Home With Tom Landry

Home With Tom Landry Real Estate Tips & Tricks! Founder of Benchmark Real Estate & Cornerstone Building & Restoration! Follow along for tips and tricks of the real estate industry.

Home with Tom Landry is for all things Maine real estate and beyond! Check out my new podcast on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/25CGsYlFXkSIhl4l8s1wpw?si=d0a5d46c7bd14e6c

It’s an honor and a privilege to sell some of greater Portland’s most remarkable homes. What’s humbling - being called b...
01/26/2025

It’s an honor and a privilege to sell some of greater Portland’s most remarkable homes. What’s humbling - being called back by the new owners to help them restore and reimagine. Yes, you can honor the past while ensuring your historic home meets todays lifestyle. From near zero maintenance exteriors and safe and super efficient systems to interiors that are both functional and fabulous my team can help. .br

The mystical Portland of the past….  We can’t close our city to new arrivals and we shouldn’t. We also shouldn’t pine fo...
01/19/2025

The mystical Portland of the past….

We can’t close our city to new arrivals and we shouldn’t. We also shouldn’t pine for the magical, mysterious Portland of the past. I grew up here and I’d love to know when that ideal time was. Clearly the city has changed and in many/most ways the change has been for the better. Does change cause strain - yes. But it’s good strain vs recession, depression and a city in decline (our cities plight until very recent).

Want to keep the ‘soul’ of the city alive? Want more families, student and singles of all ages, races and at all income levels in all our communities? Want to ensure small, medium and large business survive and thrive? Want to help with inflation and housing affordability? Want to help with climate change? WE NEED MORE MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT.

Let’s get beyond social shaming, the quick reply, the blame game… to a place of informed opinions and maybe even personal involvement in the solutions.

Learn how we got here.
- Read my book Priced Out of Portland by visiting

Help solve the problem.
- Invest (personally or in groups) that are bringing much needed housing and small commercial spaces to our area. Learn more at: www.investlocal.me
- Join boards like Planning and Historic Preservation. These citizen lead boards that require no expertise in the topic are either wield the power approve, delay or deny the construction of much needed housing. The city has several board positions open right now. https://portlandmaine.gov/
- Contact Planning Staff to thank and congratulate them on ReCode and ask them to do more to up-zone more areas to allow for more density.
- Contact the Mayor an city counselors and push them to recall The Green New Deal and all inclusionary housing penalties/disincentives. Then are able to make this change this year and revers something that should never have been passed 5 years ago. This alone has been the biggest impediment and deterrent to new/more housing.

Portland Multi-Families Numbers 2024. This segment of the market remained relatively unchanged in 2024, with modest gain...
01/19/2025

Portland Multi-Families Numbers 2024. This segment of the market remained relatively unchanged in 2024, with modest gains in price.
- Median sale price = $822,500, up from $805,000 in 2023, a 2.2% increase
- Number of sales = 92, up from 83 in 2023, a 10.8% increase
- Median days on market = 13, down from 14 days, a 7.1% decrease

Our housing crisis. I take on this complex and complicated topic in my book Priced Out of Portland. Read the eBook here ...
01/17/2025

Our housing crisis. I take on this complex and complicated topic in my book Priced Out of Portland. Read the eBook here

Although Portland centric (where the problem is most acute) the concepts are universal and applicable state wide and nationally. Other city’s around the country have experienced re-urbanization, population growth and gentrification and the strain it brings long before us. What worked well for them and what didn’t. We have to look to these real life studies vs believing, as we often do here as fiercely independent Mainers, that ‘…we don’t need outsiders to tell us…’.

When you look at independent, peer reviewed, and non partisan studies it’s clear that inclusionary housing (forcing builders to build affordable unit or pay a fee if they don’t) doesn’t work. In fact, the more well indented but chronically under and ill-informed elected officials try to help - they hurt. This is born-out time and again and this is the case in Maine’s largest city, Portland. In summary those building fewer units (9 or less) have no penalty while those how might want to make a bigger impact (build more rental or condo units) get taxed/disincentivized with a nearly $200k per unit penalty.

WANT MORE HOUSING - remove barriers and penalties and don’t dictate to developers. More housing is more housing and more, hopefully much more and any and all price and rental levels (yes if developers build the upper price on for sale and for rent it will help affordability as it’s adding inventory and meeting a greater portion of the demand) will help. It’s simply really - more supply helps meet and offset demand.

Want to help with affordability and prevent more sprawl - read my book to get informed and apply pressure on your community to up-zone community centers (to prevent sprawl (which it terrible in every way) and be sure we remove barriers to building and expedite permitting.

Our housing crisis. I take on this complex and complicated topic in my book Priced Out of Portland. Read the eBook here ...
01/17/2025

Our housing crisis. I take on this complex and complicated topic in my book Priced Out of Portland. Read the eBook here

Although Portland centric (where the problem is most acute) the concepts are universal and applicable state wide and nationally. Other city’s around the country have experienced re-urbanization, population growth and gentrification and the strain it brings long before us. What worked well for them and what didn’t. We have to look to these real life studies vs believing, as we often do here as fiercely independent Mainers, that ‘…we don’t need outsiders to tell us…’.

When you look at independent, peer reviewed, and non partisan studies it’s clear that inclusionary housing (forcing builders to build affordable unit or pay a fee if they don’t) doesn’t work. In fact, the more well indented but chronically under and ill-informed elected officials try to help - they hurt. This is born-out time and again and this is the case in Maine’s largest city, Portland. In summary those building fewer units (9 or less) have no penalty while those how might want to make a bigger impact (build more rental or condo units) get taxed/disincentivized with a nearly $200k per unit penalty.

WANT MORE HOUSING - remove barriers and penalties and don’t dictate to developers. More housing is more housing and more, hopefully much more and any and all price and rental levels (yes if developers build the upper price on for sale and for rent it will help affordability as it’s adding inventory and meeting a greater portion of the demand) will help. It’s simply really - more supply helps meet and offset demand.

Want to help with affordability and prevent more sprawl - read my book to get informed and apply pressure on your community to up-zone community centers (to prevent sprawl (which it terrible in every way) and be sure we remove barriers to building and expedite permitting.

2024 Single Family Stats, Portland. While prices increased there were more listings, more sales and homes took longer to...
01/16/2025

2024 Single Family Stats, Portland. While prices increased there were more listings, more sales and homes took longer to sell (welcome news for buyers).
- Median sale price = $585,000, up from $550,000 in 2023, a 6.3% increase
- Number of sales = 423, up from 365 in 2023, a 15.9% increase
- Median sale price per sq. ft. = $374, up from $356 in 2023, a 5.1% increase
- Median days on market = 7, up from 6 days in 2023, a 16.7% increase

Portland Condo Numbers 2024. We observed a significant increase in both median sale prices and number of sales, largely ...
01/13/2025

Portland Condo Numbers 2024. We observed a significant increase in both median sale prices and number of sales, largely attributed to a few large developments rather than the overall market trend.
- Median Sale Price: $629,000 (up from $525,000 in 2023, a 19.8% increase)
- Number of Sales: 381 (up from 289 in 2023, a 31.8% increase)
- Median Sale Price per Sq. Ft.: $551 (up from $544 in 2023, a 1.3% increase)
- Median Days on Market: 14 (up from 7 days in 2023, a 100% increase)

Full report: https://mailchi.mp/benchmarkmaine/january25

Selling a condo in Portland? Reach out! 207-775-0248 / [email protected]

Address

72 Pine Street #16
Portland, ME
04102

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