When is a 15% drop in sales good news?
When you're in the real estate business during a pandemic and your previous month saw more than a 30% drop.
The Rhode Island Association of Realtors on Wednesday announced that the number of single-family houses sold in June was down 14.6% from the same month a year ago.
"The decline was a significant improvement to" May, the association said in a news release that noted the number of sales in May was 31.0% lower than a year ago.
"In all the ways the coronavirus has impacted the housing market, its impact on the supply of available properties is the most severe," association president Shannon Buss said in the release. "There is no question that the pandemic has reduced an already low supply of homes for sale by causing potential sellers to delay or reverse their plans to sell. The irony is, given the lack of available homes to choose from and the tremendously low interest rates which are increasing demand, right now sellers are getting top dollar for their homes."
The median price at which a single-family house sold for in June rose 3.2% from last year, to $309,000, from $299,500.
The number of condominiums sold in June dropped 38.0%, from 255 a year ago to 158 this year. The median sales price rose 5.0%, from $238,000 to $250,000.
For multi-unit houses, the number sold was down 19.0%, from 152 to 123, while the median sales price rose 7.8%, from $278,250 to $300,000.
