HOULTON, Maine – No one could have guessed before the COVID-19 pandemic that Maine’s most rural and populous provinces would become the hottest real estate markets in the state.
But that is exactly what happened. In the provinces of Aroostook, Washington and Piscataquis, there are new homeowners who are reversing decades-long population drains of rural Maine. Newcomers leave the denser parts of the country in the coronavirus and accumulate real estate in the less populated parts of the state and benefit from the lower cost of living and market prices compared to where they were.
Maine as a whole saw a small increase, about 9 percent, in the number of real estate sold during the pandemic, and the number of out-of-state buyers increased from 25 to 33 percent during that period. But nowhere is the growth more pronounced, and the number of foreign arrivals greater than the rural areas in northern Maine.
“Eight out of ten people had to go to the city earlier to go live because there was work,” said Andrew Mooers, owner of Mooers Realty in Houlton. “You did not have a choice. With telework you have a choice. ‘
The latest upswing in real estate in Aroostook County is in stark contrast to the past few decades in which the population is slowly declining and young people are moving south for better education and jobs. It is no longer necessary to live in the city to have access to shopping and entertainment, thanks to innovative local internet companies, such as Houlton’s Pioneer Broadband, which provide everything to do work or school remotely, order products and stream content .
Aroostook County’s decline in population has been occurring for decades. In 1960, the census listed its population as more than 100,000 people. The population has since declined by more than a third, with the most recent estimate of 2019 at 67,000 people.
But the influx of new property owners could reverse this trend. Data from the Maine Multiple Listing Service, which the state’s realtors rely on to help rate, indicates that more properties are being sold, are less available and prices are rising.
Five years ago, the average selling price for single-family homes in Aroostook was $ 53,000 and there were more than 1,000 units available. In December 2020, the median selling price nearly doubled to $ 97,000, and the available single-family units were reduced by about two-thirds to just over 360 units.
“Certainly, if this trend continues, I think the population will grow,” said Aaron Bolster, president of the Maine Association of Realtors. “It’s too new to know whether the data will reflect an increase in population or not, but I think there are people living in Maine.”
“We are basically lower and they sell faster than they replenish,” Mooers said. “It’s great for the seller.”
Mark Lipscombe is one new homeowner who arrived in northern Maine during the pandemic. Lipscombe and his wife, Nina, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, were originally from Australia and aspired to live in the area after tripping over it across the continent.
” A few years ago we undertook North America, ” Lipscombe said. She currently lives in Houlton with Nina and their two middle-aged children. “We were right through Canada and came through Northern Maine and really loved the area.”
Lipscombe recently moved from its native Australia to Memphis, with plans to eventually move to northern Maine. But the family’s five-year plan to move north became a five-month plan when the COVID-19 pandemic devastated cities like Memphis.
“We did not move here because of COVID, but it accelerated our increase,” he said. “But it all falls into place, and we love it very much here.”
The Lipscombes started County Micro, an IT consulting firm, out of their new home, a red Victorian home in Houlton’s main street.
“People were really great and very welcoming,” Mark Lipscombe said. “We did business with managed IT here, and we really had a great reception.”
The influx of new people to Aroostook County has also meant more work for contractors hired to fix the homes. Electricians, plumbers, and other construction-related workers were from some people who came from other states.
“It’s not 100 percent outside the state, but it’s very close,” said David Harbison, who owns Harbison Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning in Houlton, and has been working on several homes bought by the new homeowners.
Harbison said he has seen people from Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, but also from states like California, Washington and Idaho.
“Some people have roots here and want to come home,” said Brian Nightingale, a contract electrician who worked at several homes. “Some people are just happy to get away from where they were.”
The wide open land and the good quality of the land that make it ideal for farming also attract people to rural areas such as Aroostook. Many people are already an area known for its potato production and buy land and farm properties for the ‘farm-to-table’ experience.
“From outside the state perspective, people like the fact that the land is so rich,” Bolster said. “It was a big influential sales function for The County.”
Many of the people who saw Harbison after Aroostook tend to be older, but not quite retirement age.
“Most of the people we talk to are mainly congested areas where they come from, and they want to get out,” Harbison said. “Most of the areas are growing tremendously in population, and some of them are criminal activity that they are trying to get away from.”
Nightingale and Harbison both said they had noticed a slow drop of people moving in from other states over the past few years, but the pandemic quickly accelerated the number of people arriving there.
The type of homes people buy also varies. Some buy large houses, such as a Victorian house owned by the Lipscombes, while others buy large tracts of land to take advantage of the low prices. Nightingale said he knows of one Florida couple who bought a home on East Grand Lake in the Orient.
The unknown is whether the new residents will stay or simply be here to eradicate the pandemic. Those coming from warmer states like California and Texas may find the long winter of Aroostook, which begins in November and lasts until April, a difficult adjustment. The pandemic also eventually reached Aroostook, with more than 1,000 cases since December.
But even the increased COVID-19 activity has not stopped people from moving to rural Maine, although the timing for some of them is different. According to Harbison, some of its newer customers are waiting for the warmer spring months before moving in.
Mark Lipscombe said the success of his business here prompted him to persuade another of his California-based business partners to buy a home on Madigan Street in Houlton.
“For the things we do with IT stuff, the city has some amazing things to it,” he said. ‘It has wonderful internet. It has cheap utilities. It seems like a great place to sit and do business. ”