Portland Maine real estate continues to show mixed signs of improvement. During the month of November 30 single family homes were sold, compared to 28 the year before.
On a year-to-date basis, there have been 348 home sales compared to 382 during the 11 previous months, representing a decrease of 8.9%. Pricing, however, continues to hold steady with a median price of Portland sales at $219.250 in 2011 compared to $218,700 in 2010, reflecting a modest increase of less than 1 percent.
Excess Inventory
Of continuing concern is the level of inventory. After several months of improvement (reduced inventory levels of homes for sale), it has spiked upwards the last few months. The graph below illustrates that trend over the last twelve months. Although the inventory level is down from one year ago, there is still a considerable number of homes on the market, thus making it more difficult and challenging for those hoping to sell their home in this market.
This chart only looks at the market in total. Each price category can be very different. For example, in the price range of $200,000 to $250,000 there are 9.0 months of inventory of single family homes for sale. In the price range of $500.000 to 600,000 the inventory jumps to 20.1 months. This is commonly known as the Absorption Rate and is a measure of how long it will take to sell a home given current market conditions.
The level and the type of competition that exists within each price category can be quite different.
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