Leadership helping RI make strides building housing | Opinion | Providence Journal

Rhode Island’s housing shortage won’t be solved overnight, but with sustained effort and smart policy changes, it is a challenge we can overcome. The solution is ultimately simple: we must build more homes.

Local housing costs are rising because there are simply not enough homes to meet demand. As inventory tightens, competition goes up, and so do prices. Rhode Island builds significantly fewer homes than the national average; since 2020, cities and towns have issued only 6,218 residential construction permits for a population of over one million people. As a result, the Providence metropolitan area (which includes all five of the state's counties) has consistently seen among the nation’s highest increases in asking rent, outpacing major cities like New York and Boston. During the same period, regions that support new housing construction have seen prices fall.