The relief was short-lived. One month after Maine home sale prices decreased for the first time in six years, they’ve risen again.

Maine homebuyers paid a median of $400,000 in April, a 4% increase over the same time last year, according to data released Thursday by the Maine Association of Realtors. It’s the first time this year and the fifth time ever that the median price has met or surpassed $400,000 since first crossing that threshold last June. The median is the price at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

Meanwhile, 942 homes changed hands, an 11% increase from the month before and a slight (less than 1%) decrease compared to April 2024.

April typically marks the beginning of the busy spring real estate market and Jeff Harris, president of the Maine Association of Realtors, said both listing and buyer activity heated up last month.

The number of homes listed for sale increased by 19% – or roughly 600 homes – between March and April, he said.

And while the $400,000 median price feels particularly unwelcome after the previous month’s decease, however minimal, seven Maine counties saw prices fall, according to Harris, a broker affiliated with Harris Real Estate in Farmington.

Nationally, sales dipped just over 1% compared to April 2024, while the median sale price increased just shy of 2% to $418,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Regionally, sales in the Northeast were flat year-over-year and prices increased about 6% to $487,400 over the same period.

Home sales across the country have been at 75% of the normal, pre-pandemic activity for the last three years, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the national association. Any “meaningful” decline in mortgage rates will help release pent-up demand, he said, as will increased inventory.

According to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage was 6.86% on Thursday.

“At the macro level, we are still in a mild seller’s market,” Yun said. “But with the highest inventory levels in nearly five years, consumers are in a better situation to negotiate for better deals.”

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.

The median price increased just under 5% to $390,000 between Feb. 1 and April 30, compared to the same three-month span the year before.

Cumberland County held its spot as Maine’s most expensive county with a median sale price of $560,000. York County was the second-most expensive, with a median sale price of $479,000. Cumberland County saw prices increase by about 3% from the year before, but York recorded its second decrease — just over 4% — since 2019.

It was one of five counties to record a price decrease. Washington County had the biggest price drop at around 12%, and with prices falling to $198,000 it joined Aroostook County as the only Maine counties with a median price under $200,000.

Hancock County’s price increase of 12% was the largest in the state, bringing the area’s median sale price to $397,500.

Between February and April, the number of homes sold statewide slipped about 4%.

Androscoggin County saw by far the largest decrease of about 31%, while Waldo County saw the largest increase with a whopping 71%. Sales were flat in Aroostook County.