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Some experts expect the reduction could come as soon as next month, though Powell did not provide a specific timeline. “The time has come for policy to adjust,” the Fed chair said in a speech. “The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”
Chris Whitten, president-elect of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, told the Globe Friday that buyers who had been waiting for mortgage rates to fall may now move to acquire homes. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage currently averages close to 6.5 percent, according to Freddie Mac.
Whitten suggested that lower borrowing costs could encourage potential homeowners from across the border in Massachusetts, for example, to look for more affordable options in Rhode Island.
In July, the median price for a single-family home in Rhode Island had risen to $495,000, a 12.5 percent increase over a year ago. While home prices may be going up in the Ocean State, in neighboring Massachusetts homes are even more expensive. The median price of a single-family home in the Bay State is $678,500, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
During the pandemic when rates were lower, willing buyers who were priced out of Massachusetts towns close to the Rhode Island border — like Rehoboth, North Attleboro and Plainville — were looking to purchase in the Rhode Island communities of Lincoln, Cumberland, Burrillville and East Providence, where homes were less expensive, Whitten said.
“What I anticipate with the rates coming down is that you’re going to have a lot of people coming from Massachusetts looking over the border, because things are a little bit more affordable,” he told the Globe. “We did see that happen, and I really anticipate that will be the case again, once the rates start to go low, because we’re going to have more buyers in the market and the prices going up due to the supply and demand.”
Whitten said that Rhode Island has struggled to build enough homes to match increasing demand. “Here’s another thing that’s sadly unique to Rhode Island. We are dead last in new construction build and we are also dead last in the country in permits, the start of new construction,” Whitten said. “We are a small state, and we love it for so many reasons, but we are a small state that doesn’t have a lot of land to develop.”
Rhode Island Realtors has been working to encourage policymakers to reduce red tape to allow for more homes to be developed, Whitten said, to increase the supply of homes and ease the pressure on prices in the state’s housing market.
“You’re looking at a lot of existing, preexisting, homes that everybody is going to be buying and selling and very, very, very few new construction homes,” he said.
Omar Mohammed can be reached at omar.mohammed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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