Otis, Maine.
Typical home $387,086 (+7.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,166 (+135%) since Apr 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $28,342 +8%
- $358,744$387,086 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $67,481 +21%
- $319,605$387,086 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.
- Otis$2,032
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Otis, ME rose 7.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Otis, Hancock County, Maine
Otis is a town of 673 people in Hancock County. 90% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 10% are rented. Unemployment in Hancock County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most people in Hancock County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Otis is a very small town in Hancock County, where most residents are older than in a typical American community and nearly all of them own the homes they live in. Incomes sit a little below the county's, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild and pleasantly warm.
Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in professional and business services, shops, and restaurants and hotels. Across Hancock County, some of the largest workplaces are Maine Coast Memorial Hospital, Ellsworth Public Schools and Walmart. Commutes are long, so most people travel some distance to their jobs, and few work from home.
Things to do. Beech Hill Pond is a lake in or beside town, and Fitts Pond, another lake, is a short drive away. The East Branch Union River and the West Branch Union River are both a short drive off for time by the water. For a longer outing, Acadia National Park is a longer drive away, as is the Abbe Museum.
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- 35%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 42 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What people in Hancock County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hancock County had 23,626 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 58°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Orono weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hancock County
- Maine Coast Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital405FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters379
- Ellsworth Public SchoolsSchool district312FTE
- Mount Desert Island HospitalCritical access hospital311FTE
- RSU 25 SchoolsSchool district268FTE
- The Talaria CompanyBoat yards241
- RSU 24 SchoolsSchool district213FTE
- HannafordGrocery stores200
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 31 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,350 people in all across the county; Otis has one 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Hancock 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 Hancock County.
Otis home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Otis$387,086
- 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.
- Otis5
Zip codes with a Otis address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Otis — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.