BOSTON – Single-family home sales and the median sale price both fell about 13 percent last year in Rhode Island, according to year-end statistics released today by The Warren Group (TWG), a Boston-based real estate tracker and publisher.
Statewide, 6,761 houses were sold in 2008, a 13.4-percent decrease from the 7,811 sold in 2007. Last year’s sales volume was the lowest the state has seen since 1995, when 6,731 single-family homes were sold, according to today’s data, which includes all sales completed in the state.
The annual median price of houses sold statewide fell 13.2 percent, to $230,000 in 2008 from $265,000 the year before. Last year’s median price – the lowest since 2003 – was $43,000 lower than the state’s 2005 peak of $273,000.
“Last year was the third consecutive year that single-family home sales fell by double-digit percentages in Rhode Island,” TWG Chief Executive Officer Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement this morning. “It’s also the second year that home prices declined. But last year’s price drop is the steepest since The Warren Group started tracking the state’s housing market back in 1989.”
December sales fell 5.8 percent year-over-year to 505 from 536. And the median price of homes sold during December plummeted 20.8 percent, to $190,000 last month from $240,000 in the final month of 2007.
“December’s median home price was the lowest it’s been for the month in seven years,” Warren said. “In fact, the median home price was even lower than the median condo price during the month of December. Home-price declines will not level off until sales start to climb for several consecutive months.”
Condominium sales dropped last year to a 10-year low of 1,502, a 34.3-percent drop from the 2,285 Rhode Island condos sold in 2007. The median price price for the year fell to $210,263, a 6.8-percent decline from the 2007 average condo price of $225,500.
December condo sales fell 38.1 percent, to 96 sold last month from 155 in December 2007. The median price of those condos was $199,900, an 18.4-percent drop from the $245,000 median price in December 2007.
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.
