REOs 20 Percent of Rhode Island Sales

The number of bank-owned property sales in Rhode Island has ballooned to nearly 20 percent of single-family home sales transactions so far in 2009, according to a new report from ""The Warren Group"":http://www.thewarrengroup.com, a real estate research firm covering the New England area. That figure compares to just 6 percent last year.
Overall, single-family home sales in Rhode Island fell 6.2 percent to 635 in May, down from 677 in May 2008. Based on the research company’s local data, a total of 2,336 single-family homes have sold in the state during the first five months of the year, an 8.5 percent drop from last year.
Of the single-family home sales recorded in Rhode Island through May, 460 involved a bank or lending institution, according to The Warren Group. That represents 19.7 percent of all single-family home sales transactions from January through May 2009. During the same months last year, only 163 single-family home sales - or 6.4 percent of sales -- were REO properties.
Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, commented, ""The sale of distressed home sales has become a larger share of the residential real estate market in Rhode Island, especially when compared to other New England states. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, the sale of bank-owned properties has also grown but not to the extent it has in Rhode Island.""
Rhode Island’s median price for single-family homes plunged 24.6 percent to $190,100, down from $252,000 last May. So far this year, the median home price has dropped 24.5 percent. The Warren Group noted that without the REO sales transactions, the year-to-date median home price in the state would have been $210,000.
Monthly home prices in Rhode Island have been declining by double-digit percentages year-over-year since last June.