Old Orchard Beach, ME Real Cost: Prices and Taxes

How Maine Pays for Itself: Property Tax Plus a State Income Tax

As with every Maine town this site covers, Old Orchard Beach is not New Hampshire: Maine levies a state personal income tax on top of local property tax bills, while NH towns like Rye and Hampton Beach lean on property tax alone. A buyer moving from an NH coastal town should not read OOB's mill rate the same way they would read a comparably sized NH rate — the full tax picture includes Maine's income tax on that buyer's own income, which this page does not attempt to calculate.

That context matters even more in OOB than in Wells, because OOB's own mill rate is meaningfully higher than Wells's to begin with. A low-looking property-tax figure in isolation still is not the whole story here, and this page treats it that way rather than implying property tax alone tells you what it costs to live in this town.

What an OOB Home Actually Costs: Three Figures, Not One

Ask what a home costs in Old Orchard Beach and, as with most markets this site prices out, the answer depends on which source you ask. Zillow's Home Value Index, as of an April 30, 2026 snapshot, puts OOB's typical home value at $507,308, up 2.1% year over year, with 62 active listings, a median list price of $529,633, and homes going to pending in a median of just 24 days. Redfin's own November 2025 data lands close by: a median sale price of $508,500, up 10.5% year over year, a median 42 days on market, and 18 homes sold that month, down from 29 the prior November. The Zillow and Redfin figures land within about $1,200 of each other, which is a strong cross-validated read on OOB's current price point.

Redfin's price-per-square-foot figure complicates that read rather than confirming it cleanly: at $392 per square foot, that number is down 14.1% year over year even as the median sale price rose 10.5%. That is a genuinely mixed signal, not something to gloss over, and likely reflects a shift in the size or type of homes that sold rather than a straightforward price decline. Redfin also scores OOB a Compete Score of 64 out of 100, calling it somewhat competitive, with homes selling for roughly 2% below list price on average — a real market, but not the frenzied bidding-war conditions that phrase sometimes implies.

The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey estimate puts OOB's median home value at just $366,600 — notably lower than both market-index figures above. That is a different measure than Zillow's or Redfin's current-market snapshots, not a contradiction of them: Census/ACS figures tend to reflect assessed and self-reported values across the full housing stock, including longer-held homes, while Zillow and Redfin track current transaction and listing activity more directly. Present OOB home values as roughly $366,600 by Census measures and roughly $507,000 to $509,000 by Zillow's and Redfin's current indexes, not as one clean number.

The more useful comparison for anyone cross-shopping this stretch of the Maine coast is against this site's own Wells and Kennebunkport research. Wells's Zillow Home Value Index runs $578,907 (per this site's own Wells research), meaning OOB, at $507,308, runs roughly 12 to 14% cheaper than Wells on a like-for-like ZHVI basis. OOB sits far below Kennebunkport's $1,122,864 ZHVI as well. That makes Old Orchard Beach the most attainable of the four Maine markets this site now covers on a straight typical-home-value basis — a sourced, direct comparison, not a marketing label. Ogunquit's own price point remains unconfirmed in this site's research, so no specific OOB-versus-Ogunquit price ratio is stated here; treat any such comparison you encounter elsewhere as unverified until sourced directly.

The Tax Rate: $11.33 Per $1,000, Nearly Double Wells

Old Orchard Beach's FY2025 budget proposal set the town's mill rate at $11.33 per $1,000 of assessed value, down slightly from the prior year's $11.40, per Portland Press Herald reporting from April 2024. That is nearly double Wells's own FY2025-2026 rate of $6.46 per $1,000 (per this site's own Wells research) — a genuinely useful comparison point for anyone weighing OOB's lower home prices against a meaningfully higher property tax rate.

Two flags matter here. First, this $11.33 figure comes from the FY2025 budget cycle, and the same Portland Press Herald article noted the final rate could still shift pending a completed property reassessment; anyone budgeting around a current purchase should verify the actual FY2026-2027 rate directly with the Town of Old Orchard Beach before treating $11.33 as this year's number. Second, as the section above lays out, this property tax rate is only part of the real cost picture in Maine — it does not include the state income tax that applies to OOB residents' own income, which a New Hampshire-coast buyer would not be used to budgeting for at all.

A Tourism-Dependent Economy, and Who Actually Lives Here

OOB's economy is overwhelmingly tourism-driven relative to its size. The town recorded $104.7 million in accommodation and food-services sales and $50.6 million in total retail sales in 2022, per Census Bureau QuickFacts economic data — very large figures set against a year-round population of roughly 9,500 to 9,533 (per the Census Bureau's most recent vintage estimate). That scale of seasonal commercial activity is worth factoring into any read of OOB's real cost of living: much of the local economy, and much of the housing stock, exists to serve a summer population well beyond the town's own resident count, even though no specific peak-season population figure was confirmed in this research.

Median household income in OOB runs $60,050, per the same Census Bureau QuickFacts estimate — notably below the $88,024 figure this site's own Wells research cites for that town, consistent with OOB's more working-class, service-economy character relative to Wells's larger, more affluent town. Median gross rent runs $1,246 and median monthly mortgage payment $1,905 per the same source, with an owner-occupied housing rate of 68.2%. Separately, Zillow's own rental data (May 31, 2026 snapshot) puts average asking rent at $1,918 per month, up 6% year over year — slightly below the reported national average of $1,951.

What This Research Could Not Confirm

Several figures that would normally round out a real-cost picture were genuinely thin in this research and should not be treated as settled. No confirmed short-term-rental or investment-property price premium was found for OOB, despite the town having an estimated 800 active short-term rentals operating with no cap as of the most recent confirmed reporting. No oceanfront-versus-inland price differential was confirmed either. And no specific, notable recent single-property sale was identified to anchor a "what does a standout OOB property go for" narrative. A buyer or investor evaluating any of these angles should pull Redfin's own OOB waterfront filter or a local agent's current listings directly rather than rely on a townwide average for a specific property type.

A Practical Checklist Before You Rely on Any Number Here

First, do not anchor to a single home-value figure. Zillow's $507,308, Redfin's $508,500, and the Census Bureau's $366,600 are three different kinds of numbers from three different sources, and the first two are far more current and closely aligned with each other than the third. Redfin's falling price-per-square-foot figure alongside a rising median sale price is a genuine mixed signal worth understanding before treating either as the whole story.

Second, verify the $11.33-per-$1,000 mill rate directly with the Town of Old Orchard Beach, since this figure comes from the FY2025 budget cycle and the current fiscal year's adopted rate has not been independently confirmed in this research. Separately verify current Maine state income tax brackets with Maine Revenue Services — the two together, not the property tax rate alone, make up an OOB buyer's real tax burden.

Third, treat several related figures as open gaps rather than settled facts: any short-term-rental or investment price premium, any oceanfront-versus-inland price differential, a specific notable recent sale, and whether the Town Council has taken any short-term-rental ordinance action since its October 2023 rejection of a proposed moratorium. All were flagged in this research as unconfirmed or unresolved.

Confirm every figure on this page directly with the Town of Old Orchard Beach, the U.S. Census Bureau, Maine Revenue Services, and a Maine-licensed real estate agent or tax professional before relying on it financially. Nothing here is tax, legal, or financial advice.