Thorndike, Maine.
Typical home $241,045 (+1.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$696 (+122%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,237 +1%
- $237,807$241,045 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,909 +16%
- $207,136$241,045 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.
- Thorndike$1,265
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Thorndike, ME rose 1.4% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Thorndike, Waldo County, Maine
Thorndike is a town of 774 people in Waldo County. Half its households earn more than $78,438 a year and half less, against $72,782 across Waldo County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Waldo County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Waldo 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Thorndike is a very small town in Waldo County, Maine, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Household incomes run above the county's, and fewer people live below the poverty line than you might expect for a rural town. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are mild and July is the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, professional and business services, and the building trades. Across Waldo County, some of the largest workplaces are Waldo County General Hospital, RSU 71 Schools and Mathews Brothers Company. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in many parts of the country, and the typical commute is a long one.
Things to do. Unity Pond and Lake Passagassawakeag are both lakes a short drive away, and Carlton Pond Waterfowl Production Area, also a short drive off, is a protected area for birds and other wildlife. For a longer outing, Fort Knox is a historic fort a longer drive away. Plenty of snow through the winter also makes the region suited to cold-weather pastimes.
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- 337households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 36 mintypical commute
What people in Waldo County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Waldo County had 11,300 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 57°. About 72 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Belfast weather station, 18 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Waldo County
- Waldo County General HospitalCritical access hospital520FTE
- RSU 71 SchoolsSchool district368FTE
- Mathews Brothers CompanyWindows and window frames, vinyl, manufacturing297
- RSU 03/msad 03 SchoolsSchool district245FTE
- HannafordGrocery stores218
- Mowi USASeafood and seafood products manufacturing171
- Robbins LumberBeams, wood, made from logs or bolts145
- RSU 20 SchoolsSchool district139FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,113 people in all across the county; Thorndike 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 weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Waldo County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Waldo County.
Thorndike home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Thorndike$241,045
- 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 Thorndike address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Thorndike — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.