How expensive is it to live in Rhode Island?
According to a new Forbes.com report, it's really expensive and it's housing costs – both mortgages and rent – driving up the cost of living in the state.
Forbes looked at several data sources to see how every state ranked in various measures. They were:
Rhode Island gets a special note in the Forbes report for transportation because it's the smallest state by land area, with "an average one-way commute time of just under 25 minutes." That beats similarly small Hawaii's 27-minute commute.
While Forbes is transparent about its data sources, there are many different estimates for a few metrics, including rental costs and salaries. A report by the bill pay company Doxo had wildly different numbers for housing costs and salary than most government sources.
The alternative housing numbers:
The alternative salary numbers:
In Rhode Island, a lack of housing supply means rent and the cost to buy a house keep going up, and some towns are pushing back on the state's efforts to spur construction of single-family homes and apartments, such as Narragansett, where officials are looking at banning duplexes.
The town already increased its zoning standards to negate increased leeway for setbacks approved during the 2023 legislative session.
At the same time, Providence is looking to roll back 1950s-era zoning rules labeled racist that reduced density in the city with its new comprehensive plan and zoning maps, which leave all but a few pockets of the city's single-family zoning entirely intact.
Neighboring Massachusetts, home to Boston, has the second-highest cost of living, at $53,860, putting it just behind Hawaii, according to Forbes. Massachusetts has the fifth-highest level of disposable income, $26,470.
But that comes with a big asterisk, as Massachusetts has a higher average salary ($80,330) than neighboring Rhode Island ($66,602) and has the highest average salary in the country, followed by New York, Washington, California, New Jersey and Connecticut.
For most metrics, Rhode Island was cheaper than Massachusetts, which has some of the highest house prices, rental costs, food costs and health care costs in the country.
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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Forbes pegs RI as one of the most expensive states to live in. Here's what is driving that ranking.
2024-07-22T09:18:46Z dg43tfdfdgfd