Maine’s residential real estate market continues to strengthen, according to the latest batch of home sale figures from the Maine Association of Realtors.

In January, Realtors sold 783 single-family homes in Maine, an 8.6 percent increase from the 721 sold in January 2014, according to the data, which was released Monday.

January home sales have increased consistently for the past several years. The 2015 figures are 46 percent higher than the 536 homes sold in Maine during January 2011.

“The January sales data is further proof of a stabilizing real estate market in Maine,” Marie Flaherty, president of the Maine Association of Realtors and a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northeast Real Estate in Westbrook, said in a written statement. “The weather appears to be having less of an impact on homebuyers’ decisions this year.”

In fact, when it comes to real estate, the more people are snowed in, the more activity there is in the market, said Greg Gosselin, owner of Gosselin Realty Group in York.

“I’ve actually noticed that on weather days we get a lot more activity because people are at home on the Internet checking on Maine listings and contacting us on those days,” said Gosselin, who also is president of the York County Council of Realtors.

Gosselin, who covers the coastal area from the New Hampshire border to Kennebunk, said this January was his best in the past three years. It wasn’t a surprise, since 2014 was his second-best for sales in the 17 years he’s been in the real estate business, he said.

Gosselin said the second-home market is driving his numbers, and those of the entire state.

“I think the second homes are definitely having an impact,” he said. Those include coastal homes as well as lakeside properties in the state’s interior.

Gosselin said inventory is strained, but buyers can still get mortgages with an interest rate under 4 percent. “So, money is affordable, which is making home ownership affordable now,” he said.

However, although the overall number of homes sold statewide increased in January, the median sales price dipped 3.9 percent to $160,000 compared with the year before, according to the association’s data.

Gosselin doesn’t read much into that figure. He prefers to look at the rolling quarter data, which shows that the 2,842 homes sold statewide in November, December and January had a median sales price of $173,500, a 2 percent increase from the same rolling quarter in 2013-2014.

“One month doesn’t make a year, clearly,” he said.

The real estate market in some Maine counties is faring better than others this winter. Areas with increased sales in the November-to-January period included Franklin County, where there were 83 homes sold, up 33.9 percent from 62 sold a year earlier, and Washington County, where sales rose 26.5 percent, from 49 to 62.

Somerset County saw the largest drop during the three-month period, falling nearly 12 percent from 92 to 81.

Cumberland County saw very little change. Realtors sold 714 homes, compared with 713 sold during the same three months a year earlier.

Nationally, home sales increased 3.9 percent in January, and the median sales price rose 6.3 percent to $199,800, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales in the Northeast were up 3.3 percent, and the regional median sales price increased 2.7 percent to $247,800.

 

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