Rhode Island’s real estate market was a big double-edged sword in 2024, and it’s not clear if that’s going to change anytime soon.
After a two-year decline, the number of sales of high-end homes rebounded last year to a record level in the Ocean State. A total of 734 single-family homes sold with a price tag higher than $1 million, a 31% jump from a year earlier, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
That mark eclipsed the previous annual high of 698 sales, set in 2021 when eight-figure sales were more common.
A downside for prospective buyers: While more homes are now for sale at all price levels – including at the high end – the increase in sales has kept the supply of homes on the market quite low, the Realtors association said in December.
And that stubbornly low inventory, combined with inflation, has favored sellers. Those factors fueled higher-than-normal sale prices and, in some cases, touched off bidding wars among house hunters desperately seeking a home in Rhode Island, real estate agents say. The median sale price for luxury homes rose from $1.35 million in 2023 to $1.43 million last year.
Low inventory in Rhode Island might linger throughout 2025 despite cautious optimism expressed by local Realtors.
“I tell people that this is Economics 101,” said Paul Leys, broker and owner of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty. “There’s no supply and there’s high demand. The [number of] days [a home is] on the market are shorter than [I’ve] ever seen them before.”
Leys says the low inventory in 2024 created an onslaught of off-market sales – transactions happening so fast that homes are under contract before they’re listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service database.
[caption id="attachment_490018" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
1. Fowler’s Rocks | 340 East Shore Road | Jamestown
Price: $12,250,000 | Date of sale: Oct. 28, 2024
Buyer: 340 ESR LLC
Seller: Robert Vincent, trustee of the Robert Vincent 2010 Trust
Broker: Lila Delman Compass (seller)
Year built: 1892 | Bathrooms: 4 full, 2 half | Bedrooms: 6
Living space: 5,745 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $6,900,000 in 2008 / COURTESY COMPASS INC.[/caption]
Raymond Mott, broker and co-owner of Charlestown-based Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty, says economic inflation also drove the seller’s market to record levels last year.
He says inflation has raised his definition of the floor of the high-end real estate market to around $3 million now. Homes priced within the $1 million to $2 million range are “white hot,” he added.
“We don’t sell homes. We sell opportunities,” Mott said. “[Buyers] will pay handsomely or pay up for exceptional properties because they are one of a kind. People will reach for that if it’s something special.”
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2. The Orchard | 180 Narragansett Ave. | Newport Price: $10,800,000 | Date of sale: Aug. 19, 2024
Buyer: Belmont Carriage House LLC
Seller: Vanderbilt Holdings LLC
Brokers: Lila Delman Compass (buyer);
Vanderbilt International Properties (seller)
Year built: 1873 | Bathrooms: 13 full, 4 half | Bedrooms: 14
Living space: 16,544 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $3,600,000 in 2018 / COURTESY COMPASS INC.[/caption]
Chris Whitten, Rhode Island Association of Realtors president and founder and broker of Smithfield-based Premeer Real Estate Inc., says a flood of out-of-state buyers combined with a lack of new home construction has dampened the amount of inventory on the market and boosted high-end sales in 2024.
Even though Rhode Island’s median sale price for all homes rose to $475,000 in 2024, it’s still about $130,000 lower than Massachusetts’ median price, making the Ocean State a more affordable option in all price levels, agents say.
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3. Playhouse | 294 Ocean Ave. | Newport
Price: $9,935,000 | Date of sale: Sept. 13, 2024
Buyer: Boomerang Acquisition LLC
Seller: Forest E. Patten Revocable Trust
Brokers: Residential Properties Ltd. (buyer);
Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty (seller)
Year built: 1902 | Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 half | Bedrooms: 4
Living space: 4,392 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $6,999,000 in 2018 / COURTESY GUSTAVE WHITE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY[/caption]
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4. 109 Cottrell Road | North Kingstown
Price: $9,750,000 | Date of sale: Sept. 30, 2024
Buyer: BridgeView LLC
Seller: 109 Cottrell Trust
Brokers: RE/MAX Professionals (buyer);
Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty (seller)
Year built: 2018 | Bathrooms: 5 full, 1 half | Bedrooms: 4
Living space: 6,077 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $1,770,000 in 2017 / COURTESY MOTT & CHACE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY[/caption]
Mott, Leys and David Huberman, an associate broker for Gustave White, say high-end buyers continue to want to take advantage of the amenities Rhode Island offers and the affordability compared with the luxury homes in California and the Hamptons in nearby New York.
“Newport Harbor is the deepest natural port in the U.S. that can accommodate yachts larger than 150 feet,” Huberman said. “A lot of these people came [to Rhode Island] because of their boats and fell in love with Newport.”
Also, Huberman says about 70% to 80% of Gustave White’s transactions of $2 million or more involve people acquiring second homes.
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5. Arcadia | 14 Ninigret Ave. | Westerly
Price: $9,000,000 | Date of sale: Jan. 16, 2024
Buyers: Michael E. and Julia B. Dailey
Sellers: Christopher B. and Christina B. Combe
Broker: Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty (buyer and seller)
Year built: 1892 | Bathrooms: 9 full, 3 half | Bedrooms: 9
Living space: 5,392 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $6,100,000 in 2018 / COURTESY MOTT & CHACE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY[/caption]
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6. Lion Head | 597 Beavertail Road | Jamestown
Price: $7,819,000 | Date of sale: Dec. 9, 2024
Buyers: David L. and Cynthia L. Jegen, trustees
SellerS: Peter M. and Sylvia A. Monti, trustees
Brokers: Lila Delman Compass (buyer);
Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty (seller)
Year built: 1997 | Bathrooms: 4 full | Bedrooms: 5
Living space: 5,342 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $628,500 in 1996 / COURTESY MOTT & CHACE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_490024" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
7. 1776 Corn Neck Road | New Shoreham
Price: $7,710,000 | Date of sale: July 31, 2024
Buyer: Cedar and Steel Hospitality LLC
Sellers: Greg Slamowitz and Kirsten Hilleman
Broker: Lila Delman Compass (buyer and seller)
Year built: 1990 | Bathrooms: 5 full, 4 half | Bedrooms: 7
Living space: 6,503 square feet
Previous price: NA / COURTESY LILA DELMAN COMPASS[/caption]
At the same time, communities away from the oceanfront are continuing to see multimillion-dollar home sales become more commonplace as very high-end buyers expand their search areas. For example, in North Kingstown, BridgeView LLC, a limited liability company, acquired a 9-acre estate at 109 Cottrell Road overlooking the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. The transaction on Sept. 30 was for $9.75 million, a record in North Kingstown.
In Providence, the Corliss-Carrington House at 66 Williams St. – an 1810 brick mansion that’s a National Historic Landmark in the city’s College Hill section – sold in early June for a city-record $6.85 million.
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A RECORD YEAR
The number of homes sold in Rhode Island for more than $1 million in 2024 rose 31.1% from the previous year, breaking a recent downward trend and setting a new state record in the process. But local real estate agents say extremely low inventory fueled higher sales prices than normally seen in a stable market. / SOURCE: RHODE ISLAND ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS[/caption]
“You can be anywhere at any time within a 45-minute ride,” Whitten said. “[The home] may not be on the water, but it may offer some of the history and some of the land, farm or carriage houses that go along with it. It’s also close enough where you’re a 20-minute ride to the water.”
Indeed, national real estate marketplace company Zillow Group Inc. once again views Providence as a hot market for 2025. Zillow ranked the state’s capital city at No. 3 among the hottest housing markets, based on analyzing forecasted home-value growth, how fast homes are selling and projected changes in the labor market, home construction activity and number of homeowner households.
Mott says the culture of Providence centers around food with good restaurants and privacy, hence the city becoming a significant draw for the ultra-wealthy. And Huberman says it’s proving to be a strong alternative to high-end homebuyers priced out of coastal areas such as Newport and Narragansett, “driving up prices” in other markets they wouldn’t normally buy homes in.
“It’s kind of shifting the whole Rhode Island market,” Huberman said.
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8. 419 West Beach Road | Charlestown
Price: $7,500,000 | Date of sale: Sept. 12, 2024
Buyers: Eddie Leshem and Jannine Leshem
Sellers: Richard Chase and Cheryl Chase
Broker: Lila Delman Compass (buyer and seller)
Year built: 1988 | Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 half | Bedrooms: 4
Living space: 3,787 square feet
Previous price: Sold for $3,950,000 in 2017 / COURTESY COMPASS INC.[/caption]
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9. Ocean Mist | 599 Ocean Ave. | Newport
Price: $7,125,000 | Date of sale: July 12, 2024
Buyer: 599 Ocean Ave LLC, care of Sheryl Caprionato
Seller: Lorraine Sebastiao Revocable Trust
Brokers: Jamestown Real Estate LLC (buyer);
Lila Delman Compass (seller)
Year built: 1999 | Bathrooms: 5 full, 1 half | Bedrooms: 4
Living space: 5,424 square feet
Previous price: NA / COURTESY LILA DELMAN COMPASS[/caption]
Still, Rhode Island’s seacoast remains extremely desirable. The top 10 homes sold last year were in Newport and Washington counties, as well as on Block Island.
The 1892 waterfront estate known as Fowler’s Rocks at 340 East Shore Road in Jamestown – a 6,500-square-foot shingle-style home with six bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms – sold for a town-record $12.25 million in late October, and also was the state’s biggest sale for 2024.
Fowler’s Rocks, purchased by 340 ESR LLC, a limited liability company based in Naples, Fla., in the care of Dave Duffell, was one of two Rhode Island homes sold for more than $10 million in 2024. The other was “The Orchard,” a 16,654-square-foot estate at 180 Narragansett Ave. in Newport that was acquired by Flowood, Miss.-based limited liability company Belmont Carriage House LLC on Aug. 19 for $10.8 million. The 1873 chateau located a short distance from the Cliff Walk is considered to be one of the few Gilded Age mansions to remain in private hands.
[caption id="attachment_490027" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
10. 121 Walcott Ave. | Jamestown
Price: $7,000,000 | Date of sale: Aug. 30, 2024
Buyer: 121 Walcott Avenue LLC
Seller: The Allegra Family
Brokers: Vanderbilt International Properties (buyer);
Lila Delman Compass (seller)
Year built: 1920 | Bathrooms: 6 full, 1 half | Bedrooms: 10
Living space: 6,498 square feet
Previous price: NA / COURTESY LILA DELMAN COMPASS[/caption]
Local agents have varying degrees of optimism about the real estate market in 2025.
Leys says most of his agency’s individual home sales ranged between $1 million and $2 million last year, and he believes that will continue over the next nine months. For one, he says he has a “gut feeling” that the inventory of homes available for sale will improve.
Whitten says home construction is starting to take place across the state that will help ease the market a bit. Also, economic factors will play a part, including how financial markets react to actions taken by the administration of President Donald Trump. If interest rates decline, Whitten said, a “more thriving” real estate market will come to fruition.
Nevertheless, low inventory is expected to remain a sticking point for local Realtors for the foreseeable future.
“We still anticipate the median price to go up and inventory to struggle,” Whitten said. “[It may] improve slightly, I believe, but we’re in a tough critical spot. The factors are still there that are going to hold us down.”
