If you are a regular here at Real Estate insight, you know one of my pet causes is in support of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association’s fight to keep National Grid from placing gas meters on the fronts of houses in Rhode Island. At on of the meetings concerning the meters, an audience member asked the National Grid representative what would happen if a car hit one of those meters, while their answer was a bit vague, what happened late Saturday night gives us a pretty good picture. Apparently there was a bank of gas meters on the front of an apartment building at 99 Rugby Street in Providence that, when hit by an SUV, ruptured the gas line and caused the explosion. Thankfully, no one was killed, but it does demonstrate the safety issues involved with exterior gas meter locations that are exposed to accidents and vandalism.

This week’s Real Estate Insight:

Both bills are scheduled for a vote this week on the Senate and House floors. Please let your senators and representatives know that you support S-107 (Senate vote this Tuesday) and H-5088 (House vote this Thursday).  Click here for the contact list for the Senators and State Representatives:

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/SenEmailListDistrict.asp

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/RepEmailListDistrict.asp

 

 listen to this week's show here: [47:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Spring is finally here and most of my agents, myself included, are seeing signs of life in the Real Estate market.  The latest figures are confirming what we have been seeing, and a visit from NAR’s top economist last week gave us all a little hope that we are finally starting to work through the excess inventory that is bogging down the market.

Bucking the national trend in home sales, The Rhode Island Association of Realtors (RIAR) showed a 12.4 % increase in sales from March 2008 to March 2009, and existing home sales increased 21.5% from February 09 to March 09. National Association of Realtors data showed a nationwide 7.1% decrease in sales during the same twelve months.  RIAR statistics include Rhode Island sales only, while NAR data includes the Fall River and New Bedford metropolitan areas. NAR reported that distressed sales accounted for just over half the sales in March virtually the same as in Rhode Island.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist was in Rhode Island last Wednesday speaking at a RIAR conference.  He feels the national housing market “has returned to its normal balance after a buying frenzy in the first part of this decade led to a collapse last year, that can set the stage for buyers to return to the market and house prices to stabilize.  A median-priced house is as affordable as it was in 1998, before the run-up in housing prices.” 

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

 You can take it from me, or you can listen to these two economists, Yun believes conditions are right for recovery to begin in Providence. “The buyer should be coming back, Providence will be the first housing market in the Northeast to emerge from the housing slump, and  University of Rhode Island  economist Len Lardaro agreed with Yun, saying “Now would not be a bad time to buy real estate — at the right price.”I’d be thinking about buying a house.”

 

 Listen to this week's show here [49:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download