WARWICK – Realtors in Rhode Island saw nearly 10 percent fewer home sales close in August than in the same month last year, while the number of unsold homes on the market grew 6.2 percent year over year, according to a report today by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
Last month, there were 863 statewide, a 9.54-percent drop from the 954 closings in August 2006. And during the last week of the month, there were 6,874 homes on the market in Rhode Island – 401 homes or 6.2 percent more than in the same period last year.
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From June through August, the median price of single-family homes sold in Rhode Island fell 3.16 percent, to $283,750.
Nationwide, “we still have a problem out there, which is a large overhang of unsold newly constructed homes,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Bloomberg News, in an interview today following the publication of his book, “The Age of Turbulence.” Home prices “are down only about 3 percent but they are clearly moving lower,” he said.
Yet Cecile Cohen, the RIAR’s president, said in the association’s report that the Rhode Island market is in good shape – with job growth, a stable economy and low interest rates – despite low homebuyer confidence stemming from the national sub-prime mortgage crisis.
A National Association of Realtors market analysis of the Providence metro region found that the jobs being added in Rhode Island – about 3,100, in the two years ended in July 2007 – should lead to more home sales, the RIAR said.
“People need to understand that real estate is local,” Cohen wrote. “What’s happening in Providence isn’t necessarily what’s happening in other parts of the country. The Northeast overall is faring better than the rest of the country.”
The Rhode Island Association of Realtors has nearly 5,000 member Realtors, who last year were involved in nearly $12,000 transactions totaling $3.95 billion. The RIAR is one of more than 1,800 local boards and associations that comprise the nation’s largest trade association, the National Association of Realtors. To learn more, visit www.riliving.com.
