A feared housing market collapse led by high heating oil prices hasn’t happened, but no one is celebrating yet.

Landlords, tenants and city officials are watching oil prices as carefully as they watch the weather forecasts.

“Oil prices have gone down, but nobody’s expecting them to stay down,” said Gil Arsenault, Lewiston planning and code enforcement director. “It hasn’t been a problem for us so far, but the winter hasn’t started yet.”

Heating prices last winter led some area landlords to a desperate conclusion: They could no longer afford to rent out their buildings. In Auburn, 25 landlords walked away, leaving tenants with nowhere to turn.

At the time, heating oil was selling for $3.35 per gallon, a dollar higher than at the same time a year earlier. Prices continued to rise throughout the spring, to more than $4 per gallon – and officials prepared for a dangerous, cold winter.

It hasn’t happened so far, thanks to dropping prices and government grants. Heating oil had dropped back to 2006-07 levels this week as local officials put the finishing touches on aid packages.

“Instead of shutting their buildings down, we’ve seen a lot of people out blowing in extra insulation and doing anything they can to improve the building’s efficiency,” said Mike Minkowsky, Auburn’s deputy fire chief. “It’s a typical hearty New Englander thing, doing what they have to do to keep warm.”

Cristy Bourget, Auburn’s code enforcement officer, said the city had received 13 no-heat complaints since Oct. 6, but landlords responded quickly in each instance. In some cases, landlords had forgotten to turn on the heat. In other cases, heating systems needed repairs.

But some landlords are on the brink, Planning Director David Galbraith said .

“We know of a couple who’ve told their tenants they won’t be able to heat the building all winter,” Galbraith said.

Lewiston Housing Authority Executive Director Jim Dowling said seven apartment buildings have closed since the summer, and the landlords have blamed costs.

“There are obviously a number of factors at work,” Dowling said. “The problem at first was just the operating expenses, and oil was part of that. But then we’ve seen changes in the real estate market, and that’s reduced their demand.”

Attorney Neil Shankman said landlords have relied on easy credit to ride out high oil prices. Shankman represents many area landlords and teaches classes on housing laws and rights.

“Credit was their backup,” he said. “They could get always get an equity line of credit in the past to get their tank filled. Then, they could pay it back over the next six months. But if that equity credit is gone, there’s not much else they can do.”

Shankman said he’s recommending landlords talk to their tenants.

“The smart ones are telling their tenants that they both have a problem,” Shankman said. “They both have to work together to be as efficient as possible, or they’re not going to make it. The landlord can’t absorb all of the costs if they happen, and they can’t pass it along to the tenants.”