Maine houses sit on extra land than these in nearly all different states, a research launched Thursday discovered.
Averaging a bit of over 1 acre, median property sizes within the state are the third-largest within the U.S., are a product of the state’s agrarian historical past and sparse inhabitants, in keeping with the research by on-line dwelling restore web site Angi. Solely Vermont at 1.8 acres per median property and New Hampshire at 1.1 acres beat Maine. The U.S. common was about one-third acre per property.
The research comes at a time when property sizes all through the nation are shrinking, particularly for brand new building and in city facilities, the research discovered. On the similar time, Maine has seen a land seize. After the actual property market heated up early within the pandemic, dwelling costs shot up amid proper stock, inflicting an inflow of individuals searching for to purchase land in Maine.
Including to the recognition, land costs in Maine had been among the many lowest within the nation at $7.17 per sq. foot, coming in third to final on the survey. Angi analyzed knowledge from greater than 393,000 for-sale listings throughout the nation on the actual property web site Zillow in Could 2022.
It is smart that northern New England would have roomy properties, State Historian Earle Shettleworth stated.
“Maine is as giant as the opposite New England states put collectively, so traditionally there was a great deal of land obtainable for individuals to amass and develop,” he stated.
Within the 18th by early twentieth centuries, Maine was closely agricultural, which elevated the dimensions of land possession to maintain farming livelihoods. Shettleworth stated a number of improvement came about when individuals pushed out into rural areas to farm within the 40 years from when Maine grew to become a state in 1820 till the beginning of the Civil Struggle.
Some U.S. states, together with Maine, have zoning legal guidelines that set up minimal lot sizes to accommodate important infrastructure in rural areas reminiscent of septic tanks or ingesting wells, the research famous.
Maine’s statewide zoning regulation requires any lot with a septic tank should be not less than 20,000 sq. ft, or half an acre, driving up the dimensions of the typical parcel. Many different areas of the nation have extra public sewers that don’t require the additional land. The median lot measurement in Maine is 45,738 sq. ft, or 1.05 acres, the third largest of any state.
In Vermont, many municipalities have enacted minimal lot measurement zoning legal guidelines to guard pure habitats and preserve land open for agriculture and forestry. Many cities have specifically zoned large-lot rural districts, the place heaps should be between 25 acres and 50 acres. The median lot measurement in Vermont is 78,408 sq. ft or 1.8 acres, greater than 10 occasions the median lot measurement in Nevada and the biggest of any state.
Shettleworth stated zoning and land-use planning are comparatively new developments, and northern New England’s beneficiant property sizes stem from it being closely rural, forested and agricultural.
“Historic developments over an extended time period have so much to do with why we’re the place we at the moment are,” he stated.
