WARWICK – First-quarter condominium sales in the Ocean State rose to 390, an increase of 4.3 percent compared with the 374 sales in the first three months of 2006, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
The median sale price declined 9.8 percent to $207,500 (meaning half of condo sales were at higher prices and half at lower prices) from the year-ago $230,000. “Changes in the median sales price generally reflects a change in the mix of properties being sold at the time,” the Realtors noted. “Median sales prices for condos are particularly susceptible to variations. … A number of sales in a particular development of a specific price range can skew the median higher or lower.”
The average time a condo spent on the market in the first quarter increased 31.8 percent to 112 days, compared with the year-ago 85 days.
Northern Rhode Island had the strongest sales, with volume more than doubling in Lincoln to 35 sales and Woonsocket to 27. The median condo price increased in Cumberland, Woonsocket and North Smithfield and declined in Lincoln, Smithfield, Burrillville and Pawtucket. Central Falls saw no condo sales in the quarter.
In Providence, condo sales increased 34.5 percent to 39, the most in any single community. In Warren, sales were level but the median price more than doubled to $550,000 from the year-ago $234,900. Prices rose 24.8 percent in East Providence, 11.7 percent in North Providence and 1.1 percent in the East Side.
Kent County condo sales were led by West Warwick, with 28. Volume was steady in Coventry and declined in East Greenwich and Warwick, though the median price in Warwick rose 6.1 percent to $213,000. Kent-Washington Association of Realtors President Stephen Antoni credited “central location in the state” with driving sales in Warwick and West Warwick.
The South County region saw 33 condo sales, down from 34 in the first quarter of 2006. Volume declined only in South Kingstown and North Kingstown, to 8 and 5 sales, respectively.
Newport County saw 30 condo sales, compared with 36 in the same period last year. The median price in Portsmouth declined to $390,000 from $534,721, where Newport County Board of Realtors President Jennifer O’Hora Lawrence credited the first-quarter 2006 sales of five condos at Ferry Landing with driving up the median price last year.
