Last week’s release of October home sales figures for Rhode Island continued a string of good news for the residential real estate market, with single-family home sales increasing 7.7 percent year over year (the much smaller condominium and multifamily homes figures were a mixed bag, with condo sales growing and multi-family sales falling).
The Rhode Island Association of Realtors was undeterred by the small decline in the median home price for single-family homes, especially given that the average days on market fell to 66 days from 90 days a year ago.
It is clear that the housing market has returned to some semblance of normalcy as the economic recovery, coupled with low interest rates, have made buying a house within reach of many more families.
But from an investor’s perspective, Rhode Island especially still has a long way to go to get back to its previous peaks, if that ever will happen.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Home Price Index indicates that home prices in the Ocean State at the end of the second quarter were still 21.2 percent below their June 2006 peak, larger than the 16.3 percent gap in Connecticut and the 12.5 percent gap in New Hampshire. In fact, only one New England state, Vermont, with a 2.5 percent gap, has had a smaller drop in prices than the nation as a whole, which has a 5.3 percent gap from its March 2007 peak to the end of June.
It’s often said that location is what matters most when selling a house. Timing plays a part, too. •
