Not too long ago a $1 million home sale would almost assure that the property had a water view or was the centerpiece of an exclusive neighborhood.
It’s been several years, however, since that was a safe assumption.
As this week’s cover story reports, strong demand for luxury properties and limited supply in the Ocean State continue to boost home values and the floor for high-end sales.
Million-dollar home sales are now common in almost every Rhode Island community.
A true luxury home now routinely sells for at least $3 million in Rhode Island, according to real estate agents.
“There are fewer and fewer listings under a million” dollars, said agent Kate Greenman, of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty.
The 866 home sales topping that mark last year in the state set a record, up 55% from just two years earlier.
The median sales price of $1.45 million did rise slightly from 2024 but was still well below 2022’s record $1.83 million. That’s a sign many buyers are settling, either by choice or lack of supply, for something less than the top of the market, driving up prices across the state.
In many cases, they’re out-of-state buyers looking for second homes who still see value in Rhode Island’s rising real estate market. They accounted for 41% of last year’s sales over $1 million.
At the top of the market, waterfront of course is still king.
But an exception, a well-known Newport property called The Bird House, fetched $15.3 million – last year’s record high sale in the state – despite being about half a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.