Counties / Rhode Island / Bristol County

Bristol County, RI

FIPS 44001 · population 50,490 · part of Providence, RI

$662k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$662k
▲ 1.4% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$2,271
▲ 4.0% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
4.1%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,729
market rent is 1.31x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+65.9%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+1.4%FHFA HPI2025+4.7%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$514k
Surveyed gross rent$1,528
Rent burden 30%+45.8%
Median year built1957
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
7.0%vacant
21,615estimated housing units
Occupied tenure28.2% renter
owner 71.8%renter 28.2%
Structure mix70.5% single-family
Single-family 70.5%20+ units 5.0%Mobile home 0.1%Other 24.5%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs15,129▼ 0.4% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments2,382annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,246▲ 10.6% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorEducation and health services26.5% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−0.4%WEEKLY WAGE+10.6%Education and health services26.5%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Bristol County presents a selectivity problem: its $661,879 median Zillow home value pairs with a supplied 4.12% gross yield, leaving limited room for costs at this price. Income-first investors should investigate; buyers relying on leverage or appreciation should be cautious. Zillow's price rose 1.43%, while FHFA's repeat-transaction HPI rose 4.72%. Their supplied vintages and methods differ, so they must not be averaged; FHFA is an appreciation index, not a home value. The thesis is conditional: the record pairs measured rent with the price, but does not establish a comfortable net return.

02Housing economics

Measured market rent is $2,271 monthly. HUD's FMR is $1,729, a payment standard rather than asking-rent evidence; market rent is 131.30% of it, so FMR cannot validate the rent. The 1.29% effective property-tax rate adds a carrying-cost check, while the supplied yield is gross and before operating costs. Insurance, repairs, vacancy, management, financing, and property-level inland-flood premiums are absent. Net cash flow therefore cannot be underwritten from this record.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com evidence is an asking-price market, not closed-sale demand: median listing price rose 7.74%, active listings rose 24.09%, median marketing time was 28 days, and pending listings equaled 106.47% of active listings. This indicates visible supply that is moving, but not what buyers paid. Demand is mixed: net migration was 4 households, while incoming movers' average AGI exceeded outgoing movers' by $22,882. QCEW covered workplace employment fell 0.38% as average weekly wage rose 10.56%. Education and health services is the largest disclosed private supersector, but QCEW is not resident employment or the Providence metro series. Investor participation was 9.15% of 437 purchase mortgages, a minority share in that set.

04Risk & next checks

Modeled annual building loss is 0.08% of value, with inland flood the dominant hazard; this is not an insurance quote or parcel-level flood determination. Next checks are closed-sale comparables, lease-up and expense history, financing terms, insurance and flood-zone quotes, and parcel tax review. Missing those data prevents a net-yield, debt-service-coverage, and property-specific resilience conclusion. Unit mix, condition, and a full resident-income and employer profile are also not supplied, limiting fit-to-asset testing.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Bristol County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

No Census-recognized place is published for this county. This does not mean nobody lives here; the population may be entirely outside an incorporated place or Census-designated place.

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.080% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.29%

$6,648 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+4

1,513 in · 1,509 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$22,882

$110,863 arriving · $87,981 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors9.2%

40 of 437 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings85▲ 24.1% year over year
Median days on market28▼ 9.8% year over year
Listings price-reduced6.1%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 7.7% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Providence, RI

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Bristol County50,490$662k$2,2714.1%inland flooding
Providence County664,854$460k$2,1105.5%inland flooding
Bristol County582,270$557k$2,0404.4%inland flooding
Kent County171,456$449k$2,2896.1%inland flooding
Washington County130,344$695k$2,5164.3%inland flooding
Newport County84,657$800k$3,1354.7%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Achievable rent or occupancy could be weaker than the published median asking rent, making gross yield inadequate after costs.
  2. Inland-flood exposure could produce insurance, mitigation, or repair costs not captured by the modeled loss.
  3. Flat migration and declining covered employment could weaken demand, while MLS and HPI evidence do not establish closed-sale support for the target property.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is the published market rent the same as HUD FMR?

No. Market rent is a median asking-rent measure, while HUD FMR is a payment standard and not an estimate of asking rent.

What does the employment evidence establish?

QCEW measures annual covered jobs located in the county and their average weekly wage. It is not resident employment, unemployment, a forecast, or the Providence metro labor series.

Does the record establish the property's flood cost?

No. It supplies a modeled annual building-loss ratio and identifies inland flood as the dominant hazard, but it does not supply an insurance quote or parcel-level flood determination.