Wales, Maine.
Typical home $371,138 (+8.0% in a year). Lewiston-Auburn, ME metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,113 (+133%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,385 +8%
- $343,753$371,138 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $79,390 +27%
- $291,748$371,138 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.
- Wales$1,948
- 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 Wales, ME rose 8.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wales, Androscoggin County, Maine
Wales is a town of 1,608 people in Androscoggin County. Half its households earn more than $77,004 a year and half less, against $67,873 across Androscoggin County. 91% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 9% are rented. Unemployment in Androscoggin County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wales is a small Maine town where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and household incomes run higher than across Androscoggin County. The population is younger than in many New England towns, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild and pleasant by comparison.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, manufacturing, and professional and business services. The commute to work is a fairly long one, since many jobs are in the nearby cities. Across Androscoggin County, Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston Public Schools and Bates College are among the largest workplaces.
Things to do. The Dead River runs in or beside town, and the Little Androscoggin River and Cobbosseecontee Lake are a short drive away for time on the water. Bates College Museum of Art is also a short drive away and is a good stop on a snowy afternoon. Fort Western, a historic fort, is a longer drive.
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- 663households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 28 mintypical commute
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Androscoggin County had 48,382 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 62°. About 65 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lewiston weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Androscoggin County
- Central Maine Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,567FTE
- Lewiston Public SchoolsSchool district1,048FTE
- WalmartRefrigerated warehousing and storage914
- St. Marys Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital849FTE
- Bates CollegeUniversity or college758
- Procter & GambleSanitary napkins and tampons made from purchased paper or textile fiber557
- Auburn Public SchoolsSchool district512FTE
- RSU 52/msad 52 SchoolsSchool district496FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 126 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 14,409 people in all across the county; Wales has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Androscoggin 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 Androscoggin County and the Lewiston-Auburn, ME metro.
Wales home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wales$371,138
- 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.
- Wales6
Zip codes with a Wales address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wales — 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.