Rhode Island has no county property tax, so your bill depends on which of the 39 cities and towns you live in and whether you live in the house yourself. This Rhode Island property tax calculator loads the fiscal 2026 residential rates that the Division of Municipal Finance publishes, subtracts the homestead break in the communities that grant one, and can add one of 32 fire or water district levies. For a home its owner occupies, net rates run from $4.79 per $1,000 in Little Compton to $21.52 in Foster, with the middle community at $11.90. Type the assessed value from your bill or the assessor’s online database rather than a recent sale price, because assessments are pinned to the last revaluation date.
Two Rates on the Same Street: Owners Versus Everyone Else
Rhode Island has no statewide homestead exemption. State law instead lets each municipality split residential property into owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied groups, and a dozen of them do. Some cut the tax rate for residents: Providence charges $8.40 per $1,000 on an owner-occupied single-family house and $14.60 on the same house held by a landlord. Newport, Middletown, Pawtucket, and Central Falls work the same way. Others knock a slice off the assessed value instead: 35 percent in Lincoln, 25 percent in Woonsocket, 20 percent in Johnston and North Providence, 14 percent in East Providence, 10 percent in Narragansett, 5 percent in North Kingstown.
Rhode Island Property Tax Calculator (FY2026 Official Rates)
Pick one of the 39 cities and towns, an owner-occupied multi-family entry, or a fire district, enter the assessed value, and get the yearly bill for a home you live in, with the homestead break subtracted where the community grants one. Rates come from the state Division of Municipal Finance FY2026 table.
Planning figure, not a bill. The tool multiplies the value you enter by the FY2026 owner-occupied residential rate the Division of Municipal Finance lists for your community, subtracts a percentage homestead exemption where one exists, and adds a fire or water district rate when you choose one. It does not subtract elderly, veteran, blind, or disability exemptions, tax freezes or deferrals, or the state RI-1040H relief credit (up to $700 for 2025), and it leaves out sewer, trash, and other fees. Landlords and second-home owners pay a higher rate in about a dozen communities, and from July 2026 a non-owner-occupied home assessed above $1,000,000 also owes a state levy of $2.50 per $500 of the excess. Many communities have since set FY2027 rates on newer values. Your city or town tax collector has the exact amount.
Pawtucket adopted its owner rate for the first time in fiscal 2026. According to the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC), a Providence house worth $447,500, the city’s 2025 median single-family sale price, owed $3,759 when the owner lived there and $6,534 when rented out. You usually have to file a one-time application with the assessor to get the lower figure, so check that it appears on your bill.
Thirty-Nine Budgets and a 4 Percent Ceiling
Each city council or financial town meeting adopts a budget, then sets the rate that raises the property tax share of it. Section 44-5-2 of the General Laws limits growth in the total levy to 4 percent over the prior year, with exceptions for certified revenue losses, emergencies, and new debt service, approved by four-fifths of the council. RIPEC counted seven communities over the cap in fiscal 2026, the most in a decade, led by Little Compton at 11.78 percent and Pawtucket at 6.40. The statewide levy grew 3.7 percent to $2.76 billion.
Classification lets a town tax commercial buildings, larger apartments, and business equipment more heavily than homes. Seventeen towns, Barrington and Westerly among them, use one rate for all real estate. Providence sits at the other extreme, with commercial property at $29.20 and tangible property at $53.40.
FY2026 Owner Rates From Little Compton to Foster
Coastal and island towns with large seasonal home values anchor the bottom of the table: Little Compton at $4.79, Jamestown at $5.64, New Shoreham (Block Island) at $5.76, Charlestown at $5.93, and Narragansett at a net $6.11 after its 10 percent exemption. Thirteen of the 39 communities come in below $10.
Foster stands alone at the top at $21.52, then Coventry at $16.09, East Greenwich at $15.57, Barrington at $15.34, and Hopkinton at $15.29. The larger cities fall in between: Warwick $12.70, Cranston $13.88, Pawtucket $13.15, and Woonsocket a net $8.42. A low rate often reflects a recent revaluation more than a light budget, since values jumped and the rate was reset to raise the same levy.
Two caveats come from the state table itself. Cumberland and East Providence appear with their fiscal 2025 figures, and East Providence runs its fiscal year from November to October.
Four Worked Bills at the Same Price
Take a $400,000 assessment. In Little Compton it costs $1,916.00 a year; in Foster, $8,608.00. Warwick lands at $5,080.00. In Lincoln the town rate is $13.52, but an owner-occupant is taxed on only 65 percent of the value, so the bill is $3,515.20. The breakdown shows the $1,892.80 homestead reduction as its own line.
Central Falls needs one manual step. The city pairs its $8.81 owner rate with an exemption of up to $60,000 of value under section 44-3-34, which a percentage-based tool cannot model. For a $300,000 home, enter $240,000 and the calculator returns $2,114.40.
The Census Bureau’s 2024 five-year survey puts the statewide median bill at $4,900 on a median home value of $404,200, a ratio of 1.21 percent. Apply Warwick’s rate to that same $404,200 and you get $5,133.34, which is close to the statewide figure.
Fire Districts Add a Second Line in Sixteen Towns
In sixteen towns, most of them rural or coastal, fire protection is paid for by independent districts that levy their own tax on the town’s assessed values. The state lists these districts separately, and the calculator adds them as “Coventry: Central Coventry Fire District” and similar entries. A $350,000 owner-occupied home in Central Coventry carries $16.09 for the town plus $1.605 for the district, a total of $6,193.25. Adding Lime Rock’s $1.65 to the Lincoln example raises it to $4,175.20.
A few districts in Narragansett, North Kingstown, Portsmouth, and Tiverton provide water, roads, or recreation rather than firefighting. Seven districts did not report a rate for the 2025 roll and are left out, as is Ashaway in Hopkinton.
Revaluation Every Three Years and the November 15 Appeal
Under section 44-5-12, assessors value real estate at full and fair cash value as of December 31 of the last revaluation or statistical update, and values do not move with the market in between. Section 44-5-11.6 requires a full revaluation at least every nine years, with updates every three. Sixteen municipalities revalued for fiscal 2026, and Providence’s assessed values came in 73 percent above their level three years earlier.
If your figure looks wrong, the appeal is free. A 2025 amendment to section 44-5-26 sets the filing deadline with the local assessor at November 15, or 90 days after the first installment’s due date if that falls later. The assessor has until December 31 to rule. You then have 30 days to go to the local tax board of review, or until January 31 if no ruling came, and after the board, 30 days to petition Superior Court.
Relief Beyond the Homestead, and the New Levy on Second Homes
Every town runs its own list of senior, veteran, blind, and disability exemptions, freezes, and deferrals. Section 44-3-4 sets a base veterans exemption that many towns raise. The state adds the RI-1040H property tax relief credit for owners and renters aged 65 or older or receiving Social Security disability. For 2025 the household income limit is $40,730 and the credit tops out at $700, and both amounts rise with inflation each year. None of these reductions are in the calculator, because each depends on the household.
The biggest recent change is aimed at owners who do not live in their homes. Chapter 44-72, enacted in 2025, adds a state tax from July 1, 2026 of $2.50 per $500 of assessed value above $1,000,000 on residential property that is not the owner’s primary residence. Homes rented for more than 183 days are exempt, and the threshold rises with inflation starting July 2027. RIPEC expects it to reach 9,000 to 10,000 properties and raise about $25 million a year for the low-income housing tax credit fund.
Quarterly Installments, Liens, and the FY2027 Refresh
Section 44-5-7 requires every city and town to let you pay in four equal installments without interest. Bills follow the July 1 fiscal year, but each community picks its own installment dates. Miss one and the town can make the whole remaining balance due, charging a penalty rate it sets between 6 and 18 percent a year (Cranston is capped at 12). The unpaid tax is a lien on the property from the December 31 assessment date. The collector can sell the property at a tax sale, and a year after the sale the buyer can ask Superior Court to foreclose the owner’s right to redeem.
Cities and towns set their fiscal 2027 rates on December 31, 2025 values over the summer of 2026. West Warwick, for instance, now lists $14.85 for owner-occupied homes, up from $14.29. The Division of Municipal Finance has not yet posted its statewide FY2027 table, and the calculator will switch over once it does.
Sources: Rhode Island Division of Municipal Finance, FY 2026 Tax Rates by Class of Property and Fire District Tax Rates for 2025 (assessment date December 31, 2024); RIPEC, Rhode Island Property Tax Update, June 2026; Rhode Island General Laws Title 44; RI Division of Taxation, 2025 Form RI-1040H; U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 five-year estimates. For the amount you actually owe, contact the tax collector at your city or town hall.