Maine’s summer real estate market is red-hot, with both inventory and prices going up in June, while the state’s rising home sales are going against the norm across the Northeast.

Homebuyers in Maine paid a median of $425,000 last month — the same as in May, when the state set a new record high — while the median price in Cumberland County exceeded $600,000 for the first time, according to data released by the Maine Association of Realtors on Wednesday.

The median price — the point at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less — has increased roughly 5% since June 2024.

Meanwhile, 1,441 homes changed hands in June, which marks a 17% spike compared to May and a 10% increase from this time last year.

Jeff Harris, president of the Maine Association of Realtors, said the familiar combination of high demand and low inventory levels are driving the increased sales and rising costs.

Here are five takeaways from the June housing report:

Maine is bucking a trend of declining sales in the Northeast

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales across the Northeast declined about 4% last month compared to June 2024. But in Maine, they increased more than 10% over the same span.

Real estate experts aren’t entirely sure what is making Maine an outlier, although Harris suggested that higher prices in other states could be playing a role.

While a $425,000 median price is a hard pill for many prospective homebuyers to swallow, neighboring states are combating even higher prices.

The median sale price in New Hampshire last month was $565,000, while in Massachusetts, it was $725,000. The Greater Boston Association of Realtors reported a median sale price above $1 million for the first time.

“For a long time, Maine has been a pretty good bang for the dollar,” Harris said. “When you look at our prices compared to around the country, we’ve been more reasonably priced.”

June had the most Maine houses for sale since 2020

Last month, Maine had 5,047 houses on the market — the first time that for-sale inventory has surpassed 5,000 since October 2020, Harris said.

But that increase isn’t attributed to an influx of new housing.

During the pandemic, people who bought or refinanced their homes locked into record-low interest rates that they were loathe to give up.

But as the years have gone on and interest rates have continued to hover in the high 6% range, people are accepting that this is the new normal, said Holly Mitchell, a Portland-based real estate agent with Keller Williams.

“People who may have really suppressed a desire to make a move because of that interest rate have let go of that,” Mitchell said. For most people, the “rise of equity has been so extraordinary” that they can still come out on top with a higher interest rate.

And while the inventory is improving, it’s not a buyer’s market yet. Statewide, there is a 3.3-month supply of unsold inventory, according to data from Maine Listings. A balanced market is a six-month supply.

Cumberland County median price hits $600K for the first time

The median home sale price in Cumberland County has flirted with $600,000 a few times in the last year but has generally hovered around $570,000 to $580,000.

The Maine Association of Realtors also looks at three months of data in county-by-county comparisons to get a larger sample size of sale transactions.

In the three-month span between April 1 and June 30, the median sale price in Cumberland County hit $600,000 for the first time.

There’s not one specific reason for the jump, but prices in Maine usually ramp up during the busy summer season after a spring slump.

Maine’s low inventory has also kept demand high, which means there are more people competing for fewer properties. There’s little land available for an affordable price and entry-level homes are only getting more expensive.

“The floor keeps rising,” Mitchell said.

Prices are soaring in northeastern Maine

Aroostook and Washington counties have long been two of the state’s most affordable counties, with median sale prices frequently below $200,000. That’s still the case, especially in Aroostook County, where the median price between April 1 and June 30 was $180,000.

But as Maine’s housing market continues its breakneck pace, those two counties are seeing some of the state’s highest price increases. During the same April-to-June period last year, Aroostook County had a median sale price of $153,750 — and has increased roughly 17% year-over-year.

The jump was even starker in Washington County, which saw an almost 28% increase in the same three-month period — the highest in the state — with the median price surging from $187,000 to $238,500.

For years, Washington County’s real estate scene was pretty even-keeled, with little flux in sales and prices, even during the 2008 market crash, according to Georgie Kendall, a Washington County broker with Realty of Maine.

But the COVID-19 pandemic brought more attention to Maine, particularly in far-flung, less populated parts of the state.

And as prices along Maine’s coast feel more out-of-reach for many current and would-be residents, areas like Washington County are becoming more desirable, Kendall said.

“We have some of the lowest prices for waterfront property in the state,” she said. “There’s a lot of room for it to grow. We haven’t caught up with the rest of the state.”

On Zillow, several homes on or near the ocean are listed for under $400,000, “not in the $4 millions or $2 millions,” Kendall said.

But costs are falling in 5 Maine counties

While prices increased in most counties, five saw overall decreases when comparing the three-month span between April and June to the same period the year before.

Sale prices fell in Franklin, Knox, Penobscot, Sagadahoc and Waldo counties. Knox County saw the largest decrease, with prices falling from $497,500 to $454,500, or a little under 9%. Penobscot County, where prices dropped about 1.5% from $288,000 to $283,000, saw the slightest decrease.

Harris doesn’t put too much stock into slight rises and falls because Maine has a relatively small volume of sales (3,628 between April 1 and June 30).

“It doesn’t take much to throw those statistics one way or another,” he said.

For example, both Franklin and Sagadahoc counties had fewer than 100 sales during the three-month period in both 2024 and 2025, so one or two particularly high-priced sales in a year could result in a decrease the next.