Right Now, a $500k House in Maine is Half as Big as 5 Years Ago

I think I lucked out?

My wife and I bought our current house about a year before the pandemic. At the time, the real estate market was heating up quite a bit, but nothing like we've seen the last couple years. When we put it on the market it was November, and we didn't expect much action at all. Instead, we got a full price offer in under 36 hours. It was nuts.

It was also totally unexpected. For about half of what the current marlket would list it for, we got our locked into a house that's way bigger than we need (but love having), with three acres of land. It's funny, because if we had to buy our own house right now, there's probably no way we could afford it.

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No one feels that lucky right now.

If you peruse the real estate sites at all, you'll see that the inflation in home prices that began in the pandemic hasn't really come back down. Prices have fallen a smidge, and the bidding wars seem to be gone, but the gigantic price tags still seem to be a thing. On the other hand, what you can get for those big price tags, is getting smaller all the time.

According to BuilderPad.com, a $500,000 home in Maine has almost half the square footage it did 5 years ago. Maine holds 3rd place in the US for shrinking square footage, compared to price. Only Montana and New York are ahead of us. Both those states are much more affluent than we are, so it's almost expected, but Mainers are suffering.

For the price, we've lost almost 1,500sf of space.

In 2018, the average house listed for $500k, would've been approximately 1,500 square feet bigger than it is now. Presumably, this translates to houses in other price ranges as well. One could assume that across the board, prices are up, while sizes are down. Right now, if you look on any of the popular real estate sites, a $500k house isn't necessarily that special.

There was a time in Maine, half a million bucks would've gotten you them home of your dreams. right now, about all it gets you a raised ranch in a decent neighborhood. Again, if I tried to buy my current house that I barely paid over $200k for 5 years ago, I couldn't even begin to afford it, and it's no luxury home, by any means. Hopefully over time, this course will correct itself and Mainers can afford to live in Maine again.

I'd almost guarantee Maine is not on this list...