Orient, Maine.
Typical home $194,496 (+7.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$494 (+94%) since May 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,077 +8%
- $180,418$194,496 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $35,262 +22%
- $159,234$194,496 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.
- Orient$1,021
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Orient, ME rose 7.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Orient, Aroostook County, Maine
Orient is a town of 156 people in Aroostook County. 94% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 6% are rented. Unemployment in Aroostook County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Aroostook 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Orient is a very small town in Aroostook County, in the far east of Maine, and most people here know their neighbors. Nearly every home is lived in by its owner, a much higher share than across the county, and typical home values are modest. Winters are long, cold and very snowy, summers are pleasantly warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in manufacturing, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Aroostook County, the largest workplaces include THE Aroostook Medical Center, Cary Medical Center and Walmart. The county has lost a little ground in jobs over the past year, and unemployment there has risen slightly.
Things to do. East Grand Lake is a reservoir a short drive away, and the East Branch Mattawamkeag River, also a short drive off, suits a quiet afternoon by the water. Spednic Lake is a longer drive away and worth the trip for time on a larger lake. For an indoor outing, the Island Falls Opera House, a theatre, is also a longer drive.
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What people in Aroostook County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Aroostook County had 25,657 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 2°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 54°. About 96 inches of snow and 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Danforth weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Aroostook County
- THE Aroostook Medical CenterGeneral hospital807FTE
- Cary Medical CenterGeneral hospital352FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters337
- RSU 79/msad 01 SchoolsSchool district332FTE
- Houlton Regional HospitalCritical access hospital279FTE
- Northern Maine Medical CenterGeneral hospital253FTE
- RSU 39 SchoolsSchool district221FTE
- RSU 29/msad 29 SchoolsSchool district216FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 63 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,609 people in all across the county; Orient 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 weatherVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively 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 Aroostook 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 Aroostook County.
Orient home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Orient$194,496
- 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.
Zip codes with a Orient address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Orient — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.