Sales are cooling with some real-estate agents saying that sellers are getting a dose of realism.
01:47 PM EST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Rhode Island's housing market ended last year with overall prices up, sales down and selling time longer than it's been in five years.
A report released today by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors shows that the statewide median price of a single-family house in the fourth quarter rose 5.6 percent, to $285,000. That's compared with a 13-percent increase in the median price during the fourth quarter of 2004. (House prices are typically compared with the same quarter of the prior year. For the full year of 2005, the median price was $282,900.)
During October, November and December, house prices fell in nine communities: Tiverton, Barrington, Bristol, Johnston, Lincoln, Smithfield, Westerly, Narragansett and East Greenwich.
The average number of days on the market for a single-family house during the fourth quarter rose to 67, up from 61 days during the same period in 2004.
The market's downshift has forced real-estate agents to adopt a whole new lexicon for describing what is taking place. The housing market is "tempering" or "moderating" or "becoming more balanced."
"It's not quite as frenetic," said Bob Del Deo, a real-state agent with Coleman Realtors, on the East Side of Providence. "It's a more rational market."
Michele Caprio, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, said, "Generally, there's been a sort of tempering effect. . . . I'd say the market's moderating."
The market shift has meant that sellers with "elevated expectations" are getting a dose of "realism," the agents say, but, some say, customers aren't getting it soon enough.
"I lost a listing this morning where two other [agents'] prices were higher," said Peter Ciccone,a real-estate agent for RE/Max Professionals, in East Greenwich. "I just said . . . it's probably gonna sit" on the market. "And I don't want to get stuck."
In East Greenwich, the median price during the fourth quarter fell 15 percent, to $480,000, compared with $565,000 during the same period in 2004.
Similarly, in Bristol, the median house price during the quarter fell 10.4 percent, to $326,950, compared with $364,900 during the fourth quarter of 2004.
The market's shift has created a "communication barrier" between sellers and buyers, said Ron Phipps, a real-estate broker for Phipps Realty, in Warwick.
"I have a significant number of sellers in East Greenwich who got offers in the last quarter and refused them," he said. "The buyers were reading national press and saying, 'I can offer 10-percent less than the list.' And the sellers were saying. 'I'm not selling!' "
Ciccone said sellers are "used to the last five years. . . . If you throw realism at them, they don't necessarily want it."
Expectations aside, prices overall are still going up, said Caprio. And the fact remains that last year ended with the second-highest number of single-family house sales ever recorded.
House prices rose by 10 percent or more last year in 14 cities and towns in the state, the Realtors' association said in its news release.
And despite lousy weather, Caprio's and others' talk about January sales is warming. "Right after Christmas, we had a meeting at the Rhode Island Association of Realtors and people were coming in saying, 'Wow! Our phones haven't stopped ringing! . . . So that's a good sign."
"There's nothing wrong with a flat market," added Ciccone, "it just means we can't have these inflated prices."
larditi@projo.com / (401) 277-7335
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