Providence area home prices fall 5.5%

By Patrick Anderson
PBN Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE – Single-family home prices in the Providence-Fall River-New Bedford area fell 5.5 percent in January compared with the same period in 2011, CoreLogic said Wednesday.

Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices in January declined 1.6 percent in the metropolitan area, according to the California-based real estate tracking firm.

In Rhode Island, prices fell 5.6 percent in January compared with January 2011. Excluding distressed sales, Rhode Island prices declined 0.8 percent year-over-year in January. The Providence area includes all of Rhode Island, except Newport County, plus Bristol County, Mass.

Statewide, Massachusetts home prices fell 2 percent year-over-year in January.

The price declines in the Providence area reflected the national market, which saw prices decline 3.1 percent on the CoreLogic price index.

“Although home price declines are slowly improving and not far from the bottom, home prices are down to nearly the same levels as 10 years ago,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.