Augusta, Maine.
Typical home $276,497 (+0.4% in a year), asking rent $1,549 (+4.2%). Augusta-Waterville, ME metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$902 (+164%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,226 +0%
- $275,271$276,497 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $68,334 +33%
- $208,163$276,497 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Augusta$1,451
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Augusta, ME rose 0.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Augusta, ME rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Augusta runs $450/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $678 in May 2024.
That is $1,999 a month against $1,549 rent: a $1,451 mortgage payment, plus $252 property tax and $296 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Augusta
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,999
- Renting$1,549
- Mortgage only$1,451
Property tax · $252/mo 1.09% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Kennebec County, ME
Insurance & upkeep · $296/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Augusta, Kennebec County, Maine
Augusta is a city of 18,899 people in Kennebec County. Half its households earn more than $47,979 a year and half less, against $69,077 across Kennebec County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Augusta was 3.3% in August 2026, and Kennebec County had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Augusta is the capital of Maine and a small city on the Kennebec River, home to people who are older on the whole than the typical American. Household incomes here run well below the county's, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect in a place this size. More homes are lived in by their owners than rented, though renting is common too, and winters are cold and snowy while summers stay mild to warm.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, government and professional and business services also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Augusta are Central Maine Power Company, the University of Maine at Augusta and Augusta Public Schools. Commutes are fairly short, and some people work from home. Jobs across Kennebec County have slipped slightly over the past year, while unemployment in town has stayed about where it was a year earlier.
Things to do. Fort Western, a historic fort, and Viles Arboretum, a botanical garden, are both in or beside town. The Maine State Museum is a short drive away, and so is Webber Pond, a reservoir. For a longer drive, Colby College Museum of Art is an art museum, and Maranacook Lake is a reservoir that gets visitors in the warmer months.
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- 9,453households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kennebec County had 62,270 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 60°. About 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Augusta State Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Augusta
- Central Maine Power CompanyDistribution of electric power515
- University of Maine at AugustaUniversity or college481
- Augusta Public SchoolsSchool district449FTE
- Foodservice Northcenter368
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters361
- NRF DistributorsHomefurnishings merchant wholesalers272
- MaineGeneral Rehab Long Term Care GlenridgeNursing homes226
- Brookfield Renewable Power NEROC OperationsHydroelectric power generation200
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 38 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,633 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Augusta’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Kennebec County and the Augusta-Waterville, ME metro.
Augusta home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Augusta$276,497
- Maine$412,002
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Augusta listings, and the typical home goes pending in 27 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Augusta33.58%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Augusta88
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Augusta27
Zip codes with a Augusta address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Augusta — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.