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Housing Matters Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Matt Pouliot
Housing Matters is a podcast dedicated to discussing the importance of housing and development in our State. Hosted by Matt Pouliot of Pouliot Real Estate, the podcast aims to educate and inform the public about the significance of housing initiatives, the intricacies of development, and how individuals can secure their dream homes. Through engaging conversations and expert insights, we aim to: ° Advocate for the importance of housing initiatives in fostering thriving communities ° Educate the public about the complexities of real estate development and its impact on local economies ° Empower individuals with knowledge and resources to navigate the housing market effectively ° Spark meaningful discussions on topics ranging from affordable housing solutions to the legal and regulatory challenges facing developers ° Cultivate a deeper understanding of the intricate connections between housing, quality of life, and economic opportunity
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- 3 days ago1h 3m
38. Harvard Law, McKinsey, and the Rules That Make Maine Housing Expensive with Aaron Chadbourne
Aaron Chadbourne got his real estate license the day after he graduated from high school. He sold his first house at 18 and took out his first mortgage before most people finish their freshman year of college. Then he went off and collected three degrees from Harvard, worked at McKinsey, and served as Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Paul LePage. And then he came home to run the brokerage his mother built. I have been looking forward to this conversation for a long time, and it did not disappoint. Aaron is the Designated Broker and owner of Demetria Real Estate in Greater Portland, and he was just named 2026 REALTOR® of the Year by the Greater Portland Board of REALTORS®. What makes him interesting is not the resume. It is that he can look at a housing problem from the policy side, the capital side, and the kitchen table side all at once, and he does not pull punches about what he sees. We spent most of this episode on a question I think about constantly: why is it so hard to build housing in Maine? Aaron's answer is that it is not lumber and it is not labor. It is the rulebook. There are more than 9,000 jurisdictions writing their own housing rules across this country, and Maine has its own version of that patchwork. I share a story from a property I was on that same day where a three unit building needed three separate septic tanks, even though the whole thing has five bedrooms and the 200 year old farmhouse down the road with five bedrooms gets by on one tank. Aaron walks through the sprinkler ordinance in Gorham, the roof pitch requirements that quietly ban manufactured housing even after the state legalized it, and the shoreland zoning question he still cannot get a straight yes or no answer on for his own camp. We also get into the first time homebuyer number that should worry everybody. The average age is now 40. Aaron makes the case that we told an entire generation to delay homeownership in favor of college and credentials, and we are now living with the bill. He breaks down what a renter paying $2,000 a month hands over in ten years, tells the story of a 19 year old CDL driver who bought an old farmhouse in Baldwin and built $100,000 in equity in a single year, and pitches an idea I really like: a preferred mortgage product for Maine educators tied to a financial education requirement. Other ground we cover: Why capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is appreciated, and what that means for Portland versus Westbrook The difference between a code officer who sees himself as an enforcer and one who sees himself as an educator What the ROAD to Housing Act could actually change for Maine builders and homeowners Why only 5 percent of American construction is industrialized while Japan is at 45 to 50 percent, and what a building code rules engine could do about it Whether AI is coming for the real estate agent, and why Aaron thinks the physical world and human trust still matter Rent control, populism, and why Aaron would rather build ladders than freeze people in place If you care about housing in Maine, this one is worth your full hour. About Aaron Chadbourne Aaron Chadbourne is the Designated Broker and owner of Demetria Real Estate, serving buyers and sellers throughout Greater Portland and Southern Maine, including Portland, Gorham, Westbrook, Scarborough, South Portland, and Buxton. Licensed since 2002, his team consistently handles $30 to $50 million in annual sales volume. He was named 2026 REALTOR® of the Year by the Greater Portland Board of REALTORS®, has served as President of that board, and holds leadership positions at the state and national levels. Before returning to the family business, he graduated from Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School, worked for McKin
- Jun 24, 20261h 2m
37. The Coliving Solution: How PadSplit Is Turning Empty Bedrooms Into Affordable Housing and Investor Returns
What if the affordable housing crisis isn't really a supply problem? What if the answer is already built, sitting in empty bedrooms across America, and we just haven't figured out how to use it? That's the argument Atticus LeBlanc has been making for years, and he built a company around proving it. Atticus is the founder of PadSplit, the largest coliving marketplace in the United States, with over 33,000 units across 40 states. He structured it as a public benefit corporation with a clear mission: help solve the affordable housing crisis for the 50% of American renters who can't afford their rent, without a single dollar of government subsidy. The platform has generated more than $150 million in savings for renters and over $5 billion in taxpayer savings. Before PadSplit, Atticus spent more than a decade as an affordable housing developer and contractor, starting with $10,000 in savings and building to over $100 million in real estate assets. He's presented at MIT, Yale, UC Berkeley, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine. He graduated from Yale with a degree in architecture and lives in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife, four boys, two dogs, and a lot of chickens. In this conversation, we get into the real mechanics of how PadSplit works for both investors and residents, and why the coliving model might be one of the most underused tools available right now for people trying to build wealth through real estate in a high interest rate environment. We talk through how hosts on the platform are earning roughly twice what they'd earn from a traditional lease on the same property. We walk through a real investor case study where a guy earning less than $60,000 a year used a VA loan, house-hacked his way into his first PadSplit property, generated $15,000 a year in free cash flow, and used that income to qualify for his next mortgage. We get into the math on how a buyer who can only qualify for a $200,000 home might be able to qualify for a $400,000 four-unit building by presenting rental income to the lender. Atticus also makes a case I hadn't heard put quite this way before: that America doesn't actually have a housing supply problem. It has a housing allocation problem. He walks through the per capita square footage numbers from 1950 to today and makes the argument that you could solve the entire estimated housing shortage, all 7.3 million units, using less than 1% of the existing square footage of housing in the United States. The rooms are there. The regulatory and cultural frameworks around how we use them are the barrier. We also dig into zoning, specifically how local definitions of "family" are one of the most overlooked obstacles to affordable housing in America, how PadSplit navigates those regulations, and what Atticus is currently working on at the federal level to get room rental income recognized by FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac in mortgage underwriting. This one covers a lot of ground. Whether you're a real estate investor looking for a way to make deals work in the current market, a first-time buyer trying to figure out a creative path to ownership, or someone who just wants to understand what's actually driving the affordability crisis and what's being done about it, there's something in here for you. Topics covered in this episode: What PadSplit is and how the coliving model works for both hosts and residents How investors are earning approximately 2x rental income compared to traditional leasing Real investor case study: VA loan, house hacking, and $15,000 per year in free cash flow Using room rental income to qualify for a larger mortgage Why the housing crisis is an allocation problem, not a supply problem The per capita square footage argument that reframes the entire affordability debate How zoning's definition of "family" blocks affordable housing solutions How PadSplit handles placement, payments, conflict resolution, and legal exposure for hosts What needs to change at FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to recognize room rental income The history of boarding income in America and why it's making a comeback Connect with Atticus LeBlanc: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atticusleblanc PadSplit: https://www.padsplit.com Subscribe to Housing Matters on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@housingmatterspod
- Jun 10, 20261h 10m
36. Nurses, Teachers & Firefighters Can't Afford to Live Where They Work. Here's a Model That Helps. | Chris Moeller
What happens when the people who serve your community can't afford to live in it? Chris Moeller, CEO of Orion Growth and creator of the Pathway Communities model, joins Matt Pouliot on Housing Matters to lay out a different way of thinking about housing entirely. Not as an asset class. Not as a rent-versus-own binary. But as an operating system built around stable living. Chris has spent over two decades at the intersection of real estate, energy, and technology. After surviving Hurricane Helene, his work took on a new urgency. The question stopped being how to improve housing and became how to design communities that can withstand disruption and actually support the people inside them. In this conversation, Matt and Chris get into the Pathway Communities model from the ground up: who it is built for, how the capital stack works differently, and why the traditional developer approach keeps pricing out the very people communities depend on most. They talk pocket neighborhoods, adaptive reuse, net zero energy design, food systems, digital equity, financial literacy, and a deed restriction structure borrowed in part from the Habitat for Humanity playbook. They also get honest about what is broken. Wages have been trailing median home prices for years. The missing middle housing product barely exists. Teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers are choosing not to work in communities where they cannot afford to live. And most developers are still building to minimum code, optimizing for their exit, and walking away before the roof leaks. Chris is not doing that. Hudson Commons in Hudson, North Carolina is his first learning living lab, and it is already in motion. If you work in housing, local government, community development, or you are just trying to make sense of why the system feels so broken, this episode is worth your full attention. Find Chris Moeller on LinkedIn, on Substack at Chasing Arrows, and at pathwaycommunities.org. His podcast, The Edge Report from Brix, is available on Spotify and YouTube. Housing Matters is hosted by Matt Pouliot, CEO and Broker at Pouliot Real Estate in Maine. New episodes drop bi-weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.
- May 27, 202658 min
35. Why Maine's Old Mills, Tanneries, and Closed Schools Stay Vacant (And the Organization Working to Change That) | Gabe Gauvin, Maine Redevelopment
You've driven past it. An old mill building sitting right on the river, windows gone, roof caving in, weeds taking over. And you've thought the same thing everyone thinks: why hasn't anyone done something with that? The answer is complicated. And in this episode, I'm talking with someone who is working every single day to change it. Gabe Gauvin is the Programs Manager at Maine Redevelopment, a quasi-governmental organization created by the Maine Legislature to unlock the state's most stuck properties and get them back into productive use. Gabe brings a background in place-based economic development, rural planning, and environmental remediation, and he has lived and worked in nearly every corner of Maine. He knows this state and he knows these projects. We cover a lot of ground in this one. We start with Gabe's path from the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments to the Central Maine Growth Council and now to Maine Redevelopment, and how working across so many different parts of the state has shaped the way he thinks about community investment and revitalization. Then we get into what Maine Redevelopment actually is and how it works. They are one of only four or five statewide land bank authorities in the entire country. Their scope covers properties that are vacant, abandoned, functionally obsolete, contaminated, or stuck for legal reasons. And their structure as a quasi-governmental organization gives them something most public agencies do not have: the ability to move fast, take on risk, and operate with an entrepreneurial mindset. From there we dig into the Hartland Tannery, the first property Maine Redevelopment has acquired into its land bank. It is a roughly 30-acre brownfield site along the Sebasticook River in Hartland that has had some kind of industrial operation on it for about 200 years. There is an estimated four to five million dollars worth of contaminated material that needs to be abated and demolished before any real redevelopment can begin. Maine Redevelopment acquired the property in January 2025 and submitted an application to the EPA Brownfields Program two weeks later. They find out this June whether that federal funding came through. We also get into the school reuse crisis that is playing out right now across Maine, the toolkit Maine Redevelopment is building to help communities navigate it, and a piece of legislation that had broad bipartisan support, passed the House and Senate, and then did not make it through Appropriations. That one stung a little to talk about, but it is important context for where things stand. And we talk about the economics. Because great ideas and community support are wonderful, but at the end of the day the numbers have to work. Gabe walks through exactly how Maine Redevelopment approaches making projects pencil out, including in some cases giving the land away for free to a developer whose project aligns with what the community actually needs. If you have ever wondered why these properties sit for decades, or if you are a developer, investor, or community leader trying to figure out whether there is a path forward for a site in your town, this episode is for you. Connect with Maine Redevelopment at maineredevelopment.org. Their full team contact info is on the website and they are active on LinkedIn. Housing Matters is hosted by Matt Pouliot, CEO and Broker at Pouliot Real Estate in Maine. New episodes drop regularly covering Maine real estate, housing affordability, economic development, and the people doing the work to move things forward. Subscribe wherever you listen and find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@housingmatterspod.
- May 13, 20261h 0m
34. Bath Iron Works Hired 690 People From Out of State. Almost None of Them Could Find Housing
In 2021, Bath Iron Works hired nearly 2,000 employees. 690 of them came from out of state. And almost every single one of them left. Not because they did not want the job. Not because BIW was not a great place to work. They left because they could not find anywhere to live. That story is where this conversation starts, and it is one I have been wanting to have for a while. I sat down with Julie Rabinowitz, Director of Communications at Bath Iron Works, and Dave Hench, BIW's communications and media relations veteran and former Portland Press Herald reporter of 25 years, to talk honestly about what Maine's housing crisis looks like from inside one of the state's most important employers. Bath Iron Works is the largest manufacturer in Maine. They build Arleigh Burke class destroyers, among the most complex machines made anywhere in America. They have been on the Kennebec River since 1884. They employ people from all 16 counties in Maine. More than half of their workforce commutes at least 35 miles each way to get to the shipyard. And since COVID, the housing crisis has made all of that dramatically harder. Wages in Maine have gone up about 38% since 2019. Home prices have gone up 79%. That gap is not just a statistic. For BIW, it showed up as tents. It showed up as employees living out of their cars. It showed up as a young woman in new hire orientation who had a job offer in hand and still could not pass a credit check to get an apartment because she had never had one before. So BIW decided to do something about it. They are now investing in an 84-unit attainable housing complex in downtown Bath, a 20-minute walk from the shipyard. The $22 million project is a partnership between General Dynamics, the Navy, Bath Housing, and Developers Collaborative. It will include studios, one-bedrooms, and a handful of two-bedrooms, prioritized for BIW employees and Navy personnel, with occupancy expected in summer 2027. There are already 87 people on the interest list. We get into all of it in this episode. Why BIW uses the term "attainable housing" instead of "affordable housing" and what that distinction really means. How the Rumford mill town model from the 1800s still holds lessons for what employers can do today. What L.L. Bean is doing in Freeport with a similar workforce housing model. What other employers, developers, and housing authorities anywhere in the country can take away from what is happening in Bath right now. And why, if we want to talk seriously about reindustrializing America, we have to talk about where the workers are going to live first. Dave also brings a perspective you do not hear often. He spent 25 years covering public safety and planning boards at the Press Herald, and he watched the conversation around housing development shift from something that was almost politically toxic to something communities are now desperate for. That context matters. This episode is for employers who are wondering whether workforce housing is their problem to solve. It is for developers who have not thought about knocking on the door of a large local employer. It is for anyone trying to understand why Maine's housing market is the way it is and what it is actually going to take to change it. BIW has been building ships for the United States Navy for over 140 years. Now they are helping build something just as critical: a real path forward for the workers who make it all possible. Learn more about Bath Iron Works at gd-bw.com. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this one with someone in your community who needs to hear it.
- Apr 29, 20261h 11m
33. The $70,000 Mistake: Manufactured Housing, Mobile Home Park Investing, and the Stigma Costing Americans Real Wealth | Andrew Cramer
The average person hears "manufactured home" and thinks trailer park. That reaction is costing them somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 over five years. Today I'm sitting down with someone who has spent the last 14 years proving why that stigma is not just wrong, it is financially damaging to the people who can least afford it. Andrew Cramer is a partner at Bridge View Asset Management in the Pacific Northwest, where he has led the acquisition, stabilization, and management of more than 3,000 mobile home units totaling over $300 million in market value. His path to manufactured housing ran through biochemistry at Cornell and UC Berkeley, a stint as a financial analyst at Redwood Trust, a co-founded urgent care center in Pennsylvania, and a clean technology division at Alexandria Real Estate Equities. He is one of the most clear-eyed, data-driven voices in this space, and this conversation is long overdue. We get into all of it. The history of the HUD code and what actually changed in 1976. Why the modular versus manufactured debate is largely a stigma problem wearing a regulatory costume. The real math on renting an apartment versus buying a manufactured home in a park over five years. What Title One FHA financing could unlock for millions of residents who currently have no path to building equity. And why the missing middle housing problem in America keeps manufactured communities stuck in a kind of policy no-man's land where they are too affordable to attract private capital at scale and too complex to benefit cleanly from subsidy programs. On the investment side, Andrew walks through what Bridge View actually looks for in an acquisition, how they get distressed parks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac standards, what an infill strategy looks like when you can recover old spaces without a full land use approval package, and why the operator requirements in manufactured housing are significantly higher than anything you will find in traditional multifamily. We also dig into rent control, tenant ownership models, the real costs buried inside homeownership that most people never account for, and a phase two initiative Andrew is building toward 2028 that he could not fully disclose yet. You are going to want to follow along for that one. If you are serious about housing affordability, real estate investing, or understanding one of the most underestimated asset classes in the country, this episode is essential listening. Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-cramer-43b5b513a/ Bridge View Asset Management: https://www.bridgeviewassetmanagement.com Housing Matters is hosted by Matt Pouliot, CEO and Broker at Pouliot Real Estate in Maine. Learn more at https://pouliotrealestate.com
- Apr 15, 20261h 14m
32. What Does It Actually Cost to Build a House in Maine? | Emily Mottram, Mottram + Maines
If you have ever thought about building a house in Maine and walked away from your research more confused than when you started, this episode is for you. I sat down with Emily Mottram, principal at Mottram + Maines and co-author of The Pretty Good House, for one of the most honest, practical conversations about home building I have had on this show. Emily is a registered architect licensed in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Utah, and she has spent 17 years building her practice around building science, energy efficiency, and making better homes accessible to more people. We get into what Google gets completely wrong about construction costs in Maine, how a HERS rating works and why it can help you finance energy upgrades through your mortgage, what to look for before you buy a piece of land, why home orientation matters more than most people realize, and where homeowners are spending money they really should not be spending. Emily also walks through what working with an architect actually costs, how to keep a new build on budget from design through closing, and what the lifecycle of different parts of your home really looks like, from the foundation and structure down to your kitchen finishes. Whether you are in Maine or anywhere else in the country, if you are thinking about buying land, building new, or just trying to make better decisions about your current home, there is something in this conversation for you. Topics covered in this episode include HERS ratings and energy efficient mortgages, buying land in Maine, site orientation and water management, construction costs and what Google gets wrong, architect fees and what you actually get, how to work with a builder and a lender on a new build, offsite and modular construction in Maine, and where to put your money for long-term comfort in a cold climate. Emily co-hosts the BS + Beer Show, a free weekly building science livestream on YouTube, and hosts the E3: Energy and Efficiency with Emily podcast. She is also a member of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and teaches building science and sustainable design at a local community college. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Pretty Good House: https://prettygoodhouse.org BS + Beer Show: Live on YouTube the first Thursday of every month, all past episodes free Green Building Advisor: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com Community Concepts (SHOP program): Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties, Maine Housing Matters is hosted by Matt Pouliot of Pouliot Real Estate in Maine. New episodes cover everything real estate, from buying your first home to building your investment portfolio. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@housingmatterspod.
- Apr 1, 20261h 17m
31. Financial Literacy and the Housing Affordability Challenge with Steve Kautz of FAME
In this episode of Housing Matters, host Matt Pouliot sits down with Steve Kautz, Accredited Financial Counselor and Financial Education Programs Specialist at the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), for an honest conversation about the psychology of money, the real forces behind Maine's housing affordability crisis, and what individuals can actually do about it. Steve has spent over 20 years working on financial literacy in Maine. He studied economics at Southern Connecticut State University, earned an MBA from the University of Hartford, served in the Peace Corps in the Czech Republic, and has taught personal finance in classrooms from Portland to Spain. At FAME, he creates content for the Money Matters for ME blog and delivers financial education to Mainers of all ages. In this conversation, Matt and Steve cover why financial literacy education is so difficult and why spending psychology matters more than math, the real market forces driving housing costs in Maine including demographic shifts and supply constraints, practical strategies real people are using right now to save for a down payment, the power of compound interest and the danger of compound debt, how the monthly payment mentality quietly drains wealth, why Steve says "Take a part of capitalism, or it'll take a part of you," the Maine Opportunity Tax Credit and student loan strategies most people do not know about, budgeting and emergency fund foundations that actually build long term wealth, and the generational shift happening in classrooms that gives Steve hope for the future. Whether you are a first time homebuyer, a renter weighing your options, or someone looking to reset your financial habits, this episode is packed with real talk and actionable advice. Learn more about FAME and the Money Matters for ME blog at famemaine.com. Learn more about Housing Matters and Pouliot Real Estate at pouliotrealestate.com.
About Housing Matters Podcast
Housing Matters is a podcast dedicated to discussing the importance of housing and development in our State. Hosted by Matt Pouliot of Pouliot Real Estate, the podcast aims to educate and inform the public about the significance of housing initiatives, the intricacies of development, and how individuals can secure their dream homes. Through engaging conversations and expert insights, we aim to: ° Advocate for the importance of housing initiatives in fostering thriving communities ° Educate the public about the complexities of real estate development and its impact on local economies ° Empower individuals with knowledge and resources to navigate the housing market effectively ° Spark meaningful discussions on topics ranging from affordable housing solutions to the legal and regulatory challenges facing developers ° Cultivate a deeper understanding of the intricate connections between housing, quality of life, and economic opportunity
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