Penobscot, Maine.
Typical home $337,493 (-1.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$795 (+81%) since May 2021.
- 1 year
- Down $5,836 -2%
- $343,329$337,493 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,770 +13%
- $299,723$337,493 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.
- Penobscot$1,771
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 29 years.
Typical home values in Penobscot, ME fell 1.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Penobscot, Hancock County, Maine
Penobscot is a town of 1,136 people in Hancock County. Half its households earn more than $63,194 a year and half less, against $72,744 across Hancock County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. 84% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 16% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Penobscot is a small coastal Maine town where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, a far stronger pattern than most places. Household incomes run below the county's, and a noticeable part of the population lives below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild and warm in July, with plenty of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly 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, Walmart and Ellsworth Public Schools. The typical commute is a moderate one, and the county's unemployment rate has stayed steady over the past year.
Things to do. A short drive away, Fort Knox is a historic fort and Fort Point State Park is a protected shoreline area, and the Penobscot River is close by as well. Acadia National Park, a national park, is a longer drive away and well worth the trip.
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- 531households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
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 30° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 57°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the East Surry weather station, 12 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; Penobscot 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.
Penobscot home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Penobscot$337,493
- 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.
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.
- Penobscot9
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Penobscot address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Penobscot — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.