Maine Home Sales Statistics & Market Values

2008 Sales Results - Cumberland & York Counties

In many ways real estate sales in southern Maine continues to set itself apart from other parts of the country.  Without question, units sales in 2008 are lower than 2007. 

For all of Cumberland County single family home sales were down 18.6%. Sales in York County were down a similar amount, as the etailed graph below illustrates. Unit sales in most cities and towns are were also below 2007 levels, with Portland down 16.8%, Falmouth down 27.9% and Scarborough down 19,8% just to name a few.  The towns of Cumberland and Yarmouth, however, remained resiliant with comparable sales in 2008 to 2007.

Condo sales in Cumberland County were down, although not as significantly at 11.9%.  Portland, which leads the local market in total unit sales for both single family homes and condos, experienced at 13.2% drop in condo sales in 2008.  Old Orchard Beach, the leading area for ocean front condos, has felt the full impact of the slower market, as only 79 condo sales were completed - an annual decrease of 41.4%.

Median & Average Price Levels

On a somewhat positive note, and probably surprising to most casual real estate observers, prices have not declined as dramatically as expected.  Median single family home pricing throughout Cumberland County declined 6.0% in 2008, with condo prices down 2.9%. Some individual towns yielded increases in home prices - most notably Falmouth at 2.6%, Freeport at 1.9% and Cumberland at 2.9%.

According to government data, home prices peaked nationally in the second quarter of 2005. The rate of appreciation began slowly dropping until it turned negative in the summer of 2007 for the first time in 13 years. Contrary to the national trend, 2007 home prices in Maine remained basically flat and did not begin to experience a decrease until 2008.

As always, real estate continues to be a extremely local and very specific.  Towns, neighborhoods, school districts and specific home types all vary considerably in this difficult market.  Understanding the differences is critical to any buying or selling decision. 

Details of home sales for the communities of Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Scarborough, Yarmouth, Cumberland and Old Orchard Beach are avaiilable and special requests for specific information can easily be prepared. 

Sales results for the 2008 YTD, compared to 2007 YTD, are presented below. Prior year sales statistics are available at 2007 Home Sales and 2006 Home Sales.

Download prior and current year homes sales statistics. If you do not find what you are looking for, we can prepare custom reports.

View reports at: Maine Home Sales Reports Archive