BOSTON – Rhode Island single-family home sales in April inched up 2.6 percent from the same year-ago month, but the median price of those homes dropped 23.2 percent, according to data collected by The Warren Group (TWG), a real estate tracker and publisher.
The number of homes sold increased to 524 from 506 during April, but year to date the total is still 8.4 percent below the 2008 level, with 1,717 single-family homes sold in the first four months of 2009, compared with 1,875 sold last year.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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“A gain in single-family home sales in April is certainly encouraging news,” CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement today. “These sales reflect transactions that were negotiated in February and March, which is the very beginning of the spring selling season. If sales volume continues to climb in the remainder of the spring selling season, it would be the first sign that the market is starting to recover.”
The median price of April sales dropped to $185,500 from $241,500 last year, while the year-to-date median price was $182,500, down 24.7 percent from the $242,500 median price in the same 2008 period.
TWG reported that lender-owned property sales accounted for about 19 percent of single-family homes sales in the first four months of the year, up from 6.3 percent in 2008. The competitive pricing between lender-owned and other properties has had a “negative impact on property values,” Warren said.
“We found that statewide, the year-to-date median price for single-family homes would have been $22,500 higher – or 11 percent higher – without the bank-owned home sales transactions,” he said.
The Ocean State’s condominium sales fell to 81 sales in April, down 37.7 percent from 130 sales in 2008. The median price of those sales was $163,610, down 27.9 percent from the $227,000 median price in the same year-ago month.
Sales at the national level mirrored the experience in Rhode Island, with existing-home sales increasing 2.9 percent even as the median price for homes fell 15 percent, according to Bloomberg News.
“You will see more gains in home sales and some fading of weakness in coming months,” James O’Sullivan told Bloomberg Television, the result of lower mortgage rates and dropping sales prices.
The National Association of Realtors report noted that distressed properties sales (those from foreclosure and short sales) accounted for 45 percent of all existing-home sales in the nation, as the number of homes on the market increased 8.8 percent to 3.97 million in April, which at the current sales pace would take 10.2 months to clear, up from 9.6 months in March.
Sales increased in the Northeast by 12 percent in April, leading all regions, as foreclosure filings in the United States rose to a record in April for the second consecutive month, according to Realtytrac Inc.
The Warren Group Inc. is a provider of New England real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman and other journals. Additional information is available at www.thewarrengroup.com.
