Home prices soar in a sluggish Rhode Island market

The median sales price for a single-family home in Rhode Island jumped 11.4% year over year in March to $440,000, the state’s realtors association reported Thursday.

For Massachusetts home seekers looking for a break in the Ocean State, the seas are nearly just as stormy. Single-family home prices in both states jumped by double digits between March 2023 and March 2024, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

The medial sales price of a single-family home in Providence, for example, climbed from $337,250 to $373,750 in March, a 10.82% jump. In Lincoln, the increase was more severe from, $410,000 to $560,000, a rise of 36.59%.

“The available supply of homes remains critically low going into the spring selling season,” the report reads. “At the current inventory level and pace of sales in March, all single-family homes on the market would be sold in less than one month, far less than the five to six months seen during a market balanced between supply and demand.”

Home sales fell by 4.9%, and sales “in process but not completed by the end of March fell by 7.2%, an indication that market activity will remain slow” for the rest of April, the report says.

“Sales could remain hampered through the spring market thanks to the recent news that the Federal Reserve reported an uptick in inflation in March, which means no immediate cuts to mortgage rates,” said Sally Hersey, association president. “On the positive side, a recent rise in mortgage rates may help increase inventory, which is desperately needed.”

High mortgage rates affect the buyer’s side, because some will no longer qualify for the home they want or they will opt to sit on the sidelines, Hersey told Boston.com.

Rhode Island condo market

If you are looking for a condo as your first step into homeownership or your housing type of choice as you downsize, the number of listings is up but so are prices.

Calling Rhode Island’s condo market the “outlier,” the report noted that sales in this category were up 0.81% year over year and that the number of pending sales reflected a 7.6% increase.

Meanwhile, the number of condo units on the market (241) climbed by more than 5%.

The median sales price was also up, and by double digits — from $319,950 to $370,000, a 15.64% increase.

Rhode Island multifamily market

Sales plummeted 19% year over year in March in this category, which is often viewed as a way to own a home and help pay off one’s mortgage. The median sales price rose 18.9%, to $535,000.