Here in Portland, a smaller version of the big-city real estate boom has been in full swing until just the last few months. House prices have jumped since 2000, hundreds of new real estate agents have gotten their licenses and an old factory along the waterfront, once famous for making bright-red hot dogs, is set to be replaced with condominiums.

With many suburban houses now selling for $300,000 and up, young families have a much harder time buying their first home than they did a few years ago. Still, housing has been less expensive this year -- as a share of local incomes -- than at any point during the 1980's, according to Moody's Economy.com.

Beyond cost, many families who simply could not have bought a house 10 or 20 years ago find themselves able to do so, thanks to changes in the ways banks lend money. In the past, a home buyer often needed to make a down payment equal to 20 percent of a house's value to get a mortgage; today, little or no down payment is common.

The most money that Tim W. Gilbert has ever had in his possession was $15,000, he said, in the form of a check for a job he had done as a carpenter. But he and his wife, Marjorie, were still able to buy a 1936 Cape Cod-style house this year for $176,000 in Poland, about 45 minutes north of Portland.

They took out two mortgages rather than making a down payment and they use Mr. Gilbert's $5,000 or so in pretax monthly income to cover $1,600 in mortgage, tax and insurance payments. Ms. Gilbert, a writer, home schools their daughters, ages 4 and 6. "I paid rent for 18 or 19 years," Mr. Gilbert, 38, said. "We waited years and years. We wanted to make this happen."

If almost anything had been different -- if interest rates had been higher or if the bank had required a down payment -- the Gilberts would still be living in an apartment underneath a loud landlord, Mr. Gilbert said. Instead, their house sits on three acres, and they get their tap water from the same source as the Poland Spring Water Company.

"We're making this work," he said. "It doesn't mean things are a lot easier, but finally we are in control. It's been a long time coming."