After a two-year pause, high-end home sales across the Ocean State resumed their climb to new heights in 2024, rising 31% to a new record.
Low inventory and inflation continued to push real estate prices higher across the broader market. That helped boost the number of homes selling for more than $1 million above 700 for the first time since the Rhode Island Association of Realtors began keeping track in 2005.
Coastal property continues to dominate high-end sales. But as this week’s cover story reports, homes away from the coast are also increasingly climbing the luxury ranks.
They include a $6.85 million sale in Providence’s College Hill neighborhood that fell just outside last year’s Top 10.
The capital city is expected to be among the nation’s hottest housing markets this year, offering buyers an alternative to pricier coastal areas.
“It’s kind of shifting the whole Rhode Island market,” said Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty associate broker David Huberman.
Despite a multiyear rise in home prices across the state, Rhode Island is still considered relatively affordable by high-end buyers, according to local Realtors. Rhode Island’s median sale price in 2024 rose to $475,000 but that was still $130,000 lower than neighboring Massachusetts.
Whether that translates into another record year for high-end sales will depend in part on interest rates falling, say Realtors.
But even if that doesn’t happen, Rhode Island will remain a seller’s market, especially at the high end, as long as demand far exceeds supply.