Fed interest rate cuts could draw out-of-state homebuyers to Rhode Island, increasing home prices – The Boston Globe

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.