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V O L . X X I V N O. V I I I A P R I L 1 6 , 2 0 1 8 24 D ino Spugnardi, owner of Cottage Home Construction, can be found lately at a Yarmouth single-family subdivision called Village Run, building his fourth house there. It's one of the several homes his company builds per year, with a dozen completed over the past four years, from Kennebunkport to Yarmouth. Demand for new residential construction is hot, he says. And Yarmouth is attracting attention as "a neat little town," as he says, with buyers seeking a strong community feel, good school district and close proximity to Portland. Village Run, a project led by Developers Collaborative in Portland, is made up of 26 lots. Spugnardi, one of a handful of contractors at the site, has seen lots "fl ying off the shelf," he says. Building classic-looking New England homes, Spugnardi built Village Run's fi rst house, as a model home, in 2016-17. As the lots began selling, he and other contractors have steadily contin- ued building homes there. Now only a couple of lots are left. "I've been involved with many developments myself and I can't remember a time when lots sold that quickly and houses get committed to that fast," he says. e anecdote speaks to a surge around Maine in residential construc- tion. Inventory of existing homes remains tight. Realtors statewide had an uncharac- teristically strong winter for sales, with 17% fewer listed homes in January versus a year earlier, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. e median sales price in January was $200,000, a 5.26% increase from January 2017. Higher costs driving up prices Tight existing-home inventory and growing demand is pushing new con- struction, from individual single-family homes to subdivisions, condominiums and conversions. at's one theme that emerges in talks with contractors and municipalities around the state. Another is that demand is expected to continue to grow, largely from P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Home made Residential construction is up, but will rising prices put a damper on demand? B Y L A U R I E S C H R E I B E R F O C U S SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES SOLD IN MAINE S O U R C E : Maine Listings, Maine Association of Realtors Comparing quarter ended Jan. 31, 2017, to Jan. 31, 2018 Dino Spugnardi of Cottage Home Construction near two of the homes he built at the Village Run development in Yarmouth. U N I T S P R I C E 3,000 $160K $170K $180K $190K 2017 2017 2018 2018 3,100 2,900 2,800 3,200 $200K 3,121 $185,000 3,197 $200,000 +2.44% +8.11%

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