Thursday, February 29, 2024
How tough is it to buy a home in Rhode Island?
While inventory is down more than 30% from this time last year across the state, that data point pales in comparison to the fact that one of Rhode Island's and the East Coast’s most desired areas has just one property on the market.
In the seaside community of Watch Hill, there are approximately 400 homes, and today, there is just one home presently on the market for sale.
The price of that one home is $4,750,000. SEE IT HERE
Across the state, there are currently fewer than 1,000 properties for sale, including single-family homes, condos, and multi-family homes. In a pre-pandemic February, there might have been three times as many properties on the market.
According to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, there is "a 1.4-month supply of single-family homes for sale at the current rate of sales, down from a two-month supply in September. A five- to six-month supply typically signifies a healthy market, balanced between supply and demand."
Geb Masterson, a realtor with Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International, specializes in the Watch Hill area, says the market has never been tighter.
“Currently, in Watch Hill, we have just one house on the market, and it has been on the market for about 10 years,” said Masterson on GoLocal Live on Wednesday.
While inventory is remarkably tight across the state, Masterson cites Watch Hill’s exclusivity and the impact of the Ocean House Hotel — one of the top-ranked hotels in the country.
“I call it the Ocean House Effect, you know when the Ocean House was redone about 14 to 15 years ago. Before that time, [Watch Hill] was just, I want to say, old families that have been coming there for generations. We had a lot of families from out west, the St. Louis crowd, and they knew Watch Hill was always sort of a hidden gem,” said Masterson.
Masterson says the spring real estate season will see the available inventory increase to three or four houses.
"It's a very very tight market,” he added.
Statewide Trends Are Not Much Better
The head of the realtors is equally cautious about the state's inventory.
"Recently, lower interest rates have helped ease affordability issues and allowed more people to jump back into the market. Unfortunately they still don’t have many options to choose from. The supply of homes for sale decreased throughout the fall, and we need to see that trend reverse,” said Sally Hersey, President of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.”
