PORTLAND – The supply of single-family homes in Maine has hit record levels, pushing down prices in many areas.

Real-estate industry figures show that more than 26,000 homes are now on the market, up from 18,000 last year and 14,000 in 2004.

Based on the rate of sales activity within the past year, Realtors calculate that it would take 12 to 18 months to sell current inventories.

“Some sellers haven’t come to the reality that it’s a buyer’s market,” said Cathy Manchester, a Realtor at Keller Williams Realty in Gray. “They’re still trying to get higher appreciations. But the record inventory means it’s a fantastic time to buy. Everything is selling, if it’s priced right.”

After three appraisals, Bruce Thistle listed his home on the Windham-Falmouth town line for $259,000 last August but had only one showing during the first six months the home was on the market. He finally got it under contract this month, for $216,000.

“A year ago, if you told me I’d sell the house for that price, I would have laughed,” he said. “I thought we’d sell it in days.”

Even as sellers trim their asking prices, some real estate agents are taking creative measures to draw attention to their properties. One Realtor in South Portland offered a free 24-month lease on a new car to buyers who closed on select homes. An agent in Saco drew traffic to an open house – and put the home under contract – by slashing the price from $249,000 to $199,000.

While 28 states and the District of Columbia reported spring sales declines, Maine recorded a slight 1.5 percent gain. But the jury is out on whether the market has cooled to the point that median home prices actually will decline after three years of double-digit gains.

After rising from $125,500 in 2001 to $189,000 in 2005, the statewide median sales price edged up just 2.91 percent, to $194,500, in the first six months of this year.

The picture varies from market to market. In York County, both the number of homes sold and the median sales price are down modestly for the first half of 2006. Cumberland County remains more or less flat.

Manchester doubts that statewide median prices will actually decline in 2006. She expects this year’s modest growth to continue, in the 3 percent range.

“It will seem like a leveling because of the market we’ve been in,” she said.

Sheryl Gregory, a broker at Homestead Realty in Winthrop, detects a leveling, but not a decline. She said the buyer’s market that has washed over southern Maine has yet to reach Kennebec County.

“If prices do decline,” she said, “they will be area by area, month by month.”