Westerly, Rhode Island.
Typical home $634,210 (+8.8% in a year), asking rent $2,027 (+2.8%). Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,001 (+151%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $51,106 +9%
- $583,104$634,210 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $175,005 +38%
- $459,205$634,210 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.
- Westerly$3,329
- Rhode Island$2,669
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Westerly, RI rose 8.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Westerly, RI rose 2.8% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Westerly runs $2,509/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $4,536 a month against $2,027 rent: a $3,329 mortgage payment, plus $528 property tax and $679 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Westerly
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$4,536
- Renting$2,027
- Mortgage only$3,329
Property tax · $528/mo 1.00% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Washington County, RI
Insurance & upkeep · $679/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 Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island
Westerly, in Washington County, had 18,423 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $95,207 a year and half less, against $106,638 across Washington County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Washington County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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. Westerly is a coastal community on the Rhode Island shore, in Washington County, with an older population than most of the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Household incomes run somewhat below the county's, and typical home values and rents are on the high side.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, along with manufacturing and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Westerly are The Westerly Hospital, Westerly Schools and Super Stop & Shop. The typical commute is moderate, and some people work from home.
Things to do. Misquamicut State Beach is a short drive away, and Wilcox Park, a botanical garden, sits in or beside town. Mystic Seaport, a museum, is also a short drive away, while The Breakers, a museum, is a longer drive. Winters are cold, summers are warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
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- 8,282households
- 43%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 59,618 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 66°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Westerly State Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Westerly
- THE Westerly HospitalGeneral hospital537FTE
- Westerly SchoolsSchool district441FTE
- Super Stop & ShopGrocery stores120
- Westerly OperatorSkilled nursing facilities119
- Darlington Fabrics a Division of the Moore Co Beach Street LocationKnitting and finishing warp or weft fabric101
- Apple Rehab ClipperConvalescent homes or convalescent hospitals67
- Darligton Fabrics A division of the Moore Co., Canal Street LocationKnitting and finishing warp or weft fabric56
- Riverhead Building SupplyBuilding materials supply dealers56
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 18 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,485 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Westerly’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 Washington County and the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro.
Westerly home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Westerly$634,210
- Rhode Island$508,507
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Westerly listings, and the typical home goes pending in 19 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Westerly17.29%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Westerly73
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Westerly28
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Westerly address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Westerly — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.