The number of October home sales in Maine remained nearly flat compared with last year, but prices continued to climb.
The volume of single-family homes edged up 0.71% compared with a year ago, but median prices rose 4.6% to $224,900, according to information released by Maine Listings. Median indicates half the homes sold above that price and half below.
Although the number of statewide October homes sales only rose from 1,832 last year to 1,845 this year, it extends a record-breaking pace.
"Through October, the number of home sales statewide in 2019 has exceeded our best-ever (2018) by 0.8%," said Peter Harrington, president of the Maine Association of Realtors and a broker/partner with Malone Commercial Brokers in Portland. "Median prices trending upward in some markets are indicative of tight for-sale inventory levels and the sustained historically low, and affordable, mortgage interest rates."
Nationally, sales increased 5.4%, comparing October 2018 and October 2019. Prices jumped 6.2% to a median of $273,600.
The Northeast reflected Maine's trends in the October report. Sales in the Northeast remained flat while prices rose 5.7% to $296,700.
For the three-month period from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31, median sale prices rose most dramatically in Piscataquis County, increasing nearly 23% to $135,000. The volume of sales increased most in Kennebec County, rising from 486 in the three-month period in 2018 to 588 this year.
Cumberland County continues to have the highest-priced existing homes, with a median sale price of $325,000, while Aroostook has the lowest, at $100,000.
