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How Maine stacks up on some national lists

Maine’s quality of life continues to garner interest nationally Here’s an overview of how Maine ranked on a wide range of lists, according to the personal finance website WalletHub.

Where Maine ranks high:

  • 4th As a charitable state
  • 5th Best state to have a baby
  • 5th Most environmentally friendly state
  • 9th For summer road trips
  • 9th For health care
  • 10th As a place for working moms
  • 12th As a place for working dads
  • 13th Best state to live
  • 14th Best public school system
  • 14th Best state to retire

Where there’s room for improvement:

  • 23rd Best state to start a business
  • 23rd State ranked by taxpayer ROI
  • 34th Best state for singles
  • 37th Best state economy

Other accolades:

Maine has two spots on OpenTable’s ‘Top 100’: A prestigious list of the country’s “Top 100 Restaurants” for 2024 features two in Maine, both of which are owned by chef Sam Hayward and restaurateur Dana Street in Portland. OpenTable, the restaurant booking and review website, named two Pine Tree State eateries to its list, published last week: Fore Street, which opened in 1996, and Scales, a waterfront seafood spot that opened in 2016. Fore Street was also on the 2023 list, along with Earth at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport and Franny’s Bistro in Camden. Scales was the only Maine eatery on OpenTable’s 2022 list. To find the country’s hottest dining destinations in 2024, OpenTable researchers analyzed more than 14 million reviews by diners, along with a host of other factors including diner ratings, reservation demand and percentage of five-star reviews.

If you’re buying a house in Maine, cash helps: Maine’s median home price has consistently been above $400,000 this year, and it’s still considered a buyers’ market. Bidding wars — which became commonplace in the pandemic — can still be expected for the most desirable properties. So it’s handy if you can pay in cash. When it comes to Maine’s housing market, cash is king in more than a third of purchases, according to state rankings released in May. The report, by the national mortgage lender New American Funding, ranks Maine among the top 10 states for all-cash purchases, which accounted for 33.5% of the state’s home sales in 2024. Maine is No. 9 on the national leaderboard. Nationwide, cash sales made up about 27% of home purchases in 2024. West Virginia leads the top 10, with cash deals accounting for 41.1% in home purchases, followed by New York at No. 2 and Delaware at No. 3.

A top ‘inbound’ state for people on the move: Maine ranked No. 7 among the “top inbound states” last year, according to one moving company. Atlas Van Lines, which releases annual “migration” data, said the top three inbound states were Arkansas, Rhode Island and North Carolina. Maine has been among the top “inbound” states in the past five years, reaching a high point at the peak of the pandemic, in 2021, when the Pine Tree State was No. 1. The top “outbound” states in 2024 were Louisiana, California and Illinois.

Portland housing market still ‘slightly hot,” ranking No. 50: The Portland area may have been a hot ticket for home buyers in the pandemic, but higher prices and changes in market tastes have cooled things off a bit. Realtor.com in July ranked Portland-South Portland at No. 50 among the top 300 residential markets. It gave the region a “slightly hot” rating, noting that Portland-South Portland dropped 24 spots from a year earlier. As Portland market slows, others in New England have taken off. In the top 10 were Springfield, Mass. (No. 1), Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn. (No. 3), Norwich-New London, Conn. (No. 5) and Concord, N.H. (No. 7). At the bottom, Houma-Thibodaux, La., ranks No. 300.

Award for last year’s Mainebiz Fact Book: The 2024 Mainebiz Fact Book was recognized with a silver award for “Best Ancillary Publication” by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers. “With the tagline ‘Doing business in Maine,’ this publication sets a high bar — and then vaults over it,’” the judges commented. It was one of eight awards Mainebiz won at the annual awards ceremony, which was held in June during a three-day conference in Ottawa, Can.

 

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