January home prices up by double digits again, while sales continue to plateau
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
Prices on single-family homes continue to go up, but sales are plateauing from last year's volumes.
January was the second-highest month on record for the volume of single-family home sales in Maine — although the total of 1,166 homes sold was down 7.2% compared to January 2021.
Markets statewide are constrained due to the low availability of for-sale inventory, according to Madeline Hill, 2022 president of the Maine Association of Realtors and a designated broker at Roxanne York Real Estate on Bailey Island.
“Over the past two years, the pandemic has altered the way that households live and work,” Hill said in a news release Friday. “Remote employment arrangements and increasing sales prices have expanded home search areas, and we’re seeing Maine’s more rural counties rejuvenated by this demand.”
In a year-over-year comparison, the January median sales price for single-family existing homes in Maine rose 14.47% to $292,250. The median sales price is the level at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of single-family existing homes across the country decreased 2.4% in the past year, while the national MSP jumped 15.9% to $357,100 in a comparison of January 2022 to January 2021.
Regionally, sales in the Northeast eased 8.2%, and the regional MSP of $382,800 represents a 6% rise in prices over that same time period.
Unit sales in 13 of Maine’s 16 counties dropped during the rolling three months of November, December and January on a year-over-year basis.
Franklin County saw the steepest decline at 31%. That was followed by Hancock County (24.5%), Piscataquis County (21.3%) and Waldo County (20.59%).
Only Androscoggin, Kennebec and Penobscot counties saw a rise in unit sales, in the range of 4% to 8%.
“Opportunities are available in the marketplace for buyers, and nearly 1,200 households closed on their homes in January — the second-best January since record-keeping began 24 years ago,” said Hill.
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