Mills Administration and MaineHousing launch statewide housing data portal
Just a few months after the city of Portland created a publicly available housing dashboard to track and visualize the city’s efforts to create more housing, the state has launched a similar initiative.
The State of Maine Housing Data Portal — a project of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, the Department of Economic and Community Development, and MaineHousing — is a central repository of housing and community data to support planning and actions to address housing production needs across the state.
“This new portal is an important resource for Maine communities to help inform and advance efforts to make housing more accessible and affordable across the state,” said Hannah Pingree, director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
The online portal, mainestatehousingdata.org, is designed to build on the state’s housing needs production study released last year. The study assessed the effects of historic housing underproduction in Maine, as well as estimated housing needs in the state going forward based on current demographic trends
The portal compiles publicly available housing market, population and economic data for Maine, such as housing supply, rental affordability and homeownership access, as well as detailed demographic, income and employment information. The data is sortable by state, county and community, and is available for export and download.
Through the portal, Maine communities, housing organizations and he public can assess state, regional and local housing trends to maximize housing opportunities, inform housing discussions, set housing priorities, plans, and goals, and aid development of local ordinances.
“Addressing Maine’s urgent need for more housing requires a strong partnership between state, regional, and local governments,” said Pingree. “By providing ready access to the latest housing data and trends to support thoughtful housing planning and actions for the future, this portal is an investment in that partnership.”
Heather Johnson, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, added: “In order to continue Maine's economic growth, we need to increase our workforce, and ensuring appropriate housing stock is key. This dashboard will allow stakeholders at all levels of government to effectively address housing needs in all geographies and at many income levels.”
The study and the portal were prepared by national housing planning consultant HR&A Advisors, in consultation with housing stakeholders from across Maine and with authorization of the Legislature through LD 2003, landmark housing legislation signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills in 2022.
The plan is to update the portal regularly.
The portal is intended to:
- Monitor housing markets across Maine to broaden awareness and understanding of housing trends to inform discussions about housing policy across the state.
- Provide a central repository of housing and community data to aid efforts that address housing needs and maximize housing opportunities across Maine.
- Support communities with detailed housing, economic, and demographic data to inform development of local housing ordinances.
- Deliver an ongoing overview of Maine’s housing needs to complement the State of Maine Housing Production Needs Study.
- Due to sample size, the data provided in this portal can be incomplete for small communities (in particular for communities with less than 5,000 residents) or for specific demographic groups that are not well represented in a given area. Users should always refer to local available data when possible.
For more information, contact the Housing Opportunity Program at the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development at housing.decd@maine.gov.
To access the portal, click here.
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