Home prices are up 79% in five years in this state — and it’s nowhere near Florida or Texas

However, the cold never bothered them.

Homebuyers are grabbing their winter gear and piling into faraway Maine — where they’ve driven the median home price up a chilling 78.5% in just five years, a new report finds.

According to findings recently published by industry news site Pro Tool Reviews, The Pine Tree State has experienced the most significant increase in median home prices of any of the fifty since 2019 – jumping from $219,000 to $391,000.

The explosive growth comes despite the fact that Maine’s population has grown by just 0.32% since 2008, according to research conducted by the Pew Charitable Trust — well below states like Texas (1.52%) and Florida (1.34%), best known for their warm housing markets in recent years.

Maine’s small capital, Augusta, experienced the most dramatic change, according to the report.

Neighboring New Hampshire fell to second place on the list, experiencing a 76.4% increase in average residential real estate prices since 2019.

The new wave of northern New England homeowners don’t seem to be struggling to make their purchases, either — the Granite State ranked highest for down payment size, at $72,750 on average.

Another state in the region took third place on the overall list – Rhode Island, which experienced a 73% jump.

Meanwhile, the most affordable state for homebuyers right now is Louisiana, where the median home price is just $254,000, researchers found.

Texas took second place, followed by Oklahoma, Mississippi and Indiana rounding out the top five.

In determining what “most affordable” means, Pro Tool Reviews considered not only the median home price (in which case Oklahoma would take first, with a median price of $240,300), but also the median salary, the average and amount of homes in the state that sold for more than the asking price.

“Only 13% of Louisiana homes sell for above list price,” commented the report’s analysis of the Bayou State, where the median wage is $54,134.08.

“This represents the fourth lowest figure of all the states analyzed — 27.3% of homes in the state have their list price reduced before they sell,” the researchers said.