Gardiner, Maine.
Typical home $285,311 (-4.4% in a year), asking rent $1,512 . Augusta-Waterville, ME metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$915 (+157%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $12,992 -4%
- $298,304$285,311 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,128 +27%
- $224,184$285,311 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.
- Gardiner$1,498
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Gardiner, ME fell 4.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Gardiner, Kennebec County, Maine
Gardiner is a city of 5,961 people in Kennebec County. Half its households earn more than $71,782 a year and half less, against $69,077 across Kennebec County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Gardiner was 3.6% 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 restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Gardiner is a small city in Kennebec County with a population a little under the size of many mid-sized towns, and its residents skew somewhat older than the national picture. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little above the county's. Winters are long and cold, with heavy snowfall, and summers are warm without being hot.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in restaurants and hotels, professional and business services, and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Gardiner are Maine Drilling and Blasting, the local school district and Hannaford. Commutes are fairly long, and some residents work from home; jobs across the county have slipped slightly in the past year.
Things to do. Fort Western is a historic fort a short drive away, and the Maine State Museum is also close by. For time outdoors, Cobbosseecontee Lake is a short drive away, and Viles Arboretum, a botanical garden, is nearby too.
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- 2,730households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 14%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 30° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 60°. About 69 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Gardiner weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Gardiner
- Maine Drilling and BlastingBlasting, construction site575
- RSU 11/msad 11 SchoolsSchool district423FTE
- HannafordGrocery stores134
- UpliftGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability119
- GardinerMail and parcel delivery27
- New CommunitiesMental health facilities, residential20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 875 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Gardiner’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.
Gardiner home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gardiner$285,311
- 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 Gardiner listings — 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.
- Gardiner29.60%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Gardiner35
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Gardiner12
Zip codes with a Gardiner address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gardiner — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.