Home sales rise in Q4, but prices fall

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - New housing data show that sales of single-family homes in Rhode Island were up in the fourth quarter of 2011 but that the median price dropped.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors said Tuesday that sales rose just over 10 percent from the same period a year ago. But prices declined 12 percent, to $185,000 from $210,000 in the fourth-quarter of 2010.

The association reported that the drop came as the number of so-called distressed sales increased in the same period by 28 percent.

Association President Jamie Moore says growth in sales is needed to turn around the struggling housing market and that the state is trending in the right direction.