Rhode Island rental market data

Apartment List's recent-lease rent measure reached $1,537, up from $1,511 a year earlier, for 1.7% growth. The national comparator fell 1.1%, leaving Rhode Island's growth rate 2.8 percentage points stronger. That supports continued testing of rent resilience, but not automatic application of the state gain to every unit.

The separate Vacancy Index moved in the opposite direction, rising from 5.0% to 5.8%, an increase of 0.8 percentage point. Current vacancy was still 1.4 percentage points below the national 7.2%, but the increase is a genuine counter-signal. No state time-on-market figure is supplied; the national move from 28 to 30 days cannot serve as a Rhode Island lease-up estimate.

Across five counties, the 10th-to-90th percentile range for ACS housing vacancy was 5.6% to 18.7%, while renter shares ranged from 24.3% to 38.7%. Washington County stood above that vacancy band at 20.8%. These are broad ACS housing-stock vacancy measures, not the Apartment List Vacancy Index or a count of apartments currently available to rent.

Affordability pressure is more consistent: the median county share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent was 49.5%, with a 46.4% to 50.7% 10th-to-90th percentile range. Washington County measured 51.3%. The median county single-family share was 70.5%, and the median across county median-year-built figures was 1963. Screening therefore needs unit-type, condition and rehabilitation checks alongside rent assumptions; these aggregates do not reveal a particular property's tenant base or physical condition.

Across five counties, the 10th-to-90th percentile range for headline gross yield was 4.2% to 5.9%. Among the three highlighted county profiles, Kent County measured a 6.1% gross yield on a $449,155 value and $2,289 monthly rent. Newport County measured 4.7% on $800,321 and $3,135, while Bristol County measured 4.1% on $661,879 and $2,271. The spread makes county selection consequential, but these are gross figures before vacancy, maintenance, taxes, insurance and financing.

For-sale listing conditions are not uniform either. Washington County had a 32-day median listing time and a 0.75 pending ratio, compared with 31 days and 1.23 in Kent County. Providence County had a 29-day median and a 9.1% price-reduced share. These are resale indicators, not rental listing time, and county listing coverage is incomplete, so they should inform exit-liquidity screening rather than lease-up assumptions.

Providence, RI, the sole measured metro, recorded a 0.3% year-over-year job decline. Across five counties, 26,761 movers came in and 26,890 moved out, producing net migration of negative 129, or negative 0.12 per 1,000 residents. Those measures do not supply a broad demand tailwind for the positive rent signal.

The income flow is a counter-signal within the migration data: aggregate incoming mover AGI was $480,850 versus $425,125 outgoing, a positive gap of $55,725. The combination points to nearly balanced headcount with a positive measured income gap, not a simple expansion or contraction story. Because the job and migration series have different coverage, they cannot establish current renter-household formation in a specific submarket.

The HMDA measure records 866 investor purchases among 10,214 purchases across five counties. County investor shares had a 9.2% median and a 6.9% to 12.1% 10th-to-90th percentile range, showing that non-occupant participation is not evenly distributed.

Among the highlighted counties, Newport County had a 13.7% investor share, with 102 investor purchases out of 746, and a 4.7% gross yield. Washington County measured 9.7% and 4.3%, while Bristol County measured 9.2% and 4.1%. These figures can flag where investor-coded financing is more visible, but HMDA purchase originations do not capture all-cash activity or prove that a non-occupant purchase became a long-term rental.

Inland flood is the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label in all five counties. County climate-loss ratios had a 0.095% median and a 0.071% to 0.105% 10th-to-90th percentile range. That establishes a county-level screening theme, not flood exposure for every parcel or building.

Effective property-tax rates had a 1.25% county median and a 0.93% to 1.33% 10th-to-90th percentile range. The median tax measured $5,102 across counties; Bristol County was $6,648, compared with $4,683 in Providence County. Property underwriting needs the actual assessment, insurance terms and parcel hazard information because county distributions cannot determine a building's operating burden.