Brewer, Maine.
Typical home $301,794 (+2.7% in a year), asking rent $1,433 . Bangor, ME metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$972 (+159%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,856 +3%
- $293,939$301,794 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $79,546 +36%
- $222,248$301,794 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.
- Brewer$1,584
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Brewer, ME rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Brewer, Penobscot County, Maine
Brewer is a city of 9,672 people in Penobscot County. Half its households earn more than $66,613 a year and half less, against $66,356 across Penobscot County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Brewer was 3.3% in August 2026, and Penobscot 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Brewer is a small Maine city on the east bank of the Penobscot River, across from Bangor. Incomes are close to the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners, though a good number are rented. Winters are long, cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are pleasantly warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Brewer are UPS, Brewer Public Schools and the Lafayette Cancer Center. Commutes are short, and unemployment has edged up a little over the past year.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Maine Discovery Museum is a children's museum, and the University of Maine Museum of Art is an art museum. Kenduskeag Stream runs through the area, and a short drive away the Penobscot Experimental Forest is a protected area for walking. Fort Knox and Pushaw Lake are a longer drive away.
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- 4,250households
- 35%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Penobscot County had 71,782 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 59°. About 75 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bangor International Airport weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Brewer
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services325
- Brewer Public SchoolsSchool district318FTE
- Lafayette Cancer CenterCancer hospitals282
- HannafordGrocery stores205
- Brewer Center for Health and RehabilitationSkilled nursing facilities150
- Somic America150
- CompotechLaminated plastics plate, rod, and sheet, manufacturing81
- Southworth MiltonHeavy equip sales service67
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 21 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,796 people in all. School districts come 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 in parts of BrewerRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Brewer’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 Penobscot County and the Bangor, ME metro.
Brewer home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brewer$301,794
- 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 2 Brewer listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Brewer40.24%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Brewer37
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Brewer12
Zip codes with a Brewer address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brewer — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.