Exeter, Maine.
Typical home $216,849 (+3.3% in a year). Bangor, ME metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$695 (+157%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,833 +3%
- $210,017$216,849 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,834 +32%
- $164,016$216,849 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.
- Exeter$1,138
- 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 Exeter, ME rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Exeter, Penobscot County, Maine
Exeter is a town of 963 people in Penobscot County. Half its households earn more than $84,408 a year and half less, against $66,356 across Penobscot County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 93% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 7% are rented. Unemployment in Penobscot County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Penobscot County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Exeter is a very small Maine town, home to fewer people than most places on this site. Nearly everyone owns the home they live in, far more than across Penobscot County as a whole, and household incomes run well above the county's. Winters are long and cold, with a great deal of snow, and summers are mild and pleasantly warm.
Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Penobscot County, some of the largest workplaces are Eastern Maine Medical Center, the University of Maine and Husson University. Commutes are on the long side, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. The closest place on the list is the Sebasticook Lake Fishweir Complex, a lake a short drive away. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Eaton Mountain, a ski area that suits the snowy winters, and to Pushaw Lake. Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, also a longer drive away, is a protected area for walking and watching wildlife.
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- 447households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 35 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Penobscot County 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 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 58°. About 72 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Corinna weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Penobscot County
- Eastern Maine Medical CenterGeneral hospital3,272FTE
- University of MaineUniversity or college2,590
- St Joseph HospitalGeneral hospital902FTE
- Husson UniversityUniversity or college645
- Bangor Public SchoolsSchool district583FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters517
- RSU 19 SchoolsSchool district507FTE
- Acadia HospitalPsychiatric hospital483FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 174 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 18,783 people in all across the county; Exeter has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges 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 stormsVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Penobscot County, 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.
Exeter home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Exeter$216,849
- 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.
- Exeter5
Zip codes with a Exeter address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Exeter — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.