Bangor Savings Bank issued more home loans in 2025 after its mortgages dropped significantly the year before, according to the company’s annual report released Monday.
The bank also reported tens of millions of dollars invested in affordable housing, which continues to be a key issue in Bangor and across the state. The city is short hundreds of affordable units and has struggled to quickly grow its housing stock.
Across Maine, home sales increased 4.8% from 2024 to 2025 and the median sales price bumped up 3.8%.
“We continue to work really hard to figure out different programs to help people make housing more affordable, be able to get into a home,” Bob Montgomery-Rice, the bank’s president and CEO, said Friday. “I think we still have a long way to go in that arena as a state and as a country, and so we’re trying to do our part.”
The bank issued $711 million in residential mortgage loans in the last fiscal year, up from $528 million in the previous year. This marks a major bounceback from 2024, when mortgage loans plummeted by more than 40%, following the pandemic home-buying frenzy that resulted in the bank issuing more than a billion in residential mortgages in 2021.
Montgomery-Rice attributed that growth to the bank’s “continued focus” on becoming experts in the programs that are available to help people buy homes affordably and educate its customers on how to take advantage of them. For example, the bank recently trained staff to work with potential borrowers who are “almost ready to qualify” for a home loan but need help getting there, he said.
The bank aims to get people qualified and ready to make a good offer as soon as a home becomes available given the shortage of homes on the market.
“When there’s a limited supply, it becomes sort of a race as to who can get to it first,” Montgomery-Rice said.
“Bangor continues to need to work on the amount of [housing] supply,” he added.
Bangor Savings Bank originated $138.6 million in community development loans in the last year, which included $28.3 million to support 17 affordable housing groups and projects, according to the report. The bank put $42 million into affordable housing loans in the previous year.
This year’s investments included the redevelopment of a former Brunswick fire station into a brewery with affordable apartments upstairs, which the bank helped finance.
The bank provided a multi-year grant for the Bangor YMCA project, which broke ground in the fall. Other community development projects it contributed to last year included financing for the construction of 40 affordable senior housing units at Milford Place in Bangor, upgrades to Bangor Housing units, and the Heart of Maine United Way community hub, according to a list provided by the company.
Bangor Savings Bank also financed 17 new businesses last year, according to the report.
Montgomery-Rice said he’s excited for the bank to switch to a more modern online platform this summer, which will include a new platform just for small businesses.
“Maine’s a small business state,” he said, adding that those local businesses have very different needs than their larger counterparts.
For businesses and people alike, Montgomery-Rice said the bank is paying close attention to the economic impacts of the war in Iran.
“That directly impacts both consumers and businesses,” he said. “If they’re getting squeezed, how do we help them through that?”
Acting as a sounding board for customers is a key focus, and physical branches remain important for those relationships despite the availability of financial tools online, Montgomery-Rice said.
“When someone’s trying to figure out, you know, how do I get a business loan? How do I get a loan for a house? … They want to come in and talk to a person face-to-face and ask them questions,” he said.
Bangor Savings Bank opened a new branch in Derry, New Hampshire, last year and plans to open another this year in Gorham, he said.
The bank gained more than 18,000 new customers and 29,000 deposit accounts last year, according to the report. Its net income last year was $30.2 million, about double the previous year.
