WARWICK – The median sale price of a single-family home in Rhode Island fell 17.83 percent year over year to $230,000 during the July-to-September period, according to quarterly statistics released today by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

The number of single-family homes sold in the quarter fell 8.07 percent to 1,926 from 2,095 in the third quarter of 2007. Of those homes sold, 27.41 percent were either short sales or foreclosures, RIAR reported today. The fall in sales this year was nearly equal to the 8.56-percent drop in sales seen during the same three-month period of 2007.

RIAR President Paul A. Leys, co-owner of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty in Newport, said in an accompanying statement that sales have “struggled.”

“However, it’s never been more important to see how the market relates to your own situation,” he said. “If you dissect the statistics to look at the home sales that occurred under normal circumstances, not duress, you see that the median price of $268,500 was more than the price we saw in 2003, a time when Rhode Island’s home-price appreciation ranked first in the country with a year-to-year increase of more than 18 percent.

“Also, the fact that sales increased markedly at the end of the third quarter is a good sign for Rhode Island,” referring to the 6.4-percent year-over-year increase in September single-family home sales that the RIAR reported on Monday. (READ MORE)

During the three-month period, condominium sales in the Ocean State fell 26.58 percent to 337 units. In the same 2007 period, 459 were sold. And in the same 2006 period, 541 were sold.

Of those condos sold during this year’s third quarter, 10.68 percent were either short sales or foreclosures. Year-over-year quarterly condo prices fell 4.37 percent to $219,950.

Multi-family home sales jumped during the third quarter by 52.2 percent – rising from 295 sales in 2007 to 449 in 2008. Of those sold, 317 – 70.6 percent – were either short sales or foreclosures. The quarterly median price on multi-family homes fell 46 percent to $135,000.

“The entire Rhode Island market is on sale, and our numbers are showing that people are sensing the bottom,” Leys said. “Housing-stimulus relief efforts like the $7,500 tax credit for those who haven’t owned a home in three or more years are helping to make home ownership achievable for a lot of people. We’re optimistic that the worst is behind us.”

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors has nearly 4,000 member Realtors who last year were involved with more than 14,000 transactions totaling more than $4.24 billion. RIAR is one of more than 1,800 local boards and associations of Realtors comprising the nation’s largest trade associations, the National Association of Realtors. For additional information, including a municipal breakdown of the statistics, visit www.riliving.com.