Cost of Living & Housing in Machias
Machias's cost of living centers on genuinely moderate home prices offset by a real, high local property tax rate, paired with Maine's own statewide low-sales-tax and favorable-insurance profile.
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Learn moreModerate home prices with a real cross-source spread
Machias's average home value ran approximately $187,471 (Zillow, updated June 30, 2026), while Redfin's median sale price for the most recent month reviewed ran $175,000 -- a real, disclosed spread typical of a small, low-transaction-volume market (base record).
A genuinely high 2.17% effective property tax rate
Machias's own 2.17% effective property tax rate (Ownwell) runs meaningfully above the national median (1.02%) and even Maine's own already-elevated statewide median (1.57% per this same source), though the resulting $1,977 median annual tax bill still runs below the national median dollar bill of $2,400 given Machias's comparatively low home values (base record).
Maine's 7.15% top income tax rate and 5.5% sales tax
Maine's real, current 2026 individual income tax tops out at 7.15% for the overwhelming majority of taxpayers (with a new 2% millionaire's-tax surcharge above $1M/$1.5M income), alongside a 5.5% general sales tax with no local-option layer (base record; see maine.js).
Real, disclosed local income and poverty figures
Machias's own 2024 median household income ran $27,926 with a 32.3% poverty rate (Data USA) -- figures this record flags as likely skewed downward by the University of Maine at Machias's student population, layered onto Washington County's own genuinely low $56,024 median household income (base record).
Key takeaways
- Machias's home values run in the roughly $175,000-$187,000 range, comparatively moderate for coastal Maine.
- Machias's own 2.17% effective property tax rate runs genuinely high; the resulting $1,977 median tax bill still runs below the national median.
- Maine's 7.15% top income tax rate and 5.5% sales tax (no local option) apply in Machias as they do statewide.
- Local median household income ($27,926) and poverty rate (32.3%) run genuinely low, with a likely college-town data skew disclosed honestly.
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