What’s the problem?

Many more Mainers need access to affordable housing than houses exist, than are on the horizon to be built, or that can be feasibly created through public programs to address the problem within the next 20 years. Yikes.

That means many more friends and neighbors under stress. Less inventory to buy or rent. Families living in increased risk of mental health issues. Higher numbers of un-homed individuals living in streets, parks, and shelters. More out-migration of young workers in a state already worried about who’ll still be here in twenty years.

These are challenging realities for legislators, public housing entities, developers, investors, and philanthropists to address. Especially since they all need to work together to arrive at actionable plans.

Meantime, we can do our bit at a personal level if we so choose. Here are some insights and some paths to action.

  • Maine's housing math is not improving on its own. MaineHousing's 2026 Housing Outlook found the median home price in Maine grew by more than 36 percent over five years to pass $400,000 in 2025, while wages and salaries grew by less than 27 percent. A decade ago, Maine's median income was enough to afford an average home here. Not anymore.

    Rentals tell the same story. The 2026 Out of Reach report puts Maine's two-bedroom housing wage at $32.32 an hour against a fair market rent of $1,681, while the average Maine renter earns $18.29. In the Portland area the figure is $40.96. York County, $33. The Bangor area, $31.90. Maine now ranks 19th in the country for highest housing wage. Last year we ranked 26th.

    Figures from NLIHC Out of Reach 2026, released July 2026, and MaineHousing's Maine Housing Outlook, January 2026. Look up your county.

  • The shortage is worst where the tourist economy is strongest. On Mount Desert Island the average home runs around $650,000, well past what a teacher, a nurse, or an Acadia employee can carry.

    The MDI and Acadia Region Housing Study, completed by RKG Associates in March 2025 for the MDI Housing Solutions Initiative, breaks down housing stock, affordability, and production targets town by town across Ellsworth, Lamoine, Trenton, Tremont, Southwest Harbor, Bar Harbor, and Mount Desert. If you own in that region, that study is the closest thing to a local baseline you’ll find. Read it.

What’s affordable to whom?

Let’s face it. We’re not looking at renting assets to visitors for fun. We’re here because the income is important to us. It helps us afford more of what we want or need in our lives.

On the flip side of the equation are the renters of these assets, whether for short- or long-term stays. We know what’s affordable to us; what’s affordable to our guests or tenants? That answer may be less simple than it sounds.

These questions are vital to consider when setting your rates, targeting your audience, evaluating how you’ll intersect with your community, and considering viability in the first place.

“Affordable housing” used to equal “low income housing.” In some sectors, it still does. But the composition of Mainers who need access to housing they can afford is broader now — and more so since the pandemic:

  • Multi-income working families at every level, who hold anything from service-oriented, to self-employed, to professional jobs

  • College graduates, upon whom, together with young workers, Maine sets its sights to build and sustain future businesses, as well as to help reverse our aging population trend

  • People who would be first-time home buyers if not for the high prices and housing shortages that make home ownership increasingly out of reach — a trend not limited to Maine, but is nationwide

    These groups have now joined the people already seeking access to housing they can afford, in addition to low income earners, the unemployed, disabled folks, and un-homed people in Maine.

The math at the state level

The State of Maine Housing Production Needs Study published in October 2023 found that Maine needs roughly 38,500 homes to make up for what was never built, plus another 37,900 to 45,800 by 2030 to keep pace with expected growth. That’s 76,400 to 84,300 homes, or 8,500 to 9,300 every year. Maine currently permits about 4,800 a year, so meeting the need would take a 77 to 94 percent increase in permitting.

Those numbers are identified because Maine's 2022 housing statute, LD 2003, required the state to measure how many homes it actually needs, and it opened the supply side at the same time by requiring towns to allow accessory dwelling units where housing is already permitted. The 2025 follow-on went further and barred towns from requiring that the owner live on the lot. The state has decided that small, scattered, homeowner-built units are part of the answer.

One other number tells the story better than any of those. The availability rate is the share of homes actually vacant and ready for someone to move into. A healthy market runs around 5 percent. Maine is at 2.3 percent, and the Coastal Region, which includes Hancock County, is at 2.1. That‘s not a market; it’s a waitlist.

Short-term rentals don’t drive Maine’s reality

The study counted short-term rentals, too. In Hancock County, active short-term rentals made up close to 10 percent of the total housing stock, which is the highest concentration in the state. About a third of that inventory is the size and quality that could plausibly serve as year-round housing, so that’s roughly 3 percent of the county's stock.

Statewide, short-term rentals genuinely comparable to naturally-occurring affordable housing run between 0.6 and 1.4 percent of the housing supply, depending on the region. So no, short-term rentals are not the cause of the problem. But in the towns where the pressure is worst, they’re not a rounding error, either.

Short-term rental owners can still help

We, who own additional assets, second homes, ADUs, the ability to hire at fair wages, or simply the ability to petition or vote, can and should help close the gap. Can do.