Most Expensive Places To Live In Rhode Island For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In Rhode Island For 2020

The median income in Narragansett Pier comes in at $66,107 and the median home value is $515,500 for 2020.

2. Newport

Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The City of Newport is located approximately 37 miles southeast of Providence, 21 miles south of Fall River, and 74 miles south of Boston. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its mansions. It is also the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center. It was a major 18th-century port city and also contains a high number of surviving buildings from the colonial era of the United States.

The median income in Newport comes in at $65,431 and the median home value is $425,400 for 2020.

3. Newport East

The median income in Newport East comes in at $65,967 and the median home value is $341,500 for 2020.

4. Westerly

Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, United States founded in 1669 by John Babcock. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state. The population was 22,787 at the 2010 census.

The median income in Westerly comes in at $62,830 and the median home value is $283,300 for 2020.

The median income in Harrisville comes in at $27,155 and the median home value is $180,700 for 2020.

6. Providence

Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island in the early 1900s it was the most visited place, founded in 1636 and one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers to settle. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.

The median income in Providence comes in at $42,158 and the median home value is $192,100 for 2020.

7. Central Falls

Central Falls is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 19,376 at the 2010 census. With an area of only 1.29 square miles, it is the smallest and most densely populated city in the smallest state, and the 27th most densely populated incorporated place in the United States. It is also one of only four incorporated places in New England that have a higher population density than the city of Boston. The city takes its name from a waterfall on the Blackstone River.

The median income in Central Falls comes in at $31,724 and the median home value is $147,800 for 2020.

8. Kingston

Kingston is a village and a census-designated place in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, and the site of the main campus of the University of Rhode Island. Much of the village center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Kingston Village Historic District.

The median income in Kingston comes in at $95,875 and the median home value is $353,000 for 2020.

9. Pawtucket

Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 71,148 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth largest city in the state.

The median income in Pawtucket comes in at $46,938 and the median home value is $181,900 for 2020.

10. Woonsocket

Woonsocket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 41,186 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Woonsocket lies directly south of the Massachusetts state line and constitutes part of both the Providence metropolitan area and the larger Greater Boston Combined Statistical Area.

The median income in Woonsocket comes in at $39,932 and the median home value is $164,600 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Ocean State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Rhode Island to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 21 places in Rhode Island that have more than 1,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in Rhode Island according to the data is Narragansett Pier. You can download the data here.