Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Typical home $382,044 (+1.5% in a year), asking rent $1,547 (+5.5%). Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,191 (+146%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,711 +2%
- $376,333$382,044 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $92,882 +32%
- $289,162$382,044 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Central Falls$2,005
- Rhode Island$2,669
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Central Falls, RI rose 1.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Central Falls, RI rose 5.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Central Falls runs $1,266/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $2,813 a month against $1,547 rent: a $2,005 mortgage payment, plus $399 property tax and $409 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Central Falls
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,813
- Renting$1,547
- Mortgage only$2,005
Property tax · $399/mo 1.25% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Providence County, RI
Insurance & upkeep · $409/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Central Falls, Providence County, Rhode Island
Central Falls is a city of 22,583 people in Providence County. Half its households earn more than $49,285 a year and half less, against $78,787 across Providence County; 25% of its people live below the poverty line. 26% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 74% are rented. Unemployment in Central Falls was 4.5% in August 2026, and Providence County had 0.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Central Falls is a small, densely settled city beside the Blackstone River, with a young population and far more renters than across the county. Incomes run well below the county's, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in most places. Winters are cold and snowy, summers warm, and precipitation falls fairly evenly through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing and in shops. The largest workplaces in the city include Central Falls Schools, Learning Community Schools and Rosco Manufacturing. Commutes are about typical, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Blackstone River runs in or beside town, and Slater Mill Historic Site, a museum of early American industry, is also in or beside town, as is Centreville Bank Stadium. Roger Williams National Memorial, a protected area, is a short drive away.
Report a mistake
- 7,683households
- 11%of adults have a degree
- 25%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Providence County had 290,835 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 42 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Woonsocket weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Central Falls
- Central Falls SchoolsSchool district522FTE
- Learning Community SchoolsSchool district94FTE
- Segue Institute for Learning SchoolsSchool district69FTE
- Rosco ManufacturingCarbines manufacturing48
- Atlantic Coast CreationsManufacture21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 69 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Central Falls’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Providence County and the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro.
Central Falls home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Central Falls$382,044
- Rhode Island$508,507
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Central Falls8
Zip codes with a Central Falls address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Central Falls — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.