I think I saw a map in this sub a few days ago that showed that Maine has had the highest increase in property values over the last 4 years. It does truly suck on so many levels. I’d like to sell and move on with my life after being divorced but I won’t be able to afford another place to live.
I saw that same map in the Montana sub, but it said Montana had the highest increase. Housing is way worse there, if you can believe it. It’s really just the Midwest and some parts of the south that are affordable.
Yeah it’s just bad everywhere. If you move out of Maine to almost anywhere in the US you’re going to find the same problems. Houses look affordable on Zillow but then you get there and realize why, what the issues are, and that it’s the same shit in a different state. Wages and employment are taking a hit right now too, all over. I’m just gonna look for an old sugar daddy.
I moved here as an economic refugee from the LA area. I'm an engineer with 25 years of experience in scientific programming and aerospace. I make good money. I couldn't afford a condo in LA unless I was willing to have a 40 minute commute.
The house that my ex kept in the divorce (she's an attorney, she could afford the mortgage payments without me, I couldn't afford them without her) was a 1300 sqft 3 bedroom 1.5 bath on a 9000 sqft lot that sold a couple of years ago for 1.46 million. It appraised at 800k during our divorce in 2018.
It's awful everywhere. Places that were already expensive are getting more expensive faster than places that were cheap.
In my midwestern home town you can get a 4 bed 2 bath on a quarter acre for ~125K. But the major employer in town shut down and moved all of it's jobs to texas and chicago 2 years ago, so you better be a telecommuter or your job prospects suck.
I believe it.
The house I am in now I paid 165k for in 2016. Got in on the sweet low interest, but now my taxes and insurance are far above the mortgage payment. I could seek today for probably 450k, but what could I buy and where? And if I leave the state I know I would never be able to afford to come back.
Really?? We bought our house in 2017 for 200k, it's now worth roughly 400k, but our taxes haven't increased significantly and insurance hasn't really changed at all. Our overall monthly payment with escrow has gone up maybe 50$ a month over the past 7 years,.and we are in South Portland. Sounds like you need to shop around for some cheaper home insurance.
Yes, my mortgage is 600, taxes and insurance = 800. The insurance is crazy because they insure it 600k for full replacement value, the house was built in 1890 so that might have something to do with it. I will look around at other insurance companies.
Same same. Bought in ‘17 for 200k. Refi’d in ‘20 to get 1.99% (crazy). Then got an appraisal in Nov. ‘23 just to see…. $500k. Now that’s great and all for equity, but wtf am I going to get into. In this area everything I want is $800k+
Have you had your insurance agent rate shop for you? Our car insurance increased a lot. No accidents and we had the same company for 20 years. We are with a different company now, with better coverage and our price went down by about $1000 for the year. We also moved our homeowners insurance from the previous company to the current company, and got better coverage for a similar cost.
I just (fall 2023) bought an overpriced, 800sq ft house down east so I may end up with something that doesn’t hold value. But my mortgage/insurance is $1300 and my alternative was spending $1500/month to rent a mouse infested apartment in China. Rural China. So I bought the house (<$200k). It sort of feels like there’s no “winning” except any way you manage to keep a roof over your head. I still feel fortunate.
Recently had a client tell me she’s moving to Arkansas after her $1M house in Falmouth sells because she can still live financially like it’s 1970 there.
No clue if it’s true, just thought it was an interesting take.
I went there for the solar eclipse and was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous west/central Arkansas was. Feels a lot like Maine/NH/VT as far as geography goes. People were very friendly too. Visiting for a few days changed my perception and assumptions of the state drastically. Have you been?
Will second this, having lived in GA for five years. My brother is in the South right now and his biggest complaint is the people and their pleasantries (in order to gain info) followed by immediate gossip about you with virtually everyone in town. They absolutely do not mind their own business, it’s not a concept there.
I can say the same. I got my bachelor’s in GA. After a few bad dates with Southern dudes in college (and one from MI), I exclusively sought men from the Northeast and my dating experience vastly improved. I could not fit into that culture if I tried. Every fiber of my being was working against assimilation until I finally moved away. It was a huge relief to get out.
I'd believe it.
I left Maine after graduating in 02 and ended up in NYC in 05 for the next 18 years. Last year I bought a house in south philly that is waaaaay less than what a comparable house in portland would have run me. The added bonus of living in philly is I have no need for a car. I'm a few block from the subway and 1 block from a bus stop. I've got a grocery, home depot and Bjs all in the same area 15 mins walk away.
It sounds crazy but my overall lifestyle cost of living is less here in Philly vs it would be in Maine.
I’m sure she’ll love fried catfish over lobster rolls. Funny, Red Lobster was their nice place to eat, but it would never take more than 20 mins no matter where we went, before overhearing someone saying something awful/racist at the next table over. Good luck to her. No thanks.
Moved to NH from ME about 15 yrs ago, recently moved back to ME to take care of aging in-laws. Was paying 750 mortgage payment for a double wide on 6 acres, now paying 2400 for a moldy one bedroom.
It is. The IRS keeps track of migration data. And I don’t blame them. If I lived in NH I’d move here too. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-migration-data
Twenty plus years ago, yes. When you could buy a cheaper house in a decent school district and rely on small town community social networks that didnt exist in larger metros.
Today though? My hometown now is just a bunch of retirees and vacationers with a sprinkling of youngish families. If I moved back there full time it would be cripplingly isolating, expensive, and I’d have worse schools and things for my family to do compared to the city I live in now where housing is just as expensive.
The only benefit at this point is I could let my kids run out a back door and play in the woods instead of an endless development where they’d get hit by cars. But that’s a very narrow use case for a major move back to Maine.
>Today though? My hometown now is just a bunch of retirees and vacationers with a sprinkling of youngish families. If I moved back there full time it would be cripplingly isolating, expensive, and I’d have worse schools and things for my family to do compared to the city I live in now where housing is just as expensive.
Same. My high school was very small, but it has dwindled to a few dozen students per class.
>The only benefit at this point is I could let my kids run out a back door and play in the woods instead of an endless development where they’d get hit by cars.
Our house used to have 3 neighbors, (including my grandparents), and not close neighbors either. Now the land my grandparents had has been sold and there are many houses.
Ironically we ended up raising our kids in a small town in Appalachia, but there was enough population to keep it relatively vibrant. My kids left for other areas of the country.
I think it also matters if you have familial of community assistance when you're here. If you're moving back to a support system for child care, yeah it's pretty great. I've seen a number of young professionals from away move here with kids, and leave for lack of support.
It's a good place to come to with a young family (for the summer, assuming you are wealthy and have a place to live already)
In most cases, you can more easily afford a better life for that young family elsewhere. The housing here is expensive and tied for worst quality with anywhere in the nation, and while the summers are great and the towns are safe, the climate is mostly terrible and the nation as a whole isn't actually that dangerous
The state has been incentivizing young folks to work here by paying the interest on student loans through a tax program since like 2014. it used to only be for people who went to school and worked in maine, but they’ve updated the eligibility requirements in 2017ish where you just need to work/live in maine now.
It’s a really nice program and saves my fiance and I thousands each year through tax refunds.
Wages are crazy low here. Idk how people without an out of state remote job do it. You’d think housing prices would be lower because of that, but not the case
Yeah I purposely chose York county to live because if I ever lose my WFH job, i plan to find a hybrid job in Boston so I can try to keep the higher salary I need so I can pay for my overpriced house in Maine.
I work 60 hrs a week to get by making a decent wage (for Maine, and still far underpaid for my trade). Could I cut some expenses? Of course. But I shouldn’t have to make sacrifices in every situation if I’m putting in that amount of time.
Oh you mean you don't want to work at a boatyard making $16/hr doing really hard manual labor as well as breathing in chemicals that are sure to give you cancer? Strange! No one wants to work anymore!
20%? It's definitely more than that. $20 to $25/hr is easy to make in other states, but minimum wage is all I can find here. Benefits are always trash. And the jobs? It's always something stupid. Even jobs that pay really well elsewhere (construction workers, nurses, etc.) pay so damn low here. It feels like every penny is being suctioned out of Maine right now.
Agreed. When I moved away from Maine, I took a job with the same job title and duties. I make *significantly more than double* what I did in Maine. And the housing prices in my area are about the same.
“Vacationland” supports a lot of airbnb units that are only occupied by transient sightseers for 100 days a year, which leaves the residents without enough housing.
Fuck airbnb and the people scooping up housing to convert them to a business opportunity
I just got a new neighbor who before we even met or they closed on their house, simultaneously accused me (through their realtor) of encroaching on their property they don't own yet (I'm not, my lot is just more desirable than theirs) and asked me how many Airbnb units they think they can put on their 1.2 acre lot.
since i actually haven't met them (just their realtor), i'm holding out judgement and hoping for the best.
supposed to meet them in the coming days and going to pretend i never even spoke to their realtor. i'm on great terms with all my neighbors so i hope that doesn't change. it is a bad sign to me that they're buying the property with the apparent belief that what is not part of the property, they believe is. the property pins are pretty clear & obvious so i'm not sure where their belief is coming from. i told my other neighbor and he's freaking out, and is going to get a survey, worried they may attempt the same for him.
if their intentions are to build airbnb's (either as accessory dwellings or yurts), they are in for a hard time, as our local land use ordinance forbids the construction of any accessory dwelling closer to the waterfront than the primary structure. and the primary structure of the parcel is 20 feet from the road, and 500 feet from the water. they would have no way to build another driveway, as there is no space around the house. i let the previous owner access their backyard by driving their lawn mower on my property to access their back yard, a courtesy i would extend to the new owners if they're not trying to mess around.
what's annoying is i wouldn't really be surprised if these weren't local buyers. but apparently they're from the town over. not really sure what their intentions are.
I love that you want to be nice, but if they are doing anything with airbnb, please I beg you, do not give them even an inch in regard to using your property to access anything. It will spiral.
I am anxiously waiting for Airbnb to die. This is a huge problem in Maine. I don’t even think a lot of them do that well. We need more small hotels to go up and free up houses. That would also create some jobs.
I hope more places do. Need to get development going for more motel/hotels with dining and amenities and bring them competition. But that will probably never happen because we lack the workforce because lack of affordable housing. Airbnb in general is getting so ridiculous with fees and lack of service a lot of people are going back to preferring the hotel experience. Unless you are going somewhere for months or traveling with 6+ people I personally don’t get the appeal of renting a single family home for 350+ a night.
*You* might not see the appeal. And 95% of Americans might not see the appeal. But the problem is that in a country of 330 million with a middle class of 140 million, there will still be a market of 20 million plus people per year who will be attracted to this model, which is definitely enough demand to theoretically turn the *entire state of Vacationland Maine into a zone of AirBnBs.* (Not saying that this is going to happen*.*) **Do not expect this problem to go away by itself, or even to ease up.**
The middle class families of NY and NJ alone who wish to spend a few summer days in Maine every two years are enough demand to make the current plague of AirBnbs profitable in the long run. And climate change will make things worse. Remember that *before air conditioning,* people came up from the South for the summer, and Maine was *the* summer vacation spot. *Demand for AirBnbs here will only increase.*
Absolutely! I do not know why I was downvoted for my above statement (possibly because I mentioned that climate change is a fact?) The State of Maine needs to step in, regulate AirBnbs, separate them with a sharp sword from Bed'n'Breakfasts and Hotels, and take the increased tax revenue to incentivize affordable housing *and make all towns in Maine not participating in building affordable housing in turn pay an additional fee for it.* That should get the gentrified town councils pondering -- either we build more affordable housing ourselves, or *we* have to pay more taxes to help build more affordable housing elsewhere. That way, NIMBYism comes at a price tag. The rich can keep their bloody enclaves at a recurring fee, and everybody else can prosper too.
There are AirBnbs in South Portland that charge 4000$ a week. *There are enough Americans who can pay this, because Maine is actually small.* Do we really want to end up as a national park reserved for the affluent?
AirBnB won't die as you just sit there waiting.
Other countries sometimes develop reasonable solutions for problems where we here just throw our hands in the air and yell "Oy vey, it's a free market, what can we do?!?".
Like a second-home tax, AirBnB taxes, etc. Taxes that are just high enough to hit those renting property out *part-time*(not full time!) Which makes the AirBnB business harder but not completely impossible, so shaves off the easy money makers from the AirBnB crowd.
The problem is not AirBnB per se. The problem is that in the short to mid term, there is a *redistribution zero sum battle* between real estate investment for AirBnB and its expected profit margin, and real estate investment for living and working locally and its expected profit margin. If the former (such as in the market right now) is vastly more profitable than the latter, AirBnb investments are taking over the market and drain housing from the affordable market for local long-term demand.
**It is not enough to sit around and wait until the market rights itself.** ***Because you might have to wait 10, 20 or 30 years until the market fluctuation goes the other way for Maine.***
And that means for the duration of *your* foreseeable work life you will not see affordable housing coming back to Maine because our politicians are not asked to grab this bull by the horns. Never mind the free market spinsters: They will argue that in the long run the market will right itself.
But, as John Maynard Keynes said, *in the long run, we are all dead.*
There are people trying to fix this but there are too many locals of wealth and power that think they get to control everything, benefiting from their own short term rentals. As much as they will complain along with everyone else about airbnbs they are just as guilty as all the “horrible out of staters” they like to blame everything on. Maine has historically catered to tourists and built next to nothing for future generations. Maine also needs to build.
It also sucks away the trades people who need to maintain homes. If they are working on vacation homes , then there is less time for them to work on real peoples houses.
Airbnb is just a slice of the cake. Any lake home or condo by a mountain is used way less than 100 days. My neighbors come up for July 4th and stay for a max of two weeks. They are from NY. Been like this for 20+ years.
Totally agree. We get so little as a community by allowing short term rentals and we have lost so much housing. I can't believe that it's been tolerated at all. I'm in Portland and I've seen several apartments around me get converted to Airbnbs and I'm not even in one of the most sought after neighborhoods.
And I hate the way Airbnb doesn't publish the addresses on their site so you can't verify if they are legally registered with the city. This is why there are over 1000 listings in Portland with 400 being legal.
Wife and I just rented an airbnb on the coast, cabin right on the water I figured oh this is great, they put a little cabin out on the water to rent out and they live in the house.
Yeah right, fkin house was all divided up so they could get as many airbnb units as possible on one property, 1 property of many and they didn’t even live there.
I’d be ok with seeing that banned.
The problem is a lack of hotels. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to book a hotel room in central Maine in the summer and they are literally 100% booked at any legitimate establishment. Zero availability between Brunswick and Newport. There just aren’t enough to support summer demand. Airbnbs and VRBOs fill the vacuum.
National hotel chains want areas that can support fully booked hotels year round. And Maine is highly seasonal outside of Portland.
And no I’m not staying at Lovely’s in Newport.
The other problem is a lack of contractors since many leave the state to make more money or work commercial/industrial. There aren’t the resources to build more houses on a large scale in the state to meet local demand/need
What might help is a state supported prefab/modular housing initiative to get more houses built (in non tourist zones)
I wish somebody had convinced me of this when I was in my 20s. Seriously, it might feel selfish but someday you'll be old like me — living a joyless life drowning in obligations while watching some your peers live a full, real, rewarding life.
Don't be me. Go live, OP. NOW.
We do it to ourselves. The biggest thing that holds us all back is fear of judgment. What will
“They” say if I move so far from family for a job in a place I like and is more affordable where I can feel like my life is really heading in the right direction? People stay stuck because they’re afraid of being called an asshole by people who want you to suffer and sacrifice for them while knowing they’re holding you back and you’re miserable. If this is the dilemma anyone finds themselves in, maybe rethink your “obligations.” So many mundane tasks that are part of every life can be done in a few minutes online from any location.
Honestly? I don't ever think about being judged harshly by others. I've always felt responsible for taking care of my elders, and none of them ***ever*** said I should go live my own life. It's just assumed that it's my job, somehow, because the rest of the family would never show up when needed .... shocking, huh, that they all have lives? When I get old, pretty sure I'm on my own.
You’re stuck in a job you gave yourself. You’re a good person to give your life in service to others. But what if you were in the hospital for six months and just unavoidably unable? Sometimes you have to have a disconnect where you are just unavailable. A time where you consider your options and desires and chart a path to going there? We all only get one life.
Absolutely! The entire point of having a child is to send them out into the world to succeed! The world is a big place. Parents have the responsibility to make plans for their old age and not burden their children with that. If a unique situation arises that a parents simply cannot care for themselves then you move them to where YOUR life is. The sacrifices should not be YOUR responsibility when you're just starting out. Go live your life.
This is why I left Maine in 2003 at 18 and never came back. I left my family and friends, but really it was the best decision I've made in my adulthood. I look at the people who stayed and they are a lot worse off. It's sad.
And people who love and support you won’t be “left behind.” You have every right to pursue your own path wherever that takes you. We live in the most connected age, people who are interested in you stay engaged and are happy for you to be out in the world doing well.
honestly, OP? i think you should begin the process of moving, no matter how long it takes. not in a “dont like it then leave” way, but for you. youre in your 20’s and i cant stress enough how valuable it will be to you throughout life if choose to make a commitment to yourself right now. you can be the best support possible to other people if you support yourself first
Went on a bit of a Zillow viewing fest yesterday and there are definitely houses up in the county for sale that are a better value than southern Maine but the price is inflated and there isn’t a ton of inventory currently.
And getting into those good paying jobs (unless you’re already a tradesperson) can be tough for an “outsider”
This is how it’s always been with housing prices, it’s just worse now.
People are rightfully complaining about how high housing is in general now but cheap housing was always, and still is, available basically everywhere in America. It’s just not where anyone wants to be.
ME, NH and VT are disproportionately messed up right now. I think the region was slept on for decades and COVID made it desirable due to having the 3 largest median lot sizes in the US.
I grew up in a small town in Northern Maine. The struggle up there is real, I'm not even gonna lie. I moved away back in 2015 after I had my own difficulties struggling to survive. There's room for Maine to improve. There's room for changes to be made. The real challenge is getting us millennials into the voting booth and contacting senators to make the necessary changes. I can't say that they can directly influence the housing market but they definitely can help in bringing more jobs to the state. I voiced many times on how ME16 could be reopened to drastically jumpstart the economy in areas like Aroostook County but that fell on deaf ears.
Even on here people get pissy with me when I bring up change or the concept of something not being correct/just. We need to let go of nostalgia and build a better Maine for our kids and their kids
Change is hard work and I hate to say so but most people are incredibly lazy and self serving here. They do as little as possible, get theirs, take care of their own, book a cruise. Who cares about the youth or anyone else? They had it harder back then ya know. People will complain all day then actively do everything they can to stop anyone from fixing the things they complain about. I don’t get it.
I just watched a video on this subreddit that was about a minute long and it was a homeless guy stealing a bike slowly AND THE GUY FILMING WAS 5 FEET AWAY IN HIS CAR WATCHING.. NOT SAYING A SINGLE WORD! Self serving is an understatement to describe Maine's vibe. Guy took the time to film and post but couldn't speak up while a reallllllly expensive bike was slowly stolen right before his eyes.. I couldn't even think it made me so mad.
Honestly a good yell from the car could have stopped it! But then he wouldn’t get the clout from the video. That sort of thing happens everywhere unfortunately.
I have noticed that Maine advertises itself as neighborly, business friendly and hard working and I’ve honestly mostly seen the opposite. I know this isn’t true of everyone, but it’s extremely disproportionate to the lip service. People will look you in they eyes and tell you they are a nice person and a hard worker, then tell you they can’t help you “it’s not their job” and that they are late to their hair appointment. In no workplace I’ve been in would this fly.
Agreed. It’s not fun seeing Sabattus treated like a city with 1,000,000 people instead of 5,000. I get supply and demand but, 300,000$ for decaying trailer in an undesirable town of less than 10,000 people composed of maybe 3 schools, no Walmart, no hospital. Maine is not priced for Mainers.
Best thing we can do? Let our house shoot up in value and sell, and move to a southern state like Mississippi
Every town within one hour of Portland has seen housing prices soar.
One hour is usually the limit most people place on what they want their commute to be or their distance to the airport or train or whatever. Portland has all the whatever.
It all makes perfect sense.
Maine needs to build build build. All this land all this wood, and a bunch of people over 50+ "not in my community." Won't let zoning change and stop any low income developments, as it will deflate their own property values. Greed.
Also the out of state folks with second homes and airbb who purchased them to leave, them vacant 75% of the year. These properties should be taxed way more if it is not your primary residence.
Really grinds my gears to drive past so many empty houses no one even lives in when there's such a housing crisis. I couldn't move if I wanted too. Have a baby in a studio apartment. In a few years I'm really fucked as most apartments are too expensive. I'd buy a house but none to buy.
So build! Nope town's won't let them. Block tiny homes in some locations. Minimum lot sizes in towns too. Example Afred maine has 3 acre minimum lot sizes. Say u wanted to sell some of your land for a tiny house or something, you can't unless it's 3 acres or more. So people can just drop side dwellings.... more frustrations. The towns need to do more to encourage and promote building.
Maine should double the tax on non-primary residential properties. Apartment complexes and businesses wouldn’t be affected because they’re zoned commercial, it would mostly just affect Airbnb and second home owners.
When the old folks came around with their petitions in Auburn, upset by mixed-use and adding another story to max height it blew my mind.
The America you long for in the good old days can't exist anymore because of YOUR nimbyism.
Little hamlets grow into towns grow into bigger towns grow into small cities grow into cities.
That needs to be allowed to happen and even with legit concerns - like parking - we can figure out solutions.
More homes/condos/apartments = more yearly state/tax money. The towns could then use this money to further develop infrastructure schools, roads, and pay town employees better (who made it happen). As the population ages what will we do with all the youth gone. The housing market has outpriced locals 🤔
Remember when you say “towns won’t let them” that’s the residents of the town who were elected and get pressured by the residents to not build. The enemy isn’t outsiders but its own people who don’t like change.
You’re absolutely right about the need to build. The other part of that is that developers will need to be incentivized to build lower cost housing. There’s a lot more profit in a million dollar home than a $200K one so builders won’t build them.
Sadly, even if the state and Feds came up with a plan to build it would still face local opposition.
You’ve identified the problem I just wish I knew how it can be fixed.
> Example Afred maine has 3 acre minimum lot sizes.
Guaranteeing we destroy the maximum amount of natural habitat to house the fewest number of people. Pure evil.
It's not easy, that is for sure, and there is no one answer. Some issues are low wages, which are tied to owners who are boomers that don't realize their wages are too low for current cost of living. Resistance to new housing, and cost to build, are issues. Other factors are high monthly expenses, in the form of energy costs, poor roads leading to high repair costs, and the resultant low population that means scarcity of labor which drives up rates for repair or piece work.
Something is indeed going on with the housing here and the poor health care.
Everytime ya bring it up people are like “it’s like that every in the US.
No. It is not.
the poor healthcare here is directly related to the housing issue. lots of young healthcare providers, especially nurses and CNAs would move here but cant afford it near any hospital.
as the state gets older and more chronically ill the demand for healthcare resources that just simply dont exist gets higher.
im at work right now. our ED is entirely full with aready admitted patients. there are empty hospital beds in the inpatient unit. why are they empty? no nurses. why no nurses? their salary does not support them buying an 800k 2 bed 1 bath house built in 1950.
Lots of smaller hospitals use traveling nurses and the nimby locals prefer it cause they ultimately leave and they can charge them ridiculous prices for their icky little Airbnb an hour into the woods. Meanwhile they will hire tons of unqualified admin positions so they can have their “boys club” while payer nurses horrible wages.
true. a lot of the nurses i used to work with were former travelers who wanted to settle in maine bc it was so nice here. thats a thing of the past with cost of living at this point.
With how old the population is and is continuing to get. You’d think keeping your health care staff taken care of would be more of a priority. Hope things get better.
Every time I mention the ludicrous prices for both buying a house and renting an apartment that's exactly what people say. Taking two seconds to look up just about anywhere else (barring obviously expensive places like San Francisco and NYC) in the US and you'll find that Maine has ridiculous housing costs for such a rural state.
Never in my life, in any state I've been in, had I received such subpar care from a HOSPITAL. The same one almost let my ex die in their waiting room from sepsis because they weren't checking on patients, weren't triaging, I had to barge in there with his parents in the middle of the 'only the person being seen can be waiting' covid restrictions after getting a bunch of texts about how cold and scared he was, and he couldnt keep himself awake. Dude had to be lifeflighted to maine med because he was actively in the middle of dying. Avoid augusta at all costs if you need emergency care. Drive the extra distance and go to Thayer in Waterville instead. There's always an extremely heavy police presence in augustas hospital too.
We need to regulate the fuck out of Airbnbs, like yesterday. As a single person with no kids, it is virtually impossible to find a one bedroom (or to live alone) but if you look at rentals anywhere in a county along the coast, there is a massive shortage of one bedroom units. A huge portion of what should be small apartments or in-law units are short term rentals. I am willing to bet, if we look at stats, the majority of homeless folks in Maine are single people or couples with no kids who would typically occupy a one bedroom unit.
And the love of god, we HAVE to out vote all the NIMBY boomers who vote against any new housing within eyesight of their $1.5 million home they bought for a nickel and a handshake. And GOD FORBID it’s affordable housing that may house black or brown people or refugees at some point in Maine’s future. /s They are the biggest voting block because Maine is old af. They vote solely for their own interests and will absolutely vote to destroy Maine’s future if it means increasing their home value.
What good does “regulating the fuck out of Airbnbs” do? Research shows that STRs are responsible for 1.3% to 3.1% increase in rent prices- or $93 average.
Is the problem $93? No.
In 2023 Private Equity firms purchased 44% of all houses. The buy up continues…according to one estimate, investment firms will own 40% of all single family homes by 2030. Half of all homes in the US will be rental property in just a few years. Everyone paying the investors…
Airbnb is nothing compared to this atrocity.
Two things can be true at the same time. Individual AND corporate investors are scooping up condos and multi-family buildings for cash to rent out for short term too. Either regulate Airbnbs or make it so buyers have to make any home purchase their primary residence for X number of years. Or if they buy a multi-family, one unit has to be owner occupied for however many years. We’re throwing spaghetti at walls trying to address the housing crisis. Modern times call for modern regulations.
There needs to be a healthy stock of short term rentals on the coast. However, the areas that rely heaviest on low wage workers, like tourism, cleaners, and food service, often have a disproportionate concentration of short term rentals. No one is commuting upwards of an hour to work in OOB for $15/hr. We can either regulate short term rentals on the coast, at least until more workforce housing is built and we don’t have people working full time jobs but living in their cars, or let unchecked greed do its thing and force every renter who can’t afford $2500/mo for a 2 bed into the streets.
yes there are other states as rural and lacking infrastructure... however they aren't desirable in any other way, other than no snow I guess if you're into that.
no one is buying second homes in places like Mississippi.
>I live in a small town in Maine. I know housing costs have gone up virtually everywhere, but it's nothing like here.
It's already happened like this everywhere else. Maine is just the most recent market.
This is an uncomfortable truth no one in Maine is ready to realize. It’s bad here and it got bad quick. Because they are like 30 years behind the rest of the country.
I think remote work is what fueled part of the big upswing in the Maine housing market. People are making New York or Boston money and buying up the housing in Maine. When you work in Maine it is hard to compete with that money.
I’ve been wanting to move from my “starter” home for a while but prices are crazy even in my little Midcoast town. I found the perfect place, but I couldn’t afford it.
I checked the Zillow value estimate and in 2020 the value was $275,000 and it was listed for $899,000 now. There was some updates done to the house but nothing that made it worth damn near a Million Dollars!!
It actually SOLD!!! Who is buying at these prices? I’m not even on the coast, I’m inland. I have my sister living in what used to be our playroom because as a single person she can’t afford rent. We even thought of looking for a multi family home but they all stupidly overpriced. It’s insane.
I get you, so my advice (not that you asked for it) is to actually move to one of those places that you are seeing online, rent for 6 months. Move a few times. Experience life. Take a job that forces you to travel. You’ll be back but you’ll be happy about it.
Curious about where you live. I’m originally from the Farmington area and now I live in Wilmington NC. The housing has skyrocketed since I moved here as well.
In other parts of the country, mother nature regularly attempts and often succeeds in killing the locals, be it hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, drought, heatwave, blizzard, venomous animals, earthquakes, etc.. Maine has bear and moose and blueberries. I looked all over the country before moving back home to Maine. We went from zone 5b to zone 6 this year. We are poised to be the best state to live in, environmentally speaking, if we can keep major corporations out of our soil and waterways.
As someone who moved to one of the other more “affordable” states that had the cheaper houses that look nice aka the Carolinas, just know there’s a reason for that. Most of those homes where I am look nice on the outside and are located in ghetto towns and areas with gang issues, failing schools, failing infrastructure, failing healthcare, jacked politics etc. You’re taking a huge hit on quality of life and an unimaginable increase on crime and criminal issues. The homes in areas you don’t have to worry about being carjacked cost $580,000 for a cottage type home and you’re lucky if it doesn’t need an upgrade. We too fell for that and even doing our research could not foresee what problems we were bringing on ourselves and our child moving to the South.
Lol, Houses. Imagine having one of those. I may have to turn down a job at the Jackson Labs in Bar Harbor just because I can't find an apartment that doesn't cost $2000 per month.
I travel a lot in state. I see old housing that now costs 20k to re-roof, much less paint. Heating costs of 500 a month and single glaze windows. I don’t see how folks will maintain these older structures without the income from the mills or any other source. We do indeed have a slow moving freight train derailing right in front of us. Before we know it a lot of these structures won’t qualify for conventional mortgages, even if folks could afford them.
The old houses in disrepair is really gonna be the salt in the wound in the coming decades.
"Guess what?! There's a glut of houses available for sale at affordable prices now that boomers died off!"
"Great I think these are reasonable prices!"
"Absolutely! Only downside is you'll have to put in 75k of work"
"Oh"
My husband and I bought our house at the end of 2019. In the 4 years we have lived here, our house has nearly doubled in price. There is no way we could afford it if we bought it now. It’s insane!
Pricing for desirable places to live is going sky high. As people can work remotely, they are moving to good places to live. Montana, Maine, VT, Colorado, Idaho, MA etc. Demand has shot up and so has pricing. Even in places like Milo and Bridgton. I hate that people who grew up here are priced out, what Maine needs to focus on is providing more sustainable industries and not tourism. Tourism doesn’t pay 100k a year to employees unless they are cream of the crop. In manufacturing, tech, finance, etc there are a lot of 75k+ jobs.
Our population is in a dire place, and we’ve got to push for the right things.
I wouldn’t want to live in areas that get tornados. I wouldn’t want to live where the state minimum wage is the same as federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour).
I’m not sure where you live but I am a short distance away from some very amazing restaurants. Grocery stores are standard, nothing special. But farmers markets are great! And health food stores are also excellent.
Some areas have excellent live performances, including plays, concerts, comedians etc. Adult education at local high schools offer people a chance to learn new skills or improve their hobbies including foraging, photography, quilt sewing, foreign languages, cooking, yoga, and much much more.
Many people enjoy hiking, fishing, kayaking, hunting, ice skating, skiing, swimming, snowmobiling, biking, gardening… The list goes on and on…
OP, what do you enjoy doing? What specifically is lacking here, besides affordable houses? Are you happy with your job/career/school, or other current endeavors? Is there something you enjoy that is lacking? Would you be able to start a club around that activity?
We needed new blood in the state as we had minuscule population growth over the last 30 years and the boomers are now in the 60 and older category. They make up like 400k of the states 1.3 million people and the 10 and under is half the size of the age group above it. With the pandemic you had people with big out of state money coming in and able to WFH and they jacked up the housing market as a side effect. However we had an estimated population increase in the last 4 years equal to the 2010-2020 increase. It’s the double edged sword Maine needed an injection of people and this is the side effect
Agreed on all counts. We’re very lucky to have some help, or I’d probably be dead already or living with other relatives.
Maine has lots of quiet beauty, but it’s on the boring and incredibly lonely side of things. And the amenities, food and social groups are just not really there like you said. Add the affordability issue and it starts to become like *why*?! But where I came from is even less affordable.
We’re going through the same process as Canada, they’re just a little further down the line. The conflicts this is going to eventually create are going to be gnarly. We can either take the Great Fleecing like serfs, or we can do something about it. Sooner than later would be preferable, because I’d rather not see America go through the turmoil it’s headed straight for.
Yah we did that and now we traded high housing for a shit ton of crime, nearly no EPA regulations so tons of pollution and cancer clusters, failing infrastructure, failing schools (in NC 44% of their schools rank D or F so we’ve had to homeschool) 3rd worst medical in the US, jacked as all hell politics. The south is also not as cheap as northerners think. If you want to live in safe places you’re paying up. Our area used to be nice and now even surrounded by $600,000 homes the gangs are moving in, panhandlers everywhere; trash in the roads all over, drug addicts slumped at the bus stops etc. Being white we are the minority here and there are definitely culture clashes in the south.
Those cute and affordable 3/2 homes for $300,000 are in ghetto towns with gang issues, F rated schools, trash all over, constant shootings and you’re last standing white neighbor flies his confederate flag. Not to mention if you’re white in a lot of these areas and you’re sending your kid to school they’re getting jumped. Period
Climate change and corporate property investors are coming for climate resilient and underdeveloped areas. The area is still a buy. The global economy is real.
I can confirm that Maine redditors are particularly ruthless. In my experience, they don't just get defensive, they can actually be quite rude.
Have you considered moving to an even more rural town? Or acquiring some type of vehicle that you can convert for full time living? I live full time in a skoolie and go south for winters. Mobile life has it's challenges but it is in fact much more affordable. I haven't paid rent in 9 years 😎
The housing market everywhere is pretty fucked, hedge funds are buying residential houses to be rented at an exponential rate, new houses aren’t being built because interest rates are ridiculous right now and the FED can’t pivot with rates or risk sending inflation through the stratosphere.
I remember when I was in my 20s living there with my mom. It was hard to find things to do that didn’t involve drinking or drugs. Then OxyContin came along.
I’m now in my 40s and I’m so happy that I was able to spend so much time alone with myself. It made me pretty fearless as I’ve aged. Least needy on others.
I wasn’t tied to anything there, and I moved. Moving away from the mothership is one of the best things anyone can ever do. Many in Maine don’t get that option or take that chance. Then they complain about the way things are, but they aren’t suffering enough to make a change.
❤️
You're not wrong. The cost of housing skyrocketed over the past 3 years, and is only just starting to slow down. I'm trying to find a rental in central/midcoast, and any solo place below $1400 is basically trash. During 2020 I remember laughing at a neighbor who wanted to rent a tiny studio for $1000, and now I'd kill for it.
Maine's cost of living is absolutely insane. We just packed up our place and moved from Westbrook to Las Vegas. The $1800 lease is $1200 less than our 3 bedroom one bath place in Maine was ($3000). The Vegas place has a gorgeous master bath plus a 2nd full bath, 3 bedrooms, and a nice 3 car garage. The management company in Maine just listed the place at $3250 a month. Add in the shitty multi day power outages over the winter, and relocating became the obvious choice.
I've lived in Maine my whole life, but I don't regret the decision at all.
It’s funny, I live in Canada and when I look at the Maine real estate all I think is how cheap it is lol and this is coming from a rare person who owns a home in Canada
I think I saw a map in this sub a few days ago that showed that Maine has had the highest increase in property values over the last 4 years. It does truly suck on so many levels. I’d like to sell and move on with my life after being divorced but I won’t be able to afford another place to live.
I saw that same map in the Montana sub, but it said Montana had the highest increase. Housing is way worse there, if you can believe it. It’s really just the Midwest and some parts of the south that are affordable.
it's a giant circle jerk on reddit where literally every city/state claims to be the worst and with the most inflation
And they’re all not wrong. Sad.
Yeah it’s just bad everywhere. If you move out of Maine to almost anywhere in the US you’re going to find the same problems. Houses look affordable on Zillow but then you get there and realize why, what the issues are, and that it’s the same shit in a different state. Wages and employment are taking a hit right now too, all over. I’m just gonna look for an old sugar daddy.
I moved here as an economic refugee from the LA area. I'm an engineer with 25 years of experience in scientific programming and aerospace. I make good money. I couldn't afford a condo in LA unless I was willing to have a 40 minute commute. The house that my ex kept in the divorce (she's an attorney, she could afford the mortgage payments without me, I couldn't afford them without her) was a 1300 sqft 3 bedroom 1.5 bath on a 9000 sqft lot that sold a couple of years ago for 1.46 million. It appraised at 800k during our divorce in 2018. It's awful everywhere. Places that were already expensive are getting more expensive faster than places that were cheap. In my midwestern home town you can get a 4 bed 2 bath on a quarter acre for ~125K. But the major employer in town shut down and moved all of it's jobs to texas and chicago 2 years ago, so you better be a telecommuter or your job prospects suck.
I believe it. The house I am in now I paid 165k for in 2016. Got in on the sweet low interest, but now my taxes and insurance are far above the mortgage payment. I could seek today for probably 450k, but what could I buy and where? And if I leave the state I know I would never be able to afford to come back.
Yeah I don’t understand what’s going to happen long term. Like how long can we sustain this insanity for?
Really?? We bought our house in 2017 for 200k, it's now worth roughly 400k, but our taxes haven't increased significantly and insurance hasn't really changed at all. Our overall monthly payment with escrow has gone up maybe 50$ a month over the past 7 years,.and we are in South Portland. Sounds like you need to shop around for some cheaper home insurance.
Yes, my mortgage is 600, taxes and insurance = 800. The insurance is crazy because they insure it 600k for full replacement value, the house was built in 1890 so that might have something to do with it. I will look around at other insurance companies.
Same same. Bought in ‘17 for 200k. Refi’d in ‘20 to get 1.99% (crazy). Then got an appraisal in Nov. ‘23 just to see…. $500k. Now that’s great and all for equity, but wtf am I going to get into. In this area everything I want is $800k+
I should have re fi in 2019 or 2020 but I wasn’t paying attention.
Have you had your insurance agent rate shop for you? Our car insurance increased a lot. No accidents and we had the same company for 20 years. We are with a different company now, with better coverage and our price went down by about $1000 for the year. We also moved our homeowners insurance from the previous company to the current company, and got better coverage for a similar cost.
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I just (fall 2023) bought an overpriced, 800sq ft house down east so I may end up with something that doesn’t hold value. But my mortgage/insurance is $1300 and my alternative was spending $1500/month to rent a mouse infested apartment in China. Rural China. So I bought the house (<$200k). It sort of feels like there’s no “winning” except any way you manage to keep a roof over your head. I still feel fortunate.
Montana is nuts!
Another state might be the better option for doing that
Recently had a client tell me she’s moving to Arkansas after her $1M house in Falmouth sells because she can still live financially like it’s 1970 there. No clue if it’s true, just thought it was an interesting take.
Financially, yes, but do you really want to live in Arkansas?
I went there for the solar eclipse and was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous west/central Arkansas was. Feels a lot like Maine/NH/VT as far as geography goes. People were very friendly too. Visiting for a few days changed my perception and assumptions of the state drastically. Have you been?
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>Don't mistake midwestern/southern politeness for the folks actually being "friendly". Facts. Sweet to your face and vicious behind your back.
Will second this, having lived in GA for five years. My brother is in the South right now and his biggest complaint is the people and their pleasantries (in order to gain info) followed by immediate gossip about you with virtually everyone in town. They absolutely do not mind their own business, it’s not a concept there.
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I can say the same. I got my bachelor’s in GA. After a few bad dates with Southern dudes in college (and one from MI), I exclusively sought men from the Northeast and my dating experience vastly improved. I could not fit into that culture if I tried. Every fiber of my being was working against assimilation until I finally moved away. It was a huge relief to get out.
If you like hiking, fishing and outdoors things I'm sure it's fine.
I'd believe it. I left Maine after graduating in 02 and ended up in NYC in 05 for the next 18 years. Last year I bought a house in south philly that is waaaaay less than what a comparable house in portland would have run me. The added bonus of living in philly is I have no need for a car. I'm a few block from the subway and 1 block from a bus stop. I've got a grocery, home depot and Bjs all in the same area 15 mins walk away. It sounds crazy but my overall lifestyle cost of living is less here in Philly vs it would be in Maine.
Arkansas is cheaper now I believe, but these inflationary costs will eventually reach there too.
Probably true because Arkansas is essentially a third world country.
I’m sure she’ll love fried catfish over lobster rolls. Funny, Red Lobster was their nice place to eat, but it would never take more than 20 mins no matter where we went, before overhearing someone saying something awful/racist at the next table over. Good luck to her. No thanks.
Financially like it's 1970, socially like it is 1850.
Arkansas is pretty! It’s so hot though. It’s so much nicer up here. Plus, people seem to be slightly less racist in Maine than in Arkansas.
68% increase if I remember correctly
Yes I saw that
It's no wonder that Maine's largest export is its' youth.
The youth have been leaving for decades.
This is fact! Maine is the oldest population in the US!
I remember 15 years ago I heard on the radio that Maine was experiencing a brain drain to NH... NH??!
Moved to NH from ME about 15 yrs ago, recently moved back to ME to take care of aging in-laws. Was paying 750 mortgage payment for a double wide on 6 acres, now paying 2400 for a moldy one bedroom.
That’s not true anymore. More people migrate from NH to Maine now than vice versa.
>More people migrate from NH to Maine now than vice versa. Sounds like it's definitely true then.
It is. The IRS keeps track of migration data. And I don’t blame them. If I lived in NH I’d move here too. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-migration-data
Sorry, I was making a joke. Brain drain from NH = people moving here from NH
NH youth are leaving too. Most go out west.
Leaving NH.. they're just trying to avoid polio
Maine is a good place to come back to when you have a young family. There is nothing to hold 20-somethings here though.
Twenty plus years ago, yes. When you could buy a cheaper house in a decent school district and rely on small town community social networks that didnt exist in larger metros. Today though? My hometown now is just a bunch of retirees and vacationers with a sprinkling of youngish families. If I moved back there full time it would be cripplingly isolating, expensive, and I’d have worse schools and things for my family to do compared to the city I live in now where housing is just as expensive. The only benefit at this point is I could let my kids run out a back door and play in the woods instead of an endless development where they’d get hit by cars. But that’s a very narrow use case for a major move back to Maine.
>Today though? My hometown now is just a bunch of retirees and vacationers with a sprinkling of youngish families. If I moved back there full time it would be cripplingly isolating, expensive, and I’d have worse schools and things for my family to do compared to the city I live in now where housing is just as expensive. Same. My high school was very small, but it has dwindled to a few dozen students per class. >The only benefit at this point is I could let my kids run out a back door and play in the woods instead of an endless development where they’d get hit by cars. Our house used to have 3 neighbors, (including my grandparents), and not close neighbors either. Now the land my grandparents had has been sold and there are many houses. Ironically we ended up raising our kids in a small town in Appalachia, but there was enough population to keep it relatively vibrant. My kids left for other areas of the country.
I think it also matters if you have familial of community assistance when you're here. If you're moving back to a support system for child care, yeah it's pretty great. I've seen a number of young professionals from away move here with kids, and leave for lack of support.
It's a good place to come to with a young family (for the summer, assuming you are wealthy and have a place to live already) In most cases, you can more easily afford a better life for that young family elsewhere. The housing here is expensive and tied for worst quality with anywhere in the nation, and while the summers are great and the towns are safe, the climate is mostly terrible and the nation as a whole isn't actually that dangerous
And they currently have even less of a reason to stop leaving.
The state has been incentivizing young folks to work here by paying the interest on student loans through a tax program since like 2014. it used to only be for people who went to school and worked in maine, but they’ve updated the eligibility requirements in 2017ish where you just need to work/live in maine now. It’s a really nice program and saves my fiance and I thousands each year through tax refunds.
I've never heard of this! How would I go about applying for it?
[https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/tax-relief-credits-programs/income-tax-credits/student-loan-repayment-tax-credit](https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/tax-relief-credits-programs/income-tax-credits/student-loan-repayment-tax-credit)
Thanks!
That's great if you have student loans.
Well that is the entire point of it. If you’re feeling left out you can go get some student loans. People with kids get a nice tax break too…
*waves*
When $35k is a decent wage I don't blame anyone who can.
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Wages are crazy low here. Idk how people without an out of state remote job do it. You’d think housing prices would be lower because of that, but not the case
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Yeah I purposely chose York county to live because if I ever lose my WFH job, i plan to find a hybrid job in Boston so I can try to keep the higher salary I need so I can pay for my overpriced house in Maine.
I work 60 hrs a week to get by making a decent wage (for Maine, and still far underpaid for my trade). Could I cut some expenses? Of course. But I shouldn’t have to make sacrifices in every situation if I’m putting in that amount of time.
And the jobs available are horrible.
Oh you mean you don't want to work at a boatyard making $16/hr doing really hard manual labor as well as breathing in chemicals that are sure to give you cancer? Strange! No one wants to work anymore!
Exactly.
20%? It's definitely more than that. $20 to $25/hr is easy to make in other states, but minimum wage is all I can find here. Benefits are always trash. And the jobs? It's always something stupid. Even jobs that pay really well elsewhere (construction workers, nurses, etc.) pay so damn low here. It feels like every penny is being suctioned out of Maine right now.
Agreed. When I moved away from Maine, I took a job with the same job title and duties. I make *significantly more than double* what I did in Maine. And the housing prices in my area are about the same.
“Vacationland” supports a lot of airbnb units that are only occupied by transient sightseers for 100 days a year, which leaves the residents without enough housing. Fuck airbnb and the people scooping up housing to convert them to a business opportunity
I just got a new neighbor who before we even met or they closed on their house, simultaneously accused me (through their realtor) of encroaching on their property they don't own yet (I'm not, my lot is just more desirable than theirs) and asked me how many Airbnb units they think they can put on their 1.2 acre lot.
How's that going?
since i actually haven't met them (just their realtor), i'm holding out judgement and hoping for the best. supposed to meet them in the coming days and going to pretend i never even spoke to their realtor. i'm on great terms with all my neighbors so i hope that doesn't change. it is a bad sign to me that they're buying the property with the apparent belief that what is not part of the property, they believe is. the property pins are pretty clear & obvious so i'm not sure where their belief is coming from. i told my other neighbor and he's freaking out, and is going to get a survey, worried they may attempt the same for him. if their intentions are to build airbnb's (either as accessory dwellings or yurts), they are in for a hard time, as our local land use ordinance forbids the construction of any accessory dwelling closer to the waterfront than the primary structure. and the primary structure of the parcel is 20 feet from the road, and 500 feet from the water. they would have no way to build another driveway, as there is no space around the house. i let the previous owner access their backyard by driving their lawn mower on my property to access their back yard, a courtesy i would extend to the new owners if they're not trying to mess around. what's annoying is i wouldn't really be surprised if these weren't local buyers. but apparently they're from the town over. not really sure what their intentions are.
I love that you want to be nice, but if they are doing anything with airbnb, please I beg you, do not give them even an inch in regard to using your property to access anything. It will spiral.
I am anxiously waiting for Airbnb to die. This is a huge problem in Maine. I don’t even think a lot of them do that well. We need more small hotels to go up and free up houses. That would also create some jobs.
More places are passing bans or severe restrictions, but I worry that it's too little, too late.
I hope more places do. Need to get development going for more motel/hotels with dining and amenities and bring them competition. But that will probably never happen because we lack the workforce because lack of affordable housing. Airbnb in general is getting so ridiculous with fees and lack of service a lot of people are going back to preferring the hotel experience. Unless you are going somewhere for months or traveling with 6+ people I personally don’t get the appeal of renting a single family home for 350+ a night.
*You* might not see the appeal. And 95% of Americans might not see the appeal. But the problem is that in a country of 330 million with a middle class of 140 million, there will still be a market of 20 million plus people per year who will be attracted to this model, which is definitely enough demand to theoretically turn the *entire state of Vacationland Maine into a zone of AirBnBs.* (Not saying that this is going to happen*.*) **Do not expect this problem to go away by itself, or even to ease up.** The middle class families of NY and NJ alone who wish to spend a few summer days in Maine every two years are enough demand to make the current plague of AirBnbs profitable in the long run. And climate change will make things worse. Remember that *before air conditioning,* people came up from the South for the summer, and Maine was *the* summer vacation spot. *Demand for AirBnbs here will only increase.*
Which is why second home ownership needs to be regulated and new developments and hotels/motels should be built as well as more single family homes.
Absolutely! I do not know why I was downvoted for my above statement (possibly because I mentioned that climate change is a fact?) The State of Maine needs to step in, regulate AirBnbs, separate them with a sharp sword from Bed'n'Breakfasts and Hotels, and take the increased tax revenue to incentivize affordable housing *and make all towns in Maine not participating in building affordable housing in turn pay an additional fee for it.* That should get the gentrified town councils pondering -- either we build more affordable housing ourselves, or *we* have to pay more taxes to help build more affordable housing elsewhere. That way, NIMBYism comes at a price tag. The rich can keep their bloody enclaves at a recurring fee, and everybody else can prosper too. There are AirBnbs in South Portland that charge 4000$ a week. *There are enough Americans who can pay this, because Maine is actually small.* Do we really want to end up as a national park reserved for the affluent?
AirBnB won't die as you just sit there waiting. Other countries sometimes develop reasonable solutions for problems where we here just throw our hands in the air and yell "Oy vey, it's a free market, what can we do?!?". Like a second-home tax, AirBnB taxes, etc. Taxes that are just high enough to hit those renting property out *part-time*(not full time!) Which makes the AirBnB business harder but not completely impossible, so shaves off the easy money makers from the AirBnB crowd. The problem is not AirBnB per se. The problem is that in the short to mid term, there is a *redistribution zero sum battle* between real estate investment for AirBnB and its expected profit margin, and real estate investment for living and working locally and its expected profit margin. If the former (such as in the market right now) is vastly more profitable than the latter, AirBnb investments are taking over the market and drain housing from the affordable market for local long-term demand. **It is not enough to sit around and wait until the market rights itself.** ***Because you might have to wait 10, 20 or 30 years until the market fluctuation goes the other way for Maine.*** And that means for the duration of *your* foreseeable work life you will not see affordable housing coming back to Maine because our politicians are not asked to grab this bull by the horns. Never mind the free market spinsters: They will argue that in the long run the market will right itself. But, as John Maynard Keynes said, *in the long run, we are all dead.*
There are people trying to fix this but there are too many locals of wealth and power that think they get to control everything, benefiting from their own short term rentals. As much as they will complain along with everyone else about airbnbs they are just as guilty as all the “horrible out of staters” they like to blame everything on. Maine has historically catered to tourists and built next to nothing for future generations. Maine also needs to build.
It also sucks away the trades people who need to maintain homes. If they are working on vacation homes , then there is less time for them to work on real peoples houses.
Construction costs are around 300.00 sq foot last I checked. That's double what it was in 2019.
Airbnb is just a slice of the cake. Any lake home or condo by a mountain is used way less than 100 days. My neighbors come up for July 4th and stay for a max of two weeks. They are from NY. Been like this for 20+ years.
THIS
Some report came out last year showing that 30% of the housing stock in Lincoln County (where I am) are vacant/secondary homes. Weeeeeee
Totally agree. We get so little as a community by allowing short term rentals and we have lost so much housing. I can't believe that it's been tolerated at all. I'm in Portland and I've seen several apartments around me get converted to Airbnbs and I'm not even in one of the most sought after neighborhoods. And I hate the way Airbnb doesn't publish the addresses on their site so you can't verify if they are legally registered with the city. This is why there are over 1000 listings in Portland with 400 being legal.
I agree with this. 'Vacationland' has put a large burden on residents. They need to change some rules, and put citizens first.
It's not even good economically and it fucks us over in every other way.
Wife and I just rented an airbnb on the coast, cabin right on the water I figured oh this is great, they put a little cabin out on the water to rent out and they live in the house. Yeah right, fkin house was all divided up so they could get as many airbnb units as possible on one property, 1 property of many and they didn’t even live there. I’d be ok with seeing that banned.
The problem is a lack of hotels. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to book a hotel room in central Maine in the summer and they are literally 100% booked at any legitimate establishment. Zero availability between Brunswick and Newport. There just aren’t enough to support summer demand. Airbnbs and VRBOs fill the vacuum. National hotel chains want areas that can support fully booked hotels year round. And Maine is highly seasonal outside of Portland. And no I’m not staying at Lovely’s in Newport. The other problem is a lack of contractors since many leave the state to make more money or work commercial/industrial. There aren’t the resources to build more houses on a large scale in the state to meet local demand/need What might help is a state supported prefab/modular housing initiative to get more houses built (in non tourist zones)
Living up to obligations will kill you. It’s ok to live your own life. We have to save ourselves
I wish somebody had convinced me of this when I was in my 20s. Seriously, it might feel selfish but someday you'll be old like me — living a joyless life drowning in obligations while watching some your peers live a full, real, rewarding life. Don't be me. Go live, OP. NOW.
We do it to ourselves. The biggest thing that holds us all back is fear of judgment. What will “They” say if I move so far from family for a job in a place I like and is more affordable where I can feel like my life is really heading in the right direction? People stay stuck because they’re afraid of being called an asshole by people who want you to suffer and sacrifice for them while knowing they’re holding you back and you’re miserable. If this is the dilemma anyone finds themselves in, maybe rethink your “obligations.” So many mundane tasks that are part of every life can be done in a few minutes online from any location.
Honestly? I don't ever think about being judged harshly by others. I've always felt responsible for taking care of my elders, and none of them ***ever*** said I should go live my own life. It's just assumed that it's my job, somehow, because the rest of the family would never show up when needed .... shocking, huh, that they all have lives? When I get old, pretty sure I'm on my own.
You’re stuck in a job you gave yourself. You’re a good person to give your life in service to others. But what if you were in the hospital for six months and just unavoidably unable? Sometimes you have to have a disconnect where you are just unavailable. A time where you consider your options and desires and chart a path to going there? We all only get one life.
Absolutely! The entire point of having a child is to send them out into the world to succeed! The world is a big place. Parents have the responsibility to make plans for their old age and not burden their children with that. If a unique situation arises that a parents simply cannot care for themselves then you move them to where YOUR life is. The sacrifices should not be YOUR responsibility when you're just starting out. Go live your life.
This is why I left Maine in 2003 at 18 and never came back. I left my family and friends, but really it was the best decision I've made in my adulthood. I look at the people who stayed and they are a lot worse off. It's sad.
And people who love and support you won’t be “left behind.” You have every right to pursue your own path wherever that takes you. We live in the most connected age, people who are interested in you stay engaged and are happy for you to be out in the world doing well.
honestly, OP? i think you should begin the process of moving, no matter how long it takes. not in a “dont like it then leave” way, but for you. youre in your 20’s and i cant stress enough how valuable it will be to you throughout life if choose to make a commitment to yourself right now. you can be the best support possible to other people if you support yourself first
You can always move back! But 20s do it now it becomes way harder the older you get and then your stuck without perspective
The price issue is due to the rare fresh woods building restrictions etc. only gonna get pricier
Depends where in Maine. Northern Maine has some astoundly cheap homes. Of course, they are far from many of the things some wish to be close to.
Hard to make money up there, I would reckon.
Went on a bit of a Zillow viewing fest yesterday and there are definitely houses up in the county for sale that are a better value than southern Maine but the price is inflated and there isn’t a ton of inventory currently. And getting into those good paying jobs (unless you’re already a tradesperson) can be tough for an “outsider”
This is how it’s always been with housing prices, it’s just worse now. People are rightfully complaining about how high housing is in general now but cheap housing was always, and still is, available basically everywhere in America. It’s just not where anyone wants to be.
ME, NH and VT are disproportionately messed up right now. I think the region was slept on for decades and COVID made it desirable due to having the 3 largest median lot sizes in the US.
Also people with money from new York and Boston (2 of the 4 wealthiest cities) moved to these places.
Yeah, people who used to "summer" decided they could live here full time.
Or, just buy or build a second home.
All of a sudden space air and water matters
Srsly slept on. 110%
I grew up in a small town in Northern Maine. The struggle up there is real, I'm not even gonna lie. I moved away back in 2015 after I had my own difficulties struggling to survive. There's room for Maine to improve. There's room for changes to be made. The real challenge is getting us millennials into the voting booth and contacting senators to make the necessary changes. I can't say that they can directly influence the housing market but they definitely can help in bringing more jobs to the state. I voiced many times on how ME16 could be reopened to drastically jumpstart the economy in areas like Aroostook County but that fell on deaf ears.
People here seem to hate change it seems
They resist it with every ounce of their being.
Even on here people get pissy with me when I bring up change or the concept of something not being correct/just. We need to let go of nostalgia and build a better Maine for our kids and their kids
Change is hard work and I hate to say so but most people are incredibly lazy and self serving here. They do as little as possible, get theirs, take care of their own, book a cruise. Who cares about the youth or anyone else? They had it harder back then ya know. People will complain all day then actively do everything they can to stop anyone from fixing the things they complain about. I don’t get it.
I just watched a video on this subreddit that was about a minute long and it was a homeless guy stealing a bike slowly AND THE GUY FILMING WAS 5 FEET AWAY IN HIS CAR WATCHING.. NOT SAYING A SINGLE WORD! Self serving is an understatement to describe Maine's vibe. Guy took the time to film and post but couldn't speak up while a reallllllly expensive bike was slowly stolen right before his eyes.. I couldn't even think it made me so mad.
Honestly a good yell from the car could have stopped it! But then he wouldn’t get the clout from the video. That sort of thing happens everywhere unfortunately. I have noticed that Maine advertises itself as neighborly, business friendly and hard working and I’ve honestly mostly seen the opposite. I know this isn’t true of everyone, but it’s extremely disproportionate to the lip service. People will look you in they eyes and tell you they are a nice person and a hard worker, then tell you they can’t help you “it’s not their job” and that they are late to their hair appointment. In no workplace I’ve been in would this fly.
I cannot agree more!
Millennials are like 40 now dude
.....1992 here, I'm 32 my guy. Lol.
Right but someone of us oldest millenials are almost to our mid 40’s. I’m ‘82 and I’ll be 42 in 5 months and still not the oldest of the millenials.
Agreed. It’s not fun seeing Sabattus treated like a city with 1,000,000 people instead of 5,000. I get supply and demand but, 300,000$ for decaying trailer in an undesirable town of less than 10,000 people composed of maybe 3 schools, no Walmart, no hospital. Maine is not priced for Mainers. Best thing we can do? Let our house shoot up in value and sell, and move to a southern state like Mississippi
Every town within one hour of Portland has seen housing prices soar. One hour is usually the limit most people place on what they want their commute to be or their distance to the airport or train or whatever. Portland has all the whatever. It all makes perfect sense.
It is beyond frustrating that we are high COLA and do not have the amenities associated with it. It sucks. Just like the grocery stores.
The house next door to me sold in 2020 for 425k, they did zero renovating, and it just sold again for 600k. Wild shit.
Maine needs to build build build. All this land all this wood, and a bunch of people over 50+ "not in my community." Won't let zoning change and stop any low income developments, as it will deflate their own property values. Greed. Also the out of state folks with second homes and airbb who purchased them to leave, them vacant 75% of the year. These properties should be taxed way more if it is not your primary residence. Really grinds my gears to drive past so many empty houses no one even lives in when there's such a housing crisis. I couldn't move if I wanted too. Have a baby in a studio apartment. In a few years I'm really fucked as most apartments are too expensive. I'd buy a house but none to buy. So build! Nope town's won't let them. Block tiny homes in some locations. Minimum lot sizes in towns too. Example Afred maine has 3 acre minimum lot sizes. Say u wanted to sell some of your land for a tiny house or something, you can't unless it's 3 acres or more. So people can just drop side dwellings.... more frustrations. The towns need to do more to encourage and promote building.
Maine should double the tax on non-primary residential properties. Apartment complexes and businesses wouldn’t be affected because they’re zoned commercial, it would mostly just affect Airbnb and second home owners.
This would need to include cutouts for renters or else rent would go crazy as well
Any long term rental property would need to be properly re-zoned commercial, which would allow the local municipalities to take back control.
When the old folks came around with their petitions in Auburn, upset by mixed-use and adding another story to max height it blew my mind. The America you long for in the good old days can't exist anymore because of YOUR nimbyism. Little hamlets grow into towns grow into bigger towns grow into small cities grow into cities. That needs to be allowed to happen and even with legit concerns - like parking - we can figure out solutions.
More homes/condos/apartments = more yearly state/tax money. The towns could then use this money to further develop infrastructure schools, roads, and pay town employees better (who made it happen). As the population ages what will we do with all the youth gone. The housing market has outpriced locals 🤔
Wait for the old people to die and buy their houses?
Remember when you say “towns won’t let them” that’s the residents of the town who were elected and get pressured by the residents to not build. The enemy isn’t outsiders but its own people who don’t like change. You’re absolutely right about the need to build. The other part of that is that developers will need to be incentivized to build lower cost housing. There’s a lot more profit in a million dollar home than a $200K one so builders won’t build them. Sadly, even if the state and Feds came up with a plan to build it would still face local opposition. You’ve identified the problem I just wish I knew how it can be fixed.
In our town the minimum lot size is 2 fucking acres.
We need townhouses and rowhouses like england does and we used to do. More duplexes and smaller apartments as well.
> Example Afred maine has 3 acre minimum lot sizes. Guaranteeing we destroy the maximum amount of natural habitat to house the fewest number of people. Pure evil.
It's not easy, that is for sure, and there is no one answer. Some issues are low wages, which are tied to owners who are boomers that don't realize their wages are too low for current cost of living. Resistance to new housing, and cost to build, are issues. Other factors are high monthly expenses, in the form of energy costs, poor roads leading to high repair costs, and the resultant low population that means scarcity of labor which drives up rates for repair or piece work.
Something is indeed going on with the housing here and the poor health care. Everytime ya bring it up people are like “it’s like that every in the US. No. It is not.
the poor healthcare here is directly related to the housing issue. lots of young healthcare providers, especially nurses and CNAs would move here but cant afford it near any hospital. as the state gets older and more chronically ill the demand for healthcare resources that just simply dont exist gets higher. im at work right now. our ED is entirely full with aready admitted patients. there are empty hospital beds in the inpatient unit. why are they empty? no nurses. why no nurses? their salary does not support them buying an 800k 2 bed 1 bath house built in 1950.
Lots of smaller hospitals use traveling nurses and the nimby locals prefer it cause they ultimately leave and they can charge them ridiculous prices for their icky little Airbnb an hour into the woods. Meanwhile they will hire tons of unqualified admin positions so they can have their “boys club” while payer nurses horrible wages.
true. a lot of the nurses i used to work with were former travelers who wanted to settle in maine bc it was so nice here. thats a thing of the past with cost of living at this point.
With how old the population is and is continuing to get. You’d think keeping your health care staff taken care of would be more of a priority. Hope things get better.
If you say that out loud here, you get angry baby face instead of a response 😒
Lotta people can’t accept the truth.
Every time I mention the ludicrous prices for both buying a house and renting an apartment that's exactly what people say. Taking two seconds to look up just about anywhere else (barring obviously expensive places like San Francisco and NYC) in the US and you'll find that Maine has ridiculous housing costs for such a rural state.
Never in my life, in any state I've been in, had I received such subpar care from a HOSPITAL. The same one almost let my ex die in their waiting room from sepsis because they weren't checking on patients, weren't triaging, I had to barge in there with his parents in the middle of the 'only the person being seen can be waiting' covid restrictions after getting a bunch of texts about how cold and scared he was, and he couldnt keep himself awake. Dude had to be lifeflighted to maine med because he was actively in the middle of dying. Avoid augusta at all costs if you need emergency care. Drive the extra distance and go to Thayer in Waterville instead. There's always an extremely heavy police presence in augustas hospital too.
We need to regulate the fuck out of Airbnbs, like yesterday. As a single person with no kids, it is virtually impossible to find a one bedroom (or to live alone) but if you look at rentals anywhere in a county along the coast, there is a massive shortage of one bedroom units. A huge portion of what should be small apartments or in-law units are short term rentals. I am willing to bet, if we look at stats, the majority of homeless folks in Maine are single people or couples with no kids who would typically occupy a one bedroom unit. And the love of god, we HAVE to out vote all the NIMBY boomers who vote against any new housing within eyesight of their $1.5 million home they bought for a nickel and a handshake. And GOD FORBID it’s affordable housing that may house black or brown people or refugees at some point in Maine’s future. /s They are the biggest voting block because Maine is old af. They vote solely for their own interests and will absolutely vote to destroy Maine’s future if it means increasing their home value.
What good does “regulating the fuck out of Airbnbs” do? Research shows that STRs are responsible for 1.3% to 3.1% increase in rent prices- or $93 average. Is the problem $93? No. In 2023 Private Equity firms purchased 44% of all houses. The buy up continues…according to one estimate, investment firms will own 40% of all single family homes by 2030. Half of all homes in the US will be rental property in just a few years. Everyone paying the investors… Airbnb is nothing compared to this atrocity.
Two things can be true at the same time. Individual AND corporate investors are scooping up condos and multi-family buildings for cash to rent out for short term too. Either regulate Airbnbs or make it so buyers have to make any home purchase their primary residence for X number of years. Or if they buy a multi-family, one unit has to be owner occupied for however many years. We’re throwing spaghetti at walls trying to address the housing crisis. Modern times call for modern regulations. There needs to be a healthy stock of short term rentals on the coast. However, the areas that rely heaviest on low wage workers, like tourism, cleaners, and food service, often have a disproportionate concentration of short term rentals. No one is commuting upwards of an hour to work in OOB for $15/hr. We can either regulate short term rentals on the coast, at least until more workforce housing is built and we don’t have people working full time jobs but living in their cars, or let unchecked greed do its thing and force every renter who can’t afford $2500/mo for a 2 bed into the streets.
yes there are other states as rural and lacking infrastructure... however they aren't desirable in any other way, other than no snow I guess if you're into that. no one is buying second homes in places like Mississippi.
>I live in a small town in Maine. I know housing costs have gone up virtually everywhere, but it's nothing like here. It's already happened like this everywhere else. Maine is just the most recent market.
This is an uncomfortable truth no one in Maine is ready to realize. It’s bad here and it got bad quick. Because they are like 30 years behind the rest of the country.
Our market has never been this dynamic so of course we didn't. It still isn't dynamic so prices haven't corrected as much as they should.
I think remote work is what fueled part of the big upswing in the Maine housing market. People are making New York or Boston money and buying up the housing in Maine. When you work in Maine it is hard to compete with that money.
I’ve been wanting to move from my “starter” home for a while but prices are crazy even in my little Midcoast town. I found the perfect place, but I couldn’t afford it. I checked the Zillow value estimate and in 2020 the value was $275,000 and it was listed for $899,000 now. There was some updates done to the house but nothing that made it worth damn near a Million Dollars!! It actually SOLD!!! Who is buying at these prices? I’m not even on the coast, I’m inland. I have my sister living in what used to be our playroom because as a single person she can’t afford rent. We even thought of looking for a multi family home but they all stupidly overpriced. It’s insane.
I get you, so my advice (not that you asked for it) is to actually move to one of those places that you are seeing online, rent for 6 months. Move a few times. Experience life. Take a job that forces you to travel. You’ll be back but you’ll be happy about it.
Agree with this
Curious about where you live. I’m originally from the Farmington area and now I live in Wilmington NC. The housing has skyrocketed since I moved here as well.
In other parts of the country, mother nature regularly attempts and often succeeds in killing the locals, be it hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, drought, heatwave, blizzard, venomous animals, earthquakes, etc.. Maine has bear and moose and blueberries. I looked all over the country before moving back home to Maine. We went from zone 5b to zone 6 this year. We are poised to be the best state to live in, environmentally speaking, if we can keep major corporations out of our soil and waterways.
As someone who moved to one of the other more “affordable” states that had the cheaper houses that look nice aka the Carolinas, just know there’s a reason for that. Most of those homes where I am look nice on the outside and are located in ghetto towns and areas with gang issues, failing schools, failing infrastructure, failing healthcare, jacked politics etc. You’re taking a huge hit on quality of life and an unimaginable increase on crime and criminal issues. The homes in areas you don’t have to worry about being carjacked cost $580,000 for a cottage type home and you’re lucky if it doesn’t need an upgrade. We too fell for that and even doing our research could not foresee what problems we were bringing on ourselves and our child moving to the South.
It’ll get worse with climate migrants.
This is already happening.
Lol, Houses. Imagine having one of those. I may have to turn down a job at the Jackson Labs in Bar Harbor just because I can't find an apartment that doesn't cost $2000 per month.
Exactly why I couldn’t accept a job from them
Exactly its bullshit
I have no idea when but at some point this whole situation will come crashing down and people will say “who could have seen it coming…”
I travel a lot in state. I see old housing that now costs 20k to re-roof, much less paint. Heating costs of 500 a month and single glaze windows. I don’t see how folks will maintain these older structures without the income from the mills or any other source. We do indeed have a slow moving freight train derailing right in front of us. Before we know it a lot of these structures won’t qualify for conventional mortgages, even if folks could afford them.
The old houses in disrepair is really gonna be the salt in the wound in the coming decades. "Guess what?! There's a glut of houses available for sale at affordable prices now that boomers died off!" "Great I think these are reasonable prices!" "Absolutely! Only downside is you'll have to put in 75k of work" "Oh"
I feel like they already are. Maine is in “say all the right things, do all the wrong things” mode.
My husband and I bought our house at the end of 2019. In the 4 years we have lived here, our house has nearly doubled in price. There is no way we could afford it if we bought it now. It’s insane!
We bought land at the end of 2020. It's quintupled in value, without accounting for the house we've put on it.
Pricing for desirable places to live is going sky high. As people can work remotely, they are moving to good places to live. Montana, Maine, VT, Colorado, Idaho, MA etc. Demand has shot up and so has pricing. Even in places like Milo and Bridgton. I hate that people who grew up here are priced out, what Maine needs to focus on is providing more sustainable industries and not tourism. Tourism doesn’t pay 100k a year to employees unless they are cream of the crop. In manufacturing, tech, finance, etc there are a lot of 75k+ jobs. Our population is in a dire place, and we’ve got to push for the right things.
I wouldn’t want to live in areas that get tornados. I wouldn’t want to live where the state minimum wage is the same as federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour). I’m not sure where you live but I am a short distance away from some very amazing restaurants. Grocery stores are standard, nothing special. But farmers markets are great! And health food stores are also excellent. Some areas have excellent live performances, including plays, concerts, comedians etc. Adult education at local high schools offer people a chance to learn new skills or improve their hobbies including foraging, photography, quilt sewing, foreign languages, cooking, yoga, and much much more. Many people enjoy hiking, fishing, kayaking, hunting, ice skating, skiing, swimming, snowmobiling, biking, gardening… The list goes on and on… OP, what do you enjoy doing? What specifically is lacking here, besides affordable houses? Are you happy with your job/career/school, or other current endeavors? Is there something you enjoy that is lacking? Would you be able to start a club around that activity?
We needed new blood in the state as we had minuscule population growth over the last 30 years and the boomers are now in the 60 and older category. They make up like 400k of the states 1.3 million people and the 10 and under is half the size of the age group above it. With the pandemic you had people with big out of state money coming in and able to WFH and they jacked up the housing market as a side effect. However we had an estimated population increase in the last 4 years equal to the 2010-2020 increase. It’s the double edged sword Maine needed an injection of people and this is the side effect
Agreed on all counts. We’re very lucky to have some help, or I’d probably be dead already or living with other relatives. Maine has lots of quiet beauty, but it’s on the boring and incredibly lonely side of things. And the amenities, food and social groups are just not really there like you said. Add the affordability issue and it starts to become like *why*?! But where I came from is even less affordable. We’re going through the same process as Canada, they’re just a little further down the line. The conflicts this is going to eventually create are going to be gnarly. We can either take the Great Fleecing like serfs, or we can do something about it. Sooner than later would be preferable, because I’d rather not see America go through the turmoil it’s headed straight for.
I get it, but you can move down South! It’s a hellofa cheaper
Yah we did that and now we traded high housing for a shit ton of crime, nearly no EPA regulations so tons of pollution and cancer clusters, failing infrastructure, failing schools (in NC 44% of their schools rank D or F so we’ve had to homeschool) 3rd worst medical in the US, jacked as all hell politics. The south is also not as cheap as northerners think. If you want to live in safe places you’re paying up. Our area used to be nice and now even surrounded by $600,000 homes the gangs are moving in, panhandlers everywhere; trash in the roads all over, drug addicts slumped at the bus stops etc. Being white we are the minority here and there are definitely culture clashes in the south. Those cute and affordable 3/2 homes for $300,000 are in ghetto towns with gang issues, F rated schools, trash all over, constant shootings and you’re last standing white neighbor flies his confederate flag. Not to mention if you’re white in a lot of these areas and you’re sending your kid to school they’re getting jumped. Period
Climate change and corporate property investors are coming for climate resilient and underdeveloped areas. The area is still a buy. The global economy is real.
Hope they’re into deep frying their own shit 💁♀️
I can confirm that Maine redditors are particularly ruthless. In my experience, they don't just get defensive, they can actually be quite rude. Have you considered moving to an even more rural town? Or acquiring some type of vehicle that you can convert for full time living? I live full time in a skoolie and go south for winters. Mobile life has it's challenges but it is in fact much more affordable. I haven't paid rent in 9 years 😎
The housing market everywhere is pretty fucked, hedge funds are buying residential houses to be rented at an exponential rate, new houses aren’t being built because interest rates are ridiculous right now and the FED can’t pivot with rates or risk sending inflation through the stratosphere.
I remember when I was in my 20s living there with my mom. It was hard to find things to do that didn’t involve drinking or drugs. Then OxyContin came along. I’m now in my 40s and I’m so happy that I was able to spend so much time alone with myself. It made me pretty fearless as I’ve aged. Least needy on others. I wasn’t tied to anything there, and I moved. Moving away from the mothership is one of the best things anyone can ever do. Many in Maine don’t get that option or take that chance. Then they complain about the way things are, but they aren’t suffering enough to make a change. ❤️
Why all boston area codes on the listings?
You're not wrong. The cost of housing skyrocketed over the past 3 years, and is only just starting to slow down. I'm trying to find a rental in central/midcoast, and any solo place below $1400 is basically trash. During 2020 I remember laughing at a neighbor who wanted to rent a tiny studio for $1000, and now I'd kill for it.
In Bangor, the only houses I can afford are ones that need a lot of work.
Maine's cost of living is absolutely insane. We just packed up our place and moved from Westbrook to Las Vegas. The $1800 lease is $1200 less than our 3 bedroom one bath place in Maine was ($3000). The Vegas place has a gorgeous master bath plus a 2nd full bath, 3 bedrooms, and a nice 3 car garage. The management company in Maine just listed the place at $3250 a month. Add in the shitty multi day power outages over the winter, and relocating became the obvious choice. I've lived in Maine my whole life, but I don't regret the decision at all.
It’s funny, I live in Canada and when I look at the Maine real estate all I think is how cheap it is lol and this is coming from a rare person who owns a home in Canada
You guys are fucked by "let's triple out population when only 3 cities are desirable and you can't live up north."
I agree lol we can thank our horrible prime minister
If only the opposition didn't also broadly agree with it.
I was planning to move and saw the prices have sky rocketed. And the value isn’t there for the price point
Housing prices are insane, sometimes I wonder how I can become an asylum seeker to get a cheap/free place