Providence, Rhode Island.
Typical home $431,740 (+2.3% in a year), asking rent $2,190 (+4.9%). Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,329 (+142%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,687 +2%
- $422,053$431,740 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $106,495 +33%
- $325,245$431,740 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.
- Providence$2,266
- 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 Providence, RI rose 2.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Providence, RI rose 4.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Providence runs $989/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,096 in Jan 2025.
That is $3,179 a month against $2,190 rent: a $2,266 mortgage payment, plus $451 property tax and $462 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Providence
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$3,179
- Renting$2,190
- Mortgage only$2,266
Property tax · $451/mo 1.25% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Providence County, RI
Insurance & upkeep · $462/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 Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island
Providence is a city of 190,934 people in Providence County. Half its households earn more than $68,119 a year and half less, against $78,787 across Providence County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 41% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 59% are rented. Unemployment in Providence was 4.6% in August 2026, and Providence County had 0.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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. Providence is the largest city in Rhode Island, and its residents skew younger than the national picture, with many renters and fewer owners than across Providence County. Household incomes run below the county's, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect in a place with so much institutional employment. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, and summers turn properly warm by July, with rain and melted snow falling steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, manufacturing and shops. Among the largest workplaces in the city are Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University and Providence Schools. Jobs across Providence County grew slightly last year, and unemployment in the city has eased compared with a year ago. A typical commute is moderate, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. Waterplace Park and Burnside Park are both in or beside the city, and Roger Williams National Memorial, a protected area, is close by too. The Woonasquatucket River runs through or alongside town, while the Providence River, the Seekonk River and the Blackstone River are all a short drive away. For a longer trip, Gillette Stadium is a longer drive away.
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- 71,497households
- 35%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 14%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 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 65°. About 37 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Providence T F Green Airport weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Providence
- Rhode Island HospitalGeneral hospital6,658FTE
- Brown UniversityUniversity or college5,496
- Providence SchoolsSchool district3,151FTE
- Gilbane Building Company CorporateConstruction management, commercial and institutional building3,064
- Women & Infants HospitalGeneral hospital2,932FTE
- THE Miriam HospitalGeneral hospital2,614FTE
- LifespanCentralized administrative offices1,890
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,693
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 104 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 36,297 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Providence’s 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.
Providence home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Providence$431,740
- Rhode Island$508,507
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Providence listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Providence23.22%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Providence20
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Providence244
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Providence92
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Providence$448,445
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Providence101.45%
Zip codes with a Providence address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Providence — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Providence
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02909 | Providence | 46,014 | $2,054 | $384,911 |
| 02908 | Providence | 39,500 | $2,136 | $416,090 |
| 02907 | Providence | 31,461 | $1,827 | $398,420 |
| 02906 | Providence | 26,380 | $2,606 | $805,853 |
| 02905 | Providence | 25,012 | $2,006 | $418,818 |
| 02903 | Providence | 11,836 | $2,318 | $440,742 |