After months of increasing sales and declining inventory, Rhode Island's housing market experienced a 4% sales dip in July, but strong demand pushed the median house price up by nearly 3%, to $270,000.
The new report from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, released Wednesday, noted that the inventory of homes for sale in Rhode Island in July was 15.6% below the level in July 2016. Pending sales fell by 23%.
The association blamed low inventory for the decrease in sales. There were 3,886 houses listed for sale in July, down from 4,604 in July 2016.
"Clearly, Rhode Island continues to struggle with maintaining an adequate supply of homes for sale," said association president Brenda Marchwicki.
As for the median house price, though it was $5,000 below June's median price, it was the second highest monthly median price for single-family homes since 2007, the association said. Rhode Island's median house price reached $282,500 in 2006 (for the whole year). By 2012, it was $190,000 (again, for the year as a whole).
About six months' worth of homes for sale is considered a balanced market, with less than six months indicating a sellers' market and more than six months signaling a buyer's market.
The association's zip-code map of inventory showed less than two months of supply in many neighborhoods in the Providence area, including zip codes in Providence itself, East Providence, including Rumford, and Cranston, Warwick, Pawtucket, West Warwick, Central Falls, and North Providence. The Harrisville section of Burrillville was also identified as a low-inventory community.
High-inventory zip codes were located in Portsmouth, Block Island, Little Compton and Jamestown.
The condo market performed well in July, with 188 sales, an increase of nearly 10%, and the median condo price, at $221,250, up 11.2% since July 2016. There were 862 condos on the market in July, a decline of 5.6% from July 2016.
Marchwicki said that the multifamily market in Rhode Island "is seeing a great deal of investor activity," because rents are "rising rapidly." There were 142 multifamily properties sold in Rhode Island in July, at a median price of $227,950. The sales were up by 8% and the median price was up by nearly 20% compared with July 2016. The average "days on market" for multifamily houses was 33 in July.
There were 547 multifamilies listed for sale in July, a decline of 21% from July 2016.
