R EA L E STATE
Crazy Love “Hey, any chance I can jump in on a tour at 123 In-Your-Dreams Lane? Yeah, the one that went on the market this morning. Is it still available?”
How high is the sky? As housing prices skyrocket, bidding wars and fortnight sales are business as usual.
CAMDEN COAST REAL ESTATE
T
BY SO FIA VO LTIN
he first few hours in this lightning-quick Maine real estate market are critical. Appointments to show a competitively priced home may be fully booked within minutes. When real estate agents see this happen, we know we can safely bet the house will be under contract within a few days. “In old-school, traditional real estate, we’d say a house is on the market for six months in a balanced market,” says John Hatcher of The Hatcher Group affiliated with Keller Williams Realty in Portland. “I don’t think we’re going to see that again. These days, if anything is listed for three months, buyers think there’s something wrong with it.” Two weeks on the market used to be the buyer’s magic number for when a house might sell for around the asking price or face a price reduction. But these days, it’s
WATERFRONT WOWZA $85K Overbid, 6 Days!
60 Beach Point Road, Saint George Listed: $1.295M Sold: $1.38M Listing agent Mary Bumiller, Camden Coast Real Estate
far more common for a listing to show over the weekend and sell by Monday. “I have no idea when it will return to a normal, balanced market,” says Madeline Hill, the newly elected president of the Maine Association of REALTORS® and a broker with Roxanne York Real Estate in Harpswell. “I’ve seen the news stories trying to sensationalize the situation, saying we may be in a housing bubble waiting to burst. But it’s not a lending crisis, because a lot of people are paying cash. And it’s not an appraisal crisis, because appraisers are keeping up now as the comparable sales are also so high.” “We never know when or what a tipping point is until it’s over,” says Kathy Du-
ca, designated broker for Coldwell Banker Realty Maine, who manages their offices in Portland and Brunswick. “We don’t see the peak until we’ve come down on the other side. If only I had a crystal ball, I’d be very wealthy right now.” LOOKING FORWARD Duca reviews the contracts of countless winning offers every year. But when I ask her for a prediction of what’s to come this summer, she says, “How could we possibly know? We can’t look at history and see what’s going to happen. This has all been so unprecedented.” She’s been licensed in real estate in Maine since 1987, and “In all my years, we’ve never seen anything like this. But markets always change. Eventually there will be a shift. I just can’t say when. I’ve seen crazy markets and lack of inventory before, but not like this.” Hatcher, calm and confident, predicts Continued on page 46 M AY 2 0 2 2 4 3
