WARWICK – In year-over-year figures, projected closings on single-family Rhode Island homes in October dropped 17.03 percent to 833 completed sales, according to a report released today by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
In addition, there are single-family homes on the market – and they are remaining unsold longer than they did in 2006. The inventory of unsold single-family homes increased 6.66 percent, from 6,453 at the end of October 2006 to 6,883 at the end of last month. Meanwhile, the average time on market increased nine days or 11.53-percent – to 87 days – for the August through October period.
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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“We’re coming off one of the hottest markets in history, so by comparison it seems slow, but [the National Association of Realtors] still expects this year to be the fifth-highest on record,” Rob Scaralia of RE/MAX 1st Choice in Cranston, the RIAR’s incoming president, noted in a statement today.
The median price of single-family Rhode Island homes sold in the third quarter fell 4.91 percent year-over-year, from $285,000 last year to $271,000 this year. But Global Insight – an international economic forecaster – is predicting that prices won’t continue dropping for long, the RIAR said. By early next year, the forecasting firm predicts prices should start back upward, reaching an estimated $310,000 by 2010.
“With record low interest rates and prices expected to bottom out in the near future … and the worst of the sub-prime scare expected to be behind us by early 2008,” Scaralia said, “this could be the perfect time to jump into the real estate market.”
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 comprising the nation’s largest trade association, the National Association of Realtors. To learn more, visit www.riliving.com.
