Mainebiz Special Editions

V O L . X X I X N O. X I X 4 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine Although home prices remain high and affordable housing is in short supply, Portland ranked No. 7 on U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Places to Live. The list ranks metropolitan areas based on desirability, job market, quality of life and other parameters. Green Bay, Wisc., took the top spot. San Juan, Puerto Rico, was last. T ake a look at any state with a high profile — California, New York or Massachusetts. In all of these cases, you're looking at a state that's also expensive to live in when factoring in housing costs, living expenses or the cost of insurance. In that respect, for many years Maine held an edge. It was cheaper to live here, so when you combined the nice quality of life, it was an attractive, affordable option. ings aren't quite as cheap as they once were. For instance, you may still pay less for a house in Maine, but you'll pay quite a bit more than you would have before the pandemic. As recently as 2017, Maine's median home price was $200,000. It's now $375,000 and if you're looking at most of southern Maine, you're talking $475,000 or more for the median home cost. But Maine still offers many attributes, as you'll see below and as you'll see throughout this issue of the Fact Book: Doing Business in Maine. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Q UA L I T Y O F L I F E Maine's national profile goes beyond lobster and lighthouses HOW MAINE STACKS UP AGAINST OTHER STATES IN SOME KEY AREAS Maine's "hottest town" for home sales was Rockland, where median sales price soared 40% from $225,000 in 2021 to $317,000 in 2022, according to Maine Life Real Estate in Scarborough. The top 3 was rounded out by Kittery, where the MSP was $594,000 (a 23% gain), and Old Orchard Beach, where the MSP was $445,000 (up 22.75%). In the past three years, Maine has ranked in the Top 3 of destinations for households that moved, accord- ing to Atlas Van Lines. In 2021, it was No. 1, fueled by a wave of pandemic refugees. It fell to No. 2 in 2022, supplanted by North Carolina. In Maine, 63% of households were moving in last year, with 37% moving out. Another mover, United Van Lines, had Maine at No. 17 and U-Haul had it as the No. 29 destination. P H O T O / W I K I M E D I A C O M O N S / P U B L I C D O M A I N P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F AT L A S VA N L I N E S Mainers are typically the largest buyers of Maine homes, according to Maine Listings and Benchmark Real Estate. But when it comes to out-of-state buy- ers, in 2022 the top 10 states were Massachusetts (with 1,430 buyers), New Hampshire (669), Florida (366), New York (303), California (301), Texas (211), Connecticut (195), Pennsylvania (172), Virginia (149) and New Jersey (132). For working moms, Maine ranked No. 9 based on 17 key metrics looked at by WalletHub, a personal finance web- site. New England states did well overall, with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut in the top three spots.

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