If you’re a first-time home buyer in southern Maine, check the purchase price ceiling before you choose a program. MaineHousing’s First Home Loan caps a one-unit home at $565,000 in York and Cumberland counties. In August 2026 the median single-family house sold for $605,000 in York County and $615,000 in Cumberland.
That single mismatch explains why you can do everything right and still find that the program everyone recommended was never open to you. FHA has its own ceiling in those two counties at $615,250, which is $250 above the Cumberland median. Conventional financing runs all the way to Maine’s conforming limit of $832,750, the same figure in every county in the state.
So the useful question isn’t which program sounds best. It’s which ceiling your price range falls under, because that decides who you should call first.
The Three Ceilings, and Where Southern Maine Sits Against Them
Three numbers filter a first-time buyer in York or Cumberland County in 2026, and none of them is a program name.
| Ceiling | One-unit limit | Where it applies | What happens above it |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaineHousing First Home Loan purchase price | $565,000 | York County, the York/Kittery HMFA and all of Cumberland County. $525,000 elsewhere in Maine | MaineHousing is off the table for a one-unit home |
| FHA loan limit | $615,250 | York, Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties. $541,287 in every other Maine county | FHA financing stops |
| Conforming conventional limit | $832,750 | Every county in Maine. There is no high-cost county here | The loan becomes a jumbo, with its own guidelines |
| York County median sale price, August 2026 | $605,000 | The first month York County has ever recorded a median above $600,000 | Already $40,000 above the MaineHousing ceiling |
| Cumberland County median sale price, August 2026 | $615,000 | Portland and its ring | $50,000 above MaineHousing and $250 below the FHA limit |
Read the bottom two rows against the top two. The typical house sold in York County last month was out of MaineHousing’s reach. The typical house sold in Cumberland County was out of MaineHousing’s reach and within $250 of the top of FHA’s, so roughly half of everything that sold there costs more than an FHA loan covers at that limit, which means a bigger down payment. That is not an edge case, it’s the middle of the market.
What to do with that. Before you compare programs, write down the price you’ll realistically be bidding at, then find which of the three bands it falls in. That one step saves a week of chasing a lane that was never open.
The Price Cap Rules You Out Before Your Income Does
Southern Maine renters talk themselves out of MaineHousing with the wrong worry. Almost everyone says some version of “I probably make too much.” In York and Cumberland counties in 2026, that’s usually backwards.
The income limits are generous. Inside the Portland HMFA, which covers most of Cumberland County, MaineHousing allows $139,100 for a one or two person household and $159,965 for three or more. Inside the York/Kittery HMFA the figures are $132,900 and $152,835. Outside those two market areas the limits drop, to $115,754 and $133,117 in the rest of Cumberland County and $116,554 and $134,037 in the rest of York County, and to $105,000 and $120,750 in the rest of Maine.
Now look at the dates on the two charts, because they explain the whole problem. Those income limits carry an effective date of June 1, 2026. The purchase price limits you’re trying to fit under still carry an effective date of June 1, 2025. Incomes were re-measured this year. The price ceiling was not, and Maine’s statewide median rose 4.3 percent over the same twelve months.
So treat it as a two-gate test and check the price gate first. If your realistic offers land above $565,000, the income chart doesn’t matter, because the price cap has already done the disqualifying.
What to do with that. If a lender or a listicle asks about your income before asking your target price, they have the order backwards. Give them the price first.
The Multi-Family Door Is the One Nobody Points At
Here’s the part of MaineHousing’s own chart that almost nothing on page one mentions. The $565,000 ceiling is the ONE-UNIT figure. The two-unit ceiling in York and Cumberland is $625,000. Three-unit is $675,000. Four-unit is $775,000.
Set $625,000 next to the county medians. It’s above York’s $605,000 and above Cumberland’s $615,000. In other words, the most dependable way for a southern Maine first-time buyer to stay inside MaineHousing in 2026 is to buy a building with more than one unit in it and live in one of them.
That isn’t a trick, and it isn’t for everyone. Owning a two-family means being a landlord, which is a real job with real repairs and a real tenant. But a duplex in Biddeford, Saco or Sanford with a tenant covering part of the payment is a different financial position than a single-family house at the same price, and the state’s own program is priced to allow it when the single-family version is out of reach.
What to do with that. If you’re being priced out of one-unit MaineHousing by $20,000 or $40,000, ask what two-unit properties in your towns are listed at before you give up on the program. The ceiling moves $60,000 the moment the property has a second door.
What MaineHousing Gives the Buyer Who Fits, and Where to Get It
If your price is at or under the ceiling, MaineHousing is often the right answer and we’ll say so plainly.
The First Home Loan is a 30-year fixed mortgage. You count as a first-time buyer if you haven’t held an ownership interest in your principal home within the past three years, so a former owner can qualify again. The minimum credit score is 640. On top of that sit three add-ons worth knowing by name:
- Advantage puts $5,000 toward the cash you need at closing. It requires a minimum borrower contribution of 1 percent of the loan amount and completion of a hoMEworks-approved homebuyer education class before you close.
- SaluteME takes 0.50 percent off the First Home Loan 30-year fixed rate for active duty, veteran and retired military borrowers.
- First Generation provides $10,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to buyers who never lived in a home owned by a biological or legal guardian, or who experienced foster care.
One detail gets missed constantly. MaineHousing loans can pair with a government guaranty or with private mortgage insurance, but the private mortgage insurance route is a limited pilot with Arch MI available only for single-family homes and condominiums in Bangor, Lewiston, Auburn, Westbrook, Portland and South Portland. Shopping anywhere else in southern Maine, don’t assume the pilot applies to you.
What to do with that. MaineHousing First Home Loans are originated through MaineHousing’s own approved lender network. GoldCoast doesn’t originate them. If you fit under the ceiling and the income limits, call a MaineHousing-approved lender first. We’d rather tell you that than sell you something worse.
Above the Cap You’re Shopping Lenders, Not Programs
Being over $565,000 doesn’t mean you’ve missed out on anything. It means you’ve arrived where most southern Maine first-time buyers end up anyway, in ordinary conforming conventional financing with a one-unit ceiling of $832,750.
Low down payment options are there too. Conventional 97 financing allows 3 percent down for a first-time buyer with a credit score of at least 620, so a $600,000 purchase in the Portland-to-Kittery corridor can be over the MaineHousing ceiling, outside FHA territory, and still inside conforming with $18,000 down. Eligible service members and veterans have VA financing at zero down with no monthly mortgage insurance, under its own rules rather than these ceilings.
What changes above the cap is what you’re choosing. You’re no longer choosing a program with published terms, you’re choosing a lender. Conventional loans get priced differently by every lender that offers them, with different overlays on the same file. A bank shows you the loans that bank happens to sell. A broker prices your file across many wholesale lenders and shows you what comes back.
What to do with that. Have one person price the same inputs across several lenders and compare points and payment side by side, on paper. A pre-qualification costs nothing and gives you the real number instead of a range.
A County Median Won’t Warn You About Your Town
The county medians above are useful for reading the ceilings and close to useless for deciding what you can buy in a specific place, because southern Maine’s towns are not one market. In August 2026, more than one in five municipalities across York and Cumberland counties posted a median sale price above $800,000. Harpswell’s median was $1.42 million on four sales. Falmouth’s was $1.15 million on 27 sales. Kennebunkport and Ogunquit both cleared $1 million, and Kennebunk, Kittery, Chebeague Island, Freeport, Cumberland and Cape Elizabeth all topped $900,000. Maine’s statewide median was $424,550.
The wider market is quieter than those numbers suggest. Statewide, 1,542 single-family homes sold in August, roughly 10 percent fewer than in July and roughly 10 percent fewer than a year earlier, while active listings reached 6,258, the highest count since December 2019. Judy Oberg, president of the Maine Association of Realtors, put the volume drop down to the calendar, noting that a “late-summer cool down is not uncommon for the seasonally driven market.” More choice hasn’t translated into lower prices yet.
What to do with that. Pull the median for the actual town you’re shopping, not the county. If you’re looking in Kittery the county number will flatter you, and if you’re looking in Sanford it’ll scare you off for no reason.
Three Maine Costs a Massachusetts Buyer Has Never Met
Plenty of buyers in southern Maine are coming north from the New Hampshire seacoast or the Massachusetts North Shore. Three lines change at the state line.
You pay half the transfer tax. Maine’s real estate transfer tax is $2.20 per $500 of value and it’s split, half on the seller and half on the buyer. Your half is $1.10 per $500, which is 0.22 percent of the price, about $1,331 on a $605,000 house. Massachusetts buyers pay none of their state’s deed excise, so this is a brand new line on a Maine closing statement. On transfers on or after November 1, 2025, value above $1,000,000 carries an additional $3.80 per $500 on the excess. Our Maine closing costs calculator puts a real figure against your price.
The homestead exemption won’t reach your first tax bill. Maine takes up to $25,000 off the assessed value of a permanent residence, and the reduction applies before every mill rate, municipal, county and school alike. The catch is the timing. You must have owned a home in Maine for the twelve months before you apply, the home must be your permanent residence, and the application has to be filed with your municipality on or before April 1. Buy your first Maine home this year and the exemption isn’t on your first bill. Budget without it.
Your conforming limit drops when you cross the bridge. Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts carry a 2026 conforming limit of $962,550. Maine has no high-cost county at all, so every county here is at the national baseline of $832,750. That’s $129,800 less house financed on conforming terms, on the same income, twenty minutes up Route 1. The full county table is worth a look if you’re shopping both sides of the border.
One more thing that isn’t a cost so much as a question to ask. Maine has no statewide property tax rate. Every municipality sets its own mill rate each year and revalues on its own schedule, so two houses at the same price in two neighboring towns can carry very different tax bills. Ask for the town’s current mill rate and the year of its most recent revaluation before you write an offer, because a town that has recently revalued is assessing close to market and one that has not may be well below it. Our Maine mortgage calculators take the rate you’re given and turn it into a monthly number.
Your Next Call, Sorted by Price
- $565,000 or less on a one-unit home, or $625,000 or less on a two-unit: call a MaineHousing-approved lender and ask about the First Home Loan, then about Advantage, SaluteME and First Generation. GoldCoast doesn’t originate those loans, and if you fit here that call is your best first move.
- $565,001 to $615,250: MaineHousing is out for a one-unit purchase. Have someone map FHA against conventional for your exact file, and have a plan for what happens if the price moves, because near Cumberland’s median a small bump pushes you out of FHA entirely.
- $615,251 to $832,750: skip the headline programs and talk conforming conventional from the first conversation. This is the band where shopping one file across several lenders changes the outcome most.
- Above $832,750: you’re in jumbo territory, with its own guidelines, reserve requirements and approvals, and that is a conversation to have early rather than after an accepted offer.
Where GoldCoast Comes In
GoldCoast Mortgage Service is an independent mortgage broker in Beverly, on the Massachusetts North Shore, licensed by the Massachusetts Division of Banks, MB 1841, company NMLS 1841. We’re licensed in all three states a southern Maine buyer might be shopping across, holding New Hampshire Banking Department #8303-MBR and Maine #CSO5794 as well. John Donlon, who owns the company, holds NMLS #4931 and has spent more than 25 years financing homes across the North Shore, southern New Hampshire and southern Maine.
We’ll pre-qualify you at no cost and with nothing attached. You might find you’re inside MaineHousing’s ceiling, in which case we’ll point you at a MaineHousing-approved lender and you’ll never pay us anything. You might find a two-family in Biddeford puts the program back within reach. Or you might find conventional financing above the cap is where your file belongs, which is the part we can help with. Either way you’ll know which lane you’re in before you write offers. The towns we cover are on our service areas page, from Portland down to the border.
Questions Southern Maine First-Time Buyers Ask
Why does MaineHousing’s cap keep ruling out southern Maine buyers?
Because the ceiling has stood still while prices moved. The purchase price limits carry an effective date of June 1, 2025, and the August 2026 median single-family sale price was $605,000 in York County and $615,000 in Cumberland County. MaineHousing’s income limits were refreshed effective June 1, 2026, so in southern Maine it’s the price cap rather than your income that usually does the disqualifying.
Can I still use MaineHousing if houses in my town cost more than $565,000?
Possibly, if you buy a multi-unit property and live in one unit. MaineHousing’s ceiling rises to $625,000 for a two-unit, which is above both the York and the Cumberland county medians, then to $675,000 for three units and $775,000 for four. Being a landlord is a real commitment, but the program is priced to allow it when the single-family version is out of reach.
Should I call a MaineHousing-approved lender or a mortgage broker first?
Call whoever matches your price. If your realistic one-unit purchase price is $565,000 or less and you meet the credit and income rules, start with a MaineHousing-approved lender, because MaineHousing loans are originated through its own approved network and GoldCoast doesn’t originate them. Above the ceiling, a broker who prices your file across many wholesale lenders is the more useful call.
How much is Maine’s buyer-side transfer tax?
Maine charges $2.20 per $500 of value and splits it between buyer and seller, so a buyer pays $1.10 per $500, which is 0.22 percent of the price. On a $605,000 purchase that’s about $1,331. Value above $1,000,000 carries an additional $3.80 per $500 on the excess for transfers on or after November 1, 2025.
When do I get the Maine homestead exemption?
Not on your first bill. Maine reduces the assessed value of a permanent residence by up to $25,000, before every mill rate, but you must have owned a home in Maine for the twelve months before applying and must file with your municipality on or before April 1. A first-time buyer closing this year should budget without it.
Start where it costs nothing. Tell us the price range you’re shopping and we’ll tell you which ceiling you’re under and who should get your first call.