Rhode Island house prices hit record highs in June. Is there any sign of a cooldown?

How high will they go?

That's the big question in the real estate market after June data from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors showed the median sales price of single-family and multifamily homes hit all-time highs last month.

Single-family homes hit an all-time high of $443,000, up from $427,000 in May. In the multifamily market, with far fewer sales, the median selling price was $500,000, up from $440,000 in May.

The median sales price of condos saw a slight decrease from a May high of $393,000, falling to $376,000 in June.

"They're going off the charts still," commercial real estate agent Michael Alves said.

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Alves specializes in commercial real estate, which includes multifamily complexes, from triple-deckers to apartment buildings. For apartment buildings, the price per unit is ranging from $80,000 to $120,000, but on the smaller end of multifamily housing, units are priced upward of $160,000.

Each unit in a triple-decker that sells for the median selling price of a multifamily building, $500,000, costs $166,666.

"We're at a very low inventory, and people can't find single-family homes, so they're using their FHA loans to buy more house," Alves said.

FHA refers to loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which require lower down payments and credit scores while also requiring certain standards of habitability.

With the median prices of single-family and multifamily homes so close, many people who are unable to find a single family are turning to multifamily houses, he said.

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"With a multifamily home, you're not going wrong buying at any price," he said. "A portion of your mortgage costs are paid by someone else. They're paying for repairs, taxes, insurance and some part of the mortgage."

Prices continue to be driven ever higher by limited inventory, Rhode Island Realtors Association President Bryant Da Cruz wrote in a news release. With so few houses on the market, prices will likely continue to climb, albeit at a much slower pace.

While the median price of condos is down slightly from May, when it hit a peak of $393,000, it's still up significantly from the level before the pandemic. In June, the median condo price was $376,000, up 18% from the price in June 2022 and 82% higher than in February 2019.

Price spikes that began during pandemic haven't stopped

The median price of houses really began to escalate during the pandemic. In February 2019, the median single-family home price was $250,000. Now, it's $443,000, a 77% increase in price.

For multifamily houses, the median price went from $255,000 in February 2019 to $500,000 this June, a 96% increase. If the median price in July increases by $10,000, multifamily prices will have doubled since the start of 2019.

More: You can still buy a house, or condo, for $300K in RI. Here's what the market looks like.

How much does it cost to buy a median-price house?

Interest rates continue to hover just below 7%, the peak they hit in November 2022, the highest since April 2002.

At the current interest rate of 6.78%, the mortgage on a median single-family home would cost $2,954 a month, assuming a 10% down payment of $44,300 and excluding costs such as taxes and insurance.

A $500,000 multifamily home would cost $2,928 a month, with a down payment of $50,000, excluding taxes and insurance.

A $376,000 condo would cost $2,202 a month, with a down payment of $37,600, excluding taxes and insurance.

Interested in reading more about the housing market?

If you're interested in the housing market, consider our series of stories on how much house you can buy up and down the price spectrum. Most recently, we wrote about what $300,000 buys. Other price points include $1 million homes, $700,000 homes, $250,000 homes (the pre-pandemic median selling price) and $400,000 homes, close to the current median selling price.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island housing prices hit record high in June