Building a Baseline: What Maine’s First Year of Housing Production Data Tells Us

How much housing is actually getting built, what type, and where? For most states, that question is surprisingly hard to answer. Maine is the latest in a growing list of states, including California, Connecticut, and Oregon, that are addressing this challenge by requiring local governments to report annual housing production data.

In 2025, the Maine Legislature passed LD 1184, requiring municipalities with populations of 4,000 or more to submit standardized housing production data to the state, including residential building permits, certificates of occupancy, and demolition permits. The legislation was designed to help Maine track progress toward its housing goals and measure the impact of state efforts to increase production.

The first year of data is now in, and while the dataset will grow more powerful with each year of reporting, several findings already stand out:

• Maine exceeded its 2025 housing permitting target, permitting approximately 7,500 homes statewide.
• Housing growth per capita is concentrated in recreation and seasonal communities, raising important questions about whether housing production is occurring at sufficient scale in many of Maine’s workforce and employment centers.
• The data establishes a baseline for measuring the impact of statewide housing reforms, including efforts to encourage ADUs, multifamily housing, and other missing middle housing types.
• The process was fast and easy for local governments—the process took most municipalities less than an hour to complete, and 90% of required municipalities complied.

Is Maine on Track to Meet Its Housing Goals?

Maine exceeded its 2025 production target, as measured by housing permits.In 2024, HR&A estimated that Maine will need more than 84,000 new homes by 2030 to meet projected demand and address existing shortages.¹ In response, the state established annual statewide housing production targets that ramp up over time,² beginning with a goal of permitting 6,900 homes in 2025.

Using locally reported data where available and Census Building Permit Survey (BPS) data elsewhere, Maine permitted approximately 7,499 homes in 2025, exceeding its annual target by roughly 599 units, or 9 percent. After accounting for 518 demolition permits, the estimated net increase in permitted homes was approximately 6,981 units.

While permits are the current metric the state is using to track production, it is not a perfect measure because not all permitted homes actually get built. Certificates of occupancy provide a better measure of housing delivery, but the first year of reporting revealed that only 61% of municipalities currently issue them. Expanding certificate of occupancy reporting will be an important next step as the State’s program matures.

Where Is Housing Being Built?

The highest housing production rates, measured on a per-capita basis, are concentrated in lower-population recreation and seasonal communities rather than Maine’s employment centers. While recreation-oriented communities face significant housing pressures of their own, these findings raise important questions about whether housing growth is occurring at sufficient scale in the communities where workforce housing demand is greatest and where employers are reporting challenges attracting and retaining workers.

Maine’s second-largest metro, Lewiston-Auburn, is collectively producing around 3 to 4 permits per 1,000 residents; Augusta is at 2.2; Bangor is at 1.0 permit per 1,000 residents. Meanwhile, small ski towns and lake communities are producing at 10 times or more those rates, for a housing stock that largely serves second-home buyers, seasonal workers, and visitors.

What Types of Homes Are Being Built?

In 2022, Maine passed landmark housing legislation, LD 2003, which allows property owners to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in residential areas and up to two to four units on lots zoned for single-family housing statewide. One of the most valuable aspects of the new reporting system is that it will allow Maine to track whether these reforms and others are translating into more diverse housing production patterns over time.

In 2025, single-family homes accounted for 62% of all permits issued. Large multifamily developments (5+ units) accounted for 20%, while ADUs and small multifamily buildings (2–4 units) represented 7% and 6% respectively.

• Greater Portland and the Androscoggin Valley are seeing the most diverse mix of development types. In Greater Portland, production was split between single-family homes (43%), large multifamily developments (37%), ADUs (9%), and small multifamily buildings (10%). The Androscoggin Valley similarly shows a substantial 5+ unit share (31%), concentrated in Lewiston. These two regions account for the bulk of Maine’s non-single-family production.
• ADU production was particularly strong in the South Coast (12%) and Greater Portland (9%). Municipalities with the highest share of ADU permits included Lyman (43%), New Gloucester (40%), Buxton (33%), and Arundel (32%).
• Larger multifamily properties (5+ units) were almost entirely driven by seven municipalities, each with 50 or more large multifamily units: Portland (479), Biddeford (169), Lewiston (152), Sanford (122), Bath (98), Windham (74), and Westbrook (62).
• Affordable housing production is concentrated in a small number of communities. Only 12 municipalities reported permitting any income-restricted affordable housing units in 2025 (13% of total permits). Portland and Lewiston alone accounted for 528 (73%) of all 722 reported affordable housing production statewide.

This first year of data establishes the baseline. As reporting continues, the state will be able to track whether production is diversifying and whether affordable pipelines are expanding beyond the communities that are currently reporting.

Looking Ahead

The first year of reporting demonstrates the value of investing in better housing data. For the first time, Maine has a statewide system capable of tracking not only how much housing is being permitted, but also what types of housing are being built and where growth is occurring.

This first year also showed that statewide reporting proved manageable for local governments. In total, 182 municipalities submitted local housing data, including 79 of the 88 municipalities required to report by state law and many smaller municipalities that participated voluntarily. Most municipalities completed the reporting process in less than an hour, and the majority did not seek the reimbursement they were entitled to receive, suggesting local governments are bought into the value of collecting this data.

While the data shows Maine exceeded its 2025 housing production target, it also highlights important questions about affordability, housing diversity, and whether housing growth is occurring in the communities where it is needed most. As the state’s production targets ramp up over time, this information will be essential for helping state and local leaders understand where progress is being made and where additional action may be needed.

1. ¹ HR&A Advisors, State of Maine Housing Production Needs Study (October 2023).
2. ² Housing Opportunity Program, Statewide and Regional Housing Production Goals (September 2024).