What salary do you need to live in Providence, RI?

Rent, home values and prices in Providence

Renters in Providence pay a median $1,421 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $961, three bedrooms $1,532, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $6,852 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Providence-Warwick, RI-MA at $422,500. That works out to 4.9× the local median household income of $87,040, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 101.8 here. Above 100 means a paycheck stretches less: $100,000 in Providence has the buying power of roughly $98,258 at national average prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Providence

For two bedrooms, $224,000 is where Providence turns Comfortable. Below that, $111,000 marks the start of Okay and $56,000 the start of Tight; under $56,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 8% of gross pay.

Reaching Royal takes $667,000 — 3.0× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

Each figure is the lowest income, to the next $1,000, at which the calculator itself would show that grade for a two-bedroom in Providence.

Scores at $50K, $75K, $100K and $150K in Providence

Choosing a bigger place in Providence at $75,000 trims the score from 40 to 33 without leaving Tight.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 54, Okay, which fits the $224,000 line above.

Providence on the national list

Out of 387 metros, Providence has the 59th highest price parity and the 90th highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the top quarter on overall prices and in the top quarter on rent.

Next to Providence on the national rent ranking: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC ($1,422) and Chico, CA ($1,417).

Providence in a Rhode Island context

Compared with Rhode Island as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Providence is 2% lower ($1,421 vs. $1,457) and the median home is 5% higher ($422,500 vs. $404,200). Parts of the metro lie in Massachusetts, but Providence is in Rhode Island, so that is the state used here.

The Rhode Island figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $225,000 against $224,000 for Providence.

No other metro in the data is based in Rhode Island, so the comparison uses the closest matches nationwide on rent and price parity: Chico, CA, Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT, and Ogden, UT.

The median Providence household

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $87,040, which grades Tight (38) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. That falls $136,960 short of the $224,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For Rhode Island as a whole, the median household income of $87,796 scores 38 against statewide rents. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

All figures are pre-tax estimates from public data, not financial advice.