Between our quarterly Market In This Moment reports, broker/owner Katy Donovan shares what she's seeing on the ground across Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Here's her take this month.

In June’s Quick Take, I wrote that buyers are done overpaying. Here is what has shifted since then.

Mortgage rates crossed 7%. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage crossed over 7% on Thursday, September 10th, for the first time since May 2025, according to Mortgage News Daily. Mortgage rates have been rising since late February, when the Iran conflict began. Rates hit a low of 5.99% just before the conflict started. Adam Dellemonico from Movement Mortgage recently wrote, “For perspective, conventional 30-year rates approached 8% at their peak in October 2023.”

Mixed signals from the RI housing market with prices up and fewer homes changing hands. The median sale price of a single-family home is up 6.7% year over year to $544,000, while the number of homes sold and under agreement have both dropped, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors® August report. Inventory sits at 2.8 months, up from 2.6 months when we published our Summer 2026 market update.

Know what you are signing. Listing Agreements and Buyer Agreements are both extremely important tools for the protection of consumers. Let me explain why. With rates and prices shifting week to week, reach out to me before you tour a home or list your own, and I will walk you through what each agreement covers.