Maine News Updates

CAMDEN -- Real estate agents see reasons for optimism as home sales inch up in Maine’s midcoast area.

Ellis Cohn says his firm, Jaret & Cohn, sold more houses in February than during the same month last year. Cohn says that surprised him, given the snowy weather and general malaise in the market.

In Belfast, Esther Darres of Realty of Maine also sounded optimistic. Darres said the phone’s been ringing off the wall as bargains appear on her books.

Knox County, which includes the coastal communities of Camden and Rockland, had Maine’s second-highest drop in median home prices — about 40 percent — between the three-month period of November 2007 to January 2008 and the same quarter a year later.