Maine home sales rise in spring, defying national trend

Maine bucked a nationwide drop in home sales during the first full month of spring.

Buyers closed deals on 983 homes last month, up from 951 in April 2025, according to the Maine Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, the median sales price for a Maine home also rose 2.7% to $410,865, compared with April 2025.

It’s an improvement from March when home sales remained flat and February when they slumped.

Judy Oberg, the president of the Maine Association of Realtors and an associate broker at family-owned Oberg Insurance & Real Estate Agency in Bridgton, on Monday cheered the news as a sign that “Maine’s spring real estate market has kicked off.”

Maine has seen an 18% bump in for-sale homes since March for about 3,900 statewide. While Oberg said that the broader housing market is shifting toward a “better balance,” prospective buyers may still struggle to find something affordable in parts of the state.

Nationally, home sales fell a modest 0.3% in April, while the median sales price nudged up 1% to $422,300, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In the Northeast, sales dropped 8.2% in April, compared with a year earlier, but the median sales price rose 4.8% to $510,800.

On the county level in Maine, the most significant increase in median home prices for the three-month period ending April 30 was in Piscataquis County, where it rose 14.8% to $249,000, compared with the same time last year. Somerset and Lincoln counties also saw notable increases in sale prices for that three-month period, climbing 12.8% and 11.4%, respectively. The highest median home price during that period was in Cumberland County, where it reached $590,000, up about 5.2% from the same time a year ago.

The median home price fell most sharply in Sagadahoc (10.4%), Waldo (8.1%), Knox (7.7%) and Kennebec (5.7%) counties for the three-month period. Aroostook had the lowest median home price overall ($150,000), which was up 6.7% from a year earlier.

On the sales front, Franklin County saw the largest sales bump for the three-month period ending April 30, increasing 31%. It was followed by Oxford (20.9%), Androscoggin (15.7%) and Kennebec (10.5%) counties. Sales fell most sharply during that period in Lincoln (28.8%), Waldo (19.2%), Washington (12.9%) and Penobscot (11.6%) counties.