Rhode Island mortgage calculator

Property tax in Rhode Island

The median Rhode Island homeowner pays $4,900 a year in property tax on a home valued at $404,200, an effective rate of 1.2123% in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). That ranks the 15th highest of the 50 states and DC, above the middle state's 0.8003%. At that rate each $100,000 of home value carries about $1,212 a year of tax, or $101.03 a month in the payment, and that rate is what the calculator above starts from.

Rhode Island's counties sit fairly close together, so the state figure is a reasonable starting point. Among counties whose survey figures pass both quality checks, the effective rate runs from 0.888% in Newport County to 1.354% in Kent County. On a $404,200 home that gap is worth about $1,884 a year. Pick a county in the calculator to use its rate, or type the rate from a listing or a current tax bill.

The survey rate is what owners actually pay divided by what they say their homes are worth, with exemptions, caps and local levies folded in; it will not match any rate printed in Rhode Island law. Ask for the seller's latest bill and the assessed value too, since a new owner's assessment can differ from the long-held homes behind the median.

Rhode Island property tax rates by county

All 5 counties, sorted from the highest effective rate to the lowest. The rate is the median tax paid divided by the median home value, from the ACS 5-year 2020-2024 survey (figures to December 31, 2024). None of them carries a quality flag, so the calculator uses the figure of whichever county you pick.

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Worked example: the median Rhode Island home

The median owner-occupied home in Rhode Island is valued at $404,200 (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). Put $80,840 down, enough to keep the loan at 80% of the price so no PMI is charged, and borrow the rest over 30 years at 7.4%, the Freddie Mac average for the week of October 15, 2026. Insurance is the calculator's default of $1,500 a year, the same figure on every state page and 4.5% of this payment; real premiums vary widely from state to state and with a home's exposure to wind, flood and wildfire, so replace it with a premium for the Rhode Island home you are pricing.

Principal and interest dominate the bill; tax and insurance, usually collected through escrow, add $533.34 a month, 19.2% of the total. Over the full term the $323,360 loan costs $482,636 in interest.

With $40,420 down instead, the loan grows to $363,780 and PMI of $151.58 a month is added, for a first payment of $3,203.66. On the regular schedule the PMI stops after 10 years, with the payment in October 2036. A 15-year loan at the 6.71% average, with the larger down payment, raises the monthly figure to $3,387.62 but cuts the interest to $190,410.

What the median Rhode Island wage can buy

The median annual wage in Rhode Island is $56,780 (BLS wage survey, May 2025). Paid every two weeks as a single filer, that leaves about $3,754 a month after federal and Rhode Island paycheck deductions. With $60,000 saved for a down payment and $400 a month of other debts, the home affordability calculator's default 28/36 rule gives this range at 7.4% and the Rhode Island property tax rate:

Here the limit is total debt: the housing payment plus the other $400 a month reaches 36% of gross pay first. The target falls $203,315 short of the $404,200 median home value: the median home costs 7.1 times the median wage, so a typical Rhode Island purchase usually needs a second income, a larger down payment or a cheaper area.

Living costs add to the squeeze: everyday prices in Rhode Island, rent included, run 2.3% above the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parities for 2024 (figures to December 31, 2024). That shrinks the median wage to about $55,514 in national dollars.