while for the Northeast broadly they have risen 10 percent to $434,300.
On the county level, the most significant increase in median home prices was in Waldo County, where the median price has risen 31.9 percent to $349,450 for the three-month period ending Jan. 31, compared with the same time last year. The highest median home price for the period was in Cumberland County, where it reached $525,000.
The median home price fell in just two counties — 0.36 percent to $140,000 in Aroostook and 2.27 percent to $215,000 in Washington. Aroostook had the lowest median home price overall.
On the sales front, sales were down across the board between November 2023 and January 2024, compared with the same time last year. Sales fell most sharply in Knox County, where they are down nearly 27 percent. Sales rose in four counties — Washington (4.8 percent), Kennebec (8.3 percent), Sagadahoc (11.3 percent) and Lincoln (19.5 percent).