Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have seen an uptick in new residents arriving from other states. The new arrivals years have fueled hopes of population growth, but workers increasingly struggle to find housing in a market gone wild.
SEARSPORT, Maine — In 2019, when Celine Kelley’s daughter was born, there were 13 births and 31 deaths in the coastal town of Searsport, Maine — a familiar phenomenon in a state where deaths had outpaced births for more than a decade.
Population shifts — even small ones — carry high stakes in this rural, sparsely populated state and across northern New England, where leaders have worried for years about a so-called “silver tsunami” with implications for the economy and the fate of rural communities. Maine had the oldest population in the nation in 2020 and one of the lowest birthrates; the only consistent population growth has been among those 65 and older.
The median sales price for a home in Waldo County, where Searsport perches at the edge of Penobscot Bay, ballooned to $292,000 in 2022 from $181,500 in 2019, an increase of 60%, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. As eager out-of-state buyers snapped up desirable properties sight unseen, relying on video tours and waiving inspections, the supply of available housing drastically contracted.
Given the shortage of affordable housing near Searsport, Ariel Grotton feels lucky to live with her husband and three young children in a studio apartment in a family member’s basement. But after several years of saving money and building her credit score in hopes of buying a house, Grotton, 28, recently deleted the Zillow app on her phone, weary of looking at homes she can’t afford.
“I never believe someone will stay until they’ve made it through two winters,” said Kelley, the bakery owner, who grew up near Seattle and moved to Maine in 2012 to be near her husband’s family. “Rural America has been found again, and it’s an opportunity for us,” said Chris Gardner, a county commissioner who hopes the state will seize the moment and send recruiters nationwide to tout Maine’s charms. “Second-home buyers are welcome, but we’re hoping to get real, year-round community members to grow our strength.”
The answer crystallized quickly — and it did not include a four-hour commute in peak Boston traffic. Within a few months, the Lessards hatched a plan to quit their corporate jobs, sell their suburban home outside the city and pursue a decadeslong dream of running an inn and restaurant with their close friend Kip Dixon, a chef who made the leap to Maine with them.
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