The median sale price for existing single-family homes in Maine was up slightly for the three-month period ending in March, further evidence that the market has stabilized following a long period of decline.

The Maine Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that the median price for homes sold statewide in January, February and March was $165,500, up 1.2 percent from the same three-month period of 2014. It was the third month in a row that the median price was up slightly over the same rolling quarter of 2014. The median price indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

Realtors in Maine sold 950 single-family homes in March, an increase of 6.5 percent from March 2014, the Realtors association reported. The median sale price for detached, single-family homes in the state was $170,000 in March, up from $167,400 in February and $162,000 in March 2014, it said.

Those increases are strong signals of a stabilized housing market, said Marie Flaherty, association president and a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northeast Real Estate in Westbrook.

“The new statistics provide further validation that we are in a stable market currently,” Flaherty said. “Historically, healthy market price appreciation has been approximately 4 percent a year, which we are experiencing now.”

Nationally, single-family existing home sales rose 10.9 percent in March compared with a year earlier. The National Association of Realtors reported a nationwide price increase of 8.7 percent to a median sale price of $213,500. The Northeast experienced a 1.6 percent rise in sales, while prices also jumped 1.6 percent to $240,500, it said.

Counties in Maine that experienced the biggest year-over-year median price increases during the three months ending in March included Somerset (up 25.9 percent), Sagadahoc (up 24.7 percent) and Androscoggin (up 9.8 percent). Counties with the biggest declines included Piscataquis (down 23.5 percent), Hancock (down 13.5 percent) and Franklin (down 13.4 percent).

 


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