174 Main Street goes to its next year-round family
When the owner of this covenanted downtown home decided to sell, NHSH used its repurchase option and put it back into the drawing. It is under contract to a new year-round buyer, closing in December.
This is what a covenant is for.
174 Main Street is a three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home on a third of an acre downtown, fully renovated in 2022 with town water and sewer and heat pumps. When its owner told NHSH they planned to sell, NHSH exercised its repurchase option, offered the home in the 2025 drawing at $205,000 to $385,000 on a sliding scale for households under 150% of area median income, and it went under contract to a new year-round buyer with closing expected in December 2025.
Without the covenant, a downtown house like this one would have sold on the open market, where island homes typically list above a million dollars, and it would almost certainly have become a seasonal home.
Source: nhshousing.org/174main
More news
Summer Reception 2026: inside the two newest rentals at 217 Main Street
An open house at 217 Main Street, then cocktails at the Pingree Boathouse at Iron Point. The island got its first look at the two rental units opening by the end of the year.
Open house on Fish Hawk Road
Saturday, July 18, 4–6 p.m.: a walk through one of the two homes NHSH has built on Fish Hawk Road, the first of the South Shore Road homes.
Maine beat its 2025 housing production goal. Islands still need their own tools.
The state permitted 7,499 homes in 2025 against a 6,900 target. Only 13% were affordable, and the island-specific MaineHousing program that funded NHSH's rentals has had no new round since 2022.