Home sales in the state of Maine saw a big bounce last month, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reports, with 815 homes selling in the month as compared with just 558 in March of 2009 (" Maine Home Sales Show Strong Gains"). Nationally, home sales were up 27%. Mike Wood, vice president of Bangor-based Woods of Maine, Inc., told the Bangor Daily News that his crews are busy banging nails (" Maine contractors see housing growth in 2010," by Nick Sambides, Jr.). Wood has eight houses underway in two subdivisions, priced in starter-home territory at $119,900 to $169,900, he told the paper. Other sources told the Daily News that the recovery, if any, was coming slowly. But according to Wood, aiming at a moderate price point is a good way to catch the wave. “If you can keep a house for below $189,900, you can sell houses all day,” Wood told the paper. “If you sell a house for above that, you can plan on sitting on it for awhile.” For some builders, adjusting to the new statewide building code could be a stumbling block. Maine is set to start enforcing the 2009 International Building Code and International Residential Code effective June 1, 2010. The city of Bangor already enforces the 2003 IBC and IRC, so builders there will have to make relatively few major adjustments. But more than 100 Maine cities and towns have no building code at all, according to TV station WCSH (" Maine builders readying for new construction standards," by Ken Christian). For those small-town builders, the switch could be a little tougher. The state has yet to even publish the new code, WCSH says. For information, check the website of the Maine Bureau of Building Codes and Standards.
