More Out-of-Staters Than Mainers Are Looking to Buy Homes in Greater Portland

Only Honolulu has more out of staters looking to buy up real estate.

Trying to buy a house? Then you know how frustrating and challenging it can be ESPECIALLY in the greater Portland area. Well, there's a clear reason why. According to MaineBiz, out-of-staters recently accounted for 63.4% of all prospective home buyers looking at properties in Portland and South Portland. That's according to the website Realtor.com. Only Honolulu had more out-of-state eyeballs on homes at 67% of all searches there.

Even though more and more people are going back into the office, and you might think that would signal a slowdown in out-of-state buyers (no more remote working), but the opposite is happening. Interest is only going up!

We may think that the greater Portland homes are expensive, and don't get me wrong - they are, but compared to some parts of the country like California, we are a bargain for all we offer. Realtor.com points out that in the greater Portland area, we started the year at about $296 a square foot (for an average price). That's a deal compared to San Jose, California where the square footage price during the same time was $834! However, it's way above the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania which came in at $86 per square foot!

This is doing nothing but adding pressure to a squeezed market and it's making prices skyrocket! MaineBiz says that the average price for a house in March jumped 21% to 325,000 from a year ago. That's the first time the average price for a house in Maine was over 300,000 dollars! So far, there are no signs that it's letting up!