Brooks, Maine.
Typical home $281,980 (+4.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$920 (+164%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,410 +4%
- $270,569$281,980 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $70,284 +33%
- $211,696$281,980 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.
- Brooks$1,480
- 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 Brooks, ME rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Brooks, Waldo County, Maine
Brooks is a town of 1,010 people in Waldo County. Half its households earn more than $59,130 a year and half less, against $72,782 across Waldo County. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Waldo County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Brooks is a small town in Waldo County, Maine, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by a smaller group of adults than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Across Waldo County, some of the largest workplaces are Waldo County General Hospital, RSU 71 Schools and Mathews Brothers Company. A typical commute is a fairly long one, though some people work from home.
Things to do. Lake Passagassawakeag lies in or beside town, and Swan Lake, a reservoir, is a short drive away. For a longer drive, Fort Knox is a historic fort, and Penobscot Marine Museum is a museum with a seafaring focus.
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- 520households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 25 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Waldo County had 11,300 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 57°. About 72 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Belfast weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Waldo County
- Waldo County General HospitalCritical access hospital520FTE
- RSU 71 SchoolsSchool district368FTE
- Mathews Brothers CompanyWindows and window frames, vinyl, manufacturing297
- RSU 03/msad 03 SchoolsSchool district245FTE
- HannafordGrocery stores218
- Mowi USASeafood and seafood products manufacturing171
- Robbins LumberBeams, wood, made from logs or bolts145
- RSU 20 SchoolsSchool district139FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,113 people in all across the county; Brooks has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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 weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Waldo County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Waldo County.
Brooks home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brooks$281,980
- Maine$412,002
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Brooks8
Zip codes with a Brooks address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brooks — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.