PORTLAND (WGME) – A new Harvard University study shows home ownership is now out of reach and unaffordable for low-income and working-class Mainers.
A decade ago, you needed an income of $58,000 to buy a typical $230,000 Portland home.
Sunny Pecoraro says when her family started looking for a new home in Portland, they realized they'd have to pay $300,000 more to get a home similar to their old one in Gray.
"In the price range of what we could sell our house for, even though it could sell for a lot more, there's no way we could afford anything that's even close to the quality of our home right now," Pecoraro said.
Her friend and coworker Melinda Larsen owns a home in Gorham and was looking for a new home there.
"And we just kept getting beat out. Cash offers. $100,000 over asking. Like it was crazy," Larsen said. "It just got so ridiculous. We weren't even in, like, top three offers. And we were going $30,000-$40,000 over ask."
Both decided to give up their search.
Local realtor John Hatcher says they're not alone.
"We're seeing a lot of disappointment,” Hatcher said. “We're seeing what we call ‘buyer fatigue,’ where they might make offers on seven, eight, nine, 10 properties and unsuccessful in acquiring it."
Right now, the median home price in Cumberland and York Counties is a staggering $473,000.
To afford a home at that price, you'd have to earn more than $130,000 a year.
Yet, the median household income in southern Maine is $62,000, not even half that.
"Cumberland County, York County, are expensive areas nationally," Hatcher said.
One home recently went on the market for $310,000. The owner got 34 offers. One couple offered $60,000 over asking price and still didn't get the home.
Hatcher says in a balanced market, the average home sells in six months.
In this seller's market, homes are selling in six days and for well over asking price.
"It's unprecedented. We've just never seen that," Hatcher said. "In the last three weeks, we've had three properties that have gone under contract for 20 percent over asking."
The hope is that new home construction and rising interest rates will slow the housing market, but it hasn't yet in Maine.
"Anything that we were looking at, I mean, it went off the market so quickly," Pecoraro said.