Sales Continue to Grow in Home Market

Sales Continue to Grow in Home Market

December 20, 2011 - Warwick, RI...Single family homes sales continued to rise in November, according to sales statistics released today by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. Five hundred and thirty-three (533) homes sold in November, up from 505 in November, 2010, a six percent increase.  Pending sales – homes under contract but not yet closed – also increased 14 percent from the same time last year.  The distressed market remained stable with 117 homes sold through short sale or foreclosure, the same as the number sold in November, 2010.

The median price of single family homes declined eight percent since the prior year but rose six percent from the previous month. The median price of single family home sales last month was $193,000 and the median price of single family homes sold through conventional means only, meaning not through short sale or foreclosure, was $222,500.

"We’re still in a recovery period and increased sales are helping to stabilize the market," said Jamie Moore, 2012 President of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.  "We won't see an increase in prices until we see a balance of supply and demand so the more homes that sell, the better off the market will be," she said.

Condo sales rose one percent since November, 2010 and pending sales increased six percent.  Distressed condo sales increased 23 percent however, leading to a decline in median price of 17 percent.  (Low-priced foreclosure and short sales tend to drag the median price down.)  The median price of non-distressed sales was $231,000, compared to the overall condo median sales price of $163,500. 
"The condo market is struggling a bit more now than the single family home market but we did see some progress in November.  The November median price was 16 percent higher than it was in October," relayed Moore.

Multi-family properties also saw a rise in sales of 11 percent from November 2010 and a rise in pending sales of six percent.  Distressed sales rose 11 percent from the year prior as well, helping to drag down the year over year median price by four percent.  The median price has risen in recent months however, with October's median of $100,000 increasing 20 percent to $120,000 last month.

Recently, the National Association of Realtors announced that it will downwardly revise sale and inventory data recorded since January 2007 due to benchmarking revisions.  The change has no bearing on RI Association of Realtors statistics which are derived from raw sales data input into the State-Wide Multiple Listing Service and are not benchmarked for seasonality or other variances in any way.