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Northeast state the super-rich are now flocking to because there's space to build
Wealthy Americans have descended on Maine to buy waterfront real estate - in some cases building whole compounds on picturesque plots of land.
The median sale price last year for single-family homes on lakes or ponds in the state was $415,000, a 72 percent increase from 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.
That jump has translated into more luxury homes being sold, as well.
'We've seen a ton more $2 million to $4 million sales [of Maine lake homes] over the last five years than most of us ever dreamed we would see,' said southern Maine real-estate agent John Scribner of LandVest.
Beyond buying existing homes, some new arrivals are constructing them from scratch, knocking down rustic cabins in favor of fancy lodges and nifty workshops.
Lake Sebago, a little over an hour's drive from Portland, has become a real estate hot spot in Maine
Houses line the shoreline of the Rangeley Lakes Region, over 100 miles north of Portland
While affluent Americans are just discovering Maine, the savviest real estate investors have known about its potential for years and got in early.
Last year, Kathleen Murphy, once a veteran executive at Fidelity Investments, sold her and her husband's 29-acre property on Jordan Bay for $8.5 million after buying it for $5.53 million in 2016.
The arrival of new-money types isn't sitting well with longtime locals like Randal Coulton, who has a 3,600-square-foot log house on an island in Moosehead Lake.
Coulton said he's witnessed large homes replace modest ones over the last 20 years and chastised new owners who've cleared trees to erect 'ungodly' lodges.
But even he understands why people are coming in droves.
'Maine has been the bargain for a long time and it's now being discovered and everyone wants a part of it,' he said. 'You can't blame them.'
Last year, Kathleen Murphy, once a veteran executive at Fidelity Investments, sold her and her husband's 29-acre property on Jordan Bay for $8.5 million after buying it for $5.53 million in 2016
A woman stretches on a dock at dawn on Lake Sebago
James and Catherine Ritter were first enticed by the majesty of America's northernmost contiguous state when they made it a summer tradition to bring their three children there for vacation, renting a place on the site of an old girls' camp.
The Ritters, now in their 60s, split their time between Maine and the Boston area and moved quite a bit when their kids were young.
But the one constant, Catherine said, 'was going to Maine for two weeks each summer.'
When James retired from his job in financial management, the couple felt it was finally time to buy a house in Maine. They liked the idea of recreating a camp-like experience for their now-grown children.
In 2011, they paid $800,000 for a 40-acre property on Hancock Pond that was previously part of a YWCA camp, complete with a lodge, three rustic cabins and an infirmary.
They kept many of the structures, transforming the lodge into a main house and the infirmary into a workshop. The cost of renovations came to roughly $2 million.
Moosehead Lake, seen in the height of autumn, is one of the largest mountain lakes in the U.S.
A view of Phillips Lake, another more northern lake in the state
Maine architect Chris Delano explained that replacing worn-out cabins with flashier real estate is his firm's specialty.
He said the pandemic helped bring more people to the state.
'COVID spurred the idea, "I can work from anywhere. It's beautiful here," 'he said.
The fear of climate change and erosion of shorelines is also driving some to the more than 6,000 lakes in Maine.
The Ricciardiellos, who are in their 70s, sold their beach house in Gloucester, Massachusetts for that exact reason in 2020.
They then spent $1.8 million on six-and-a-half acres in Jordan Bay, an inland body of water about an hour from Portland.
They have since built a four-bedroom house with a porch facing the water, and renovated three outbuildings they now use for boats and other storage space.
Joanne Ricciardiello said that their children are also gravitating toward the tranquil property, with one son already having built a 3,700-square-foot home there. A second son plans to build another house.
As areas like Lake Sebago and Jordan Bay see more construction, other wealthy homeowners are looking for even more privacy.
Aerial images of Frye Island on Lake Sebago
Houses on Frye Island dot the shoreline of Lake Sebago
A family enjoys a beach on Lake Sebago
Between 2015 and 2017, retirees Pat and Jodi Maley bought 150 acres on Moosehead Lake for $2.675 million.
Moosehead Lake, in the deep north of Maine, is also home to billionaire John Malone, the chairman of the telecommunications company Liberty Global.
Initially, the Maleys' property had simple 1920s house with a leaky roof, Pat Maley explained. They lived in it for several years before spending several million dollars to construct a new lodge and guesthouse.
'We wanted it to be substantial, but something that blended in well with the natural surroundings,' Pat Maley said.
The couple grew up on Lake Superior - Pat, 62, on the Canadian side and Jodi, 63, in Michigan - making lake people from the start.
Moosehead Lake is home to billionaire John Malone, the chairman of telecommunications company Liberty Global.
The town docks in Rangeley with boats and lakefront homes in the background
A boat ramp that leads into a lake in Belgrade, Maine, another Portland-adjacent town
The remote location of their new home made it difficult for the construction work to get done.
Their contractor, who also happens to be pilot, would sometimes land his water plane at the Maleys' dock to bring in supplies.
The couple even considered a substantial offer for the home - one that would have likely been the one of the state's priciest transactions of all time - but ultimately turned it down.
'We found one ranch in Montana that was maybe of interest,' said Pat Maley, noting that they would be giving up lakefront views for river frontage. 'It just wasn't enough to tip the scale and get us to leave.'