Buying a home in Rhode Island has gotten a lot more difficult in recent years. In the first quarter of 2025, the median sales price for a single-family home climbed to $465,000, according to data from RIRealtors. And income hasn’t caught up. In April, Rhode Island was rated the least affordable state to buy a home in the country by Realtor.com.
So, how did we get here?
We sat down with Richard Godfrey, a longtime housing professional and adjunct professor at Roger Williams University, to learn about the unique reasons why Rhode Island is facing a shortage of affordable homes.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Isabella Jibilian: What is the experience of trying to buy a house like in Rhode Island these days?
Richard Godfrey: To buy a home in Rhode Island today, you basically need a household income of $120,000 a year, and you will struggle to buy a home.
IJ: How is the story of housing in Rhode Island similar and different from the nationwide story about housing affordability?
RG: It’s basic economics. How much do people earn? How much does it cost to build a home? And what is the infrastructure available?
IJ: : How much building has been happening in Rhode Island over the past couple of decades?
RG: Rhode Island has the lowest per capita housing production in the country. Part of that is a direct result of the fact that we are the most densely populated state. And we have the most vulnerable lands, and we want to preserve the open space that we have. And so a lot of cities and towns resist new construction of housing.
We also have very strict building codes that improve energy efficiency, fire protection, and storm protection. All of those things are wonderful from a safety perspective, but they add cost. When you couple that with zoning restrictions, the cost to build becomes prohibitive.
We shouldn’t get rid of all of our safety and energy efficiency standards because they provide better quality housing, but we can control our zoning, which allows us to build at more reasonable densities.
Watch the full story on Rhode Island PBS Weekly:
IJ: : This has been a problem in Rhode Island for a while now, this problem of housing affordability. Why hasn’t it been solved yet? Or why hasn’t it gotten better?
RG: Because people don’t want more people in their towns. We have land available, it makes economic sense. We just don’t want to do it.
IJ: : What barriers have prevented development in Rhode Island?
RG: There were two primary zoning caps that prevented development. Number one, our large acre lots. The original 1950s development pattern was on a sixth of an acre or four homes to an acre. Most of that is outlawed in Rhode Island right now. It requires a minimum of one or two acres.
And the second issue is we have all of these commercial strips in which residential housing is prohibited. Last year, a change allowed it in certain instances. But we still have lots of unutilized state highways.
So the fact that we don’t allow small development patterns in Rhode Island means that we just can’t build.
We want to preserve our fields and forests. We have lots of wetlands. We’re already the second most developed state, and we probably have the most vulnerable coastline, per square mile. So if we want to protect Rhode Island the way it is, we need to figure out how to use our land better.
Watch the full story on Rhode Island PBS Weekly:
