R.I. home prices, sales plunge in January

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BOSTON – The median price of Rhode Island single-family homes sold in January fell 12.8 percent compared with the same month of 2007, in the largest year-over-year drop since The Warren Group started tracking the local residential market 19 years ago, the real estate data company said today.

The median price fell to $235,000, from $269,500 in January 2007, The Warren Group said. In December, the median sales price statewide had fallen 11.94 percent year-over-year.

The number of single-family homes sold in the first month of the year plummeted 24.3 percent – to 393 in 2008, from 519 in January 2007.

“In a small state like Rhode Island, month-by-month numbers do not always indicate trends,” CEO Timothy Warren Jr. said in a statement today. “But we have seen declines in single-family home sales hover around 20 percent for the past five months and monthly price drops leading up to January have been pushing toward 10 [percent].”

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Condominium sales statewide fell 26.2 percent – to 127 residential condo sales in January 2008 from 172 in the same month a year ago. The median price of condos sold that month also fell compared with a year ago, dropping 13.1 percent to $206,500.

Warren noted that many potential home and condo buyers are “probably worried that if they buy a home now, the price will drop even more.” He said a market upturn is “likely not imminent,” but added that Rhode Island could see some “bright spots” toward the end of 2008, if the economy doesn’t fall into a recession.

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.

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