Portland real estate prices leveled off in 2021, relief for buyers as typical market returns Q3 over Q2 stats show stabilizing prices and increase in days on market.
Portland, ME – 2021 third quarter statistics show a more balanced and typical summer market. While the median price of Portland real estate is up 27% over the third quarter of last year, it’s flatlined when compared to the previous two quarters of 2021. This coupled with an increase in days on market, has been an opportunity for buyers, many of whom gave up in the hot seller’s market of the winter and early spring.
“After a year of the craziest market we’ve ever seen, the market started to ease up in July,” said Benchmark Real Estate owner and Realtor, Tom Landry. “Because sales statistics always lag a couple months behind, we’re just now seeing the evidence of the market returning to a more typical cadence.”
Landry said that while many believed the price of real estate skyrocketed this year, the statistics show it hasn’t. “The median price of all Portland property types hasn’t materially changed in 2021. The big jump came in the last half of 2020 and the prices haven’t come down,” he explained. He said the inventory crunch and influx of out-of-state buyers in 2020 first drove prices up. “The market continued to favor sellers through the winter and early spring until listings started to catch up with demand.”
Landry said that now in Q3, he and other brokers are seeing an uptick in activity which could result in an increase in the median price when the Q4 numbers come out in January. But he added, “the real question is, will that be offset by an increase in inventory, keeping prices where they are?” As the winter approaches, some sellers are scrambling to take advantage of the market. “We’re seeing more price reductions this fall than we’ve seen for a number of years. So, buyers may gain a better position in the last part of the year.”
But will prices some down? Landry said probably not. “We still have a lot of people and companies moving in. People from away have realized what we Mainers have known all along. While price value increases have slowed, I don’t see them dropping.”
Below are the Q3 numbers across all residential segments as well as the percent change between the previous two quarters. The statistics were prepared by Benchmark Real Estate using data from Maine Listings. See past stats on Benchmark’s blog.
Highest & Lowest Sales of September 2021
