Home prices jumped more than 5 percent in January compared with a year earlier, while the volume of sales in Maine was relatively flat.

A report issued Wednesday by Maine Listings said the median sale price of detached single-family homes rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier, to $200,000. The median indicates half of the homes sold for more than that and half sold for less.

The number of single-family homes sold in Maine rose 0.2 percent in January compared with a year earlier, the report said.

“Buyers are anxiously awaiting the increased for-sale inventory that spring traditionally brings,” said Kim Gleason, president of the Maine Association of Realtors and broker/owner of McAllister Real Estate in Hallowell. “The January 2018 for-sale inventory (was) 17 percent below January 2017 due to a strong winter selling season.”

January was not the first time that the statewide median home price has reached $200,000, according to Maine Listings. That milestone was first reached in May, and the median hasn’t dropped below $200,000 since then, it said.

Maine home sales for the three-month period ending Jan. 31 were up 5.1 percent from a year earlier at 3,951, and the median sale price of $200,000 was up 5.8 percent, Maine Listings reported.

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The biggest increase in home sales occurred in Franklin County, where sales for the three-month period jumped 58.3 percent from a year earlier, it said. The biggest decrease was in Waldo County, where sales activity fell 15.8 percent.

Piscataquis County saw the biggest increase in median price, which rose 25 percent from a year earlier to $118,750. The biggest decrease was in Hancock County, where the median price fell 6.9 percent to $209,500.

Nationally, home sales dipped 4.8 percent in January compared with a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. The national median sale price in January was $241,700, up 5.7 percent from January 2017.

Regionally, sales in the Northeast declined by 7.6 percent, and the regional median price of $269,100 represented a climb of 6.8 percent from a year earlier, it said.

J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:

canderson@pressherald.com

Twitter: jcraiganderson


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