BOSTON – Sales and prices of single-family homes declined in May in Rhode Island and across southern New England, according to a report today from The Warren Group. On the other hand, Ocean State condominium sales surged in May, although their prices fell.
The number of single-family homes sold in May declined 10.5 percent to 867 from 969 in the same month a year earlier. For the first five months of the year, sales fell 5.4 percent to 3,450 from the year-ago 3,648.
Prices were steadier, with the median price for May falling 2.4 percent to $261,000 from $265,000 a year ago. The median price for the first five months of the year falling 1.9 percent to $260,000.
“We continue to see sales of single-family homes struggling a bit,” said Timothy Warren Jr., The Warren Group’s CEO. “But condominium sales in Rhode Island are providing stability to the market.” Local condo sale “have shown consistency” since the beginning of 2005, the report said, with spring and summer sales hovering “around 250 units per month.”
May sales exceeded that, surging 18.8 percent to 266 from the year-ago 224. Sales in the first five months of the year rose 6.6. percent to 1,000 from 938 in the same period of 2006.
But the median condo price in Rhode Island fell 8 percent in May to $230,000 from the $250,000 a year earlier, and the year-to date median price fell 4.4 percent to $225,000.
“The drops in prices and sales for single-family homes are not dramatic in Rhode Island,” said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, “but the increase in condo sales is interesting. Neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut has experienced such a phenomenon so far this year.”
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.
