Property Tax in Narragansett, RI

The Confirmed Rate: $6.79 per $1,000 (FY2026) -- and a Separate Effective-Rate Figure

Per the Rhode Island Division of Municipal Finance's own official FY2026 Tax Rates document (covering the 2025 tax roll year, assessment date December 31, 2024), Narragansett's residential real estate (RRE) rate is $6.79 per $1,000 of assessed value; the commercial (COMM) rate and the personal property (PP) rate are both $9.17. For brief comparison, per that same official document, Newport's RRE rate is $8.69, Middletown's is $9.06, and Portsmouth's is $13.28 -- Narragansett's $6.79 sits noticeably lower than each of those three neighbors, a genuinely useful data point for anyone weighing this town against others this site covers.

A separate source, Ownwell, cites a median EFFECTIVE property tax rate of 0.66% for Narragansett, covering both of the town's ZIP codes, 02879 and 02882. That is a different metric than the $6.79-per-$1,000 mill rate above: an effective rate is expressed as a percentage of a home's market value and already incorporates exemptions and assessment practices, while a mill rate is applied directly to assessed value before any of that. Treat these as two distinct, separately sourced figures -- not two ways of stating the same number -- and do not average or combine them.

Both figures are confirmed as of their respective sources -- neither is an estimate or a statewide median borrowed as a stand-in. Rates and assessments are set and revisited on their own annual and periodic cycles, so both figures above should still be reconfirmed with the Town of Narragansett Tax Assessor's office before a purchase, refinance, or budgeting decision, since a newer tax roll or updated effective-rate estimate may already be in effect by the time you are reading this.

Who Sets the Rate: An Elected Town Government

Narragansett is governed by an elected town government that adopts the town's annual budget and, through that process, sets the property tax rate above that funds it. This page will not name specific current officeholders with confidence -- officeholders change with each election cycle, and the research behind this page did not confirm a current, up-to-date 2026 roster reliable enough to state here. If you want to know who currently holds office, or when the next budget hearing is scheduled, the Town of Narragansett's own website and town clerk's office are the right source.

What matters for a prospective buyer, even with a confirmed FY2026 rate in hand, is the mechanism behind it: the rate is not a fixed, static number set once and left alone. It moves with the annual municipal budget process, so the $6.79 figure above should always be reconfirmed close to any purchase or refinance decision, directly with the Tax Assessor's office, in case a newer tax roll has since taken effect.

The Tax Base: Population, Income, and a Poverty-Rate Nuance Worth Understanding

Some confirmed context helps frame the base that Narragansett's $6.79 rate applies to. The 2020 Census counted 14,532 year-round residents, down from 16,361 in the 2000 Census -- a genuine, two-decade population decline distinct from any other town's separately documented population story. Median household income is $79,056 and median family income is $125,357, per 2016-2020 American Community Survey data -- two different Census metrics, households versus families, and neither should be read as a stand-in for the other. Summer population, by contrast, is estimated to exceed 30,000 -- more than double the year-round figure -- a dramatic seasonal swing worth keeping in mind for anyone evaluating what living here actually looks like across the calendar year.

The same ACS-era data puts 17.9% of the town below the poverty line, a figure that reads as high in isolation but comes with a genuinely important, documented nuance: the University of Rhode Island maintains a Narragansett Bay Campus in town, and per Census-based analysis, 71% of the town's 2010 poverty-line population were college students. A large in-town student enrollment can inflate a raw, town-wide poverty statistic without reflecting typical working-family economics -- a distinction most competitor and tourism sites do not explain, and one worth keeping in mind rather than reading the 17.9% figure at face value.

Home Prices: A Mixed Signal, Not a Simple Trend

Per Redfin's February 2025 snapshot, Narragansett's median home sale price was $659,000, down 17.9% year over year -- while price per square foot moved the opposite direction, at $604, up 45.9% year over year. Those two figures pulling in opposite directions is a genuinely notable data point, and this page will not simplify it into a single "hot" or "cooling" headline: it may reflect a shift toward smaller or differently sized homes selling in that snapshot, though no confirmed source explains the exact cause. Days on market improved to 61, down from 101 the prior year, and sales volume grew from 10 homes to 12 homes over the same comparison. Redfin's own Compete Score for the market was 46, described as "somewhat competitive," with homes typically selling for about 2% below list price.

None of this changes the confirmed $6.79 mill rate or the separately sourced 0.66% effective rate above -- home-price trends describe the market a tax bill eventually gets calculated against, not the rate itself. Assessed values also typically lag real-time sale-price swings, so a buyer should not assume this year's assessment already reflects the mixed signal Redfin is reporting, nor assume it will look the same by the next reassessment cycle.

Point Judith, Galilee, Jerusalem, and Scarborough: Part of Narragansett, Not Separate Towns

Narragansett's own villages and neighborhoods include Point Judith, Galilee, Great Island, Salt Pond, Mettatuxet, Jerusalem, Saunderstown, South Ferry, Bonnet Shores, and Narragansett Pier -- and Scarborough State Beach also sits physically within town limits. Galilee, home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in Rhode Island and the departure point for the Block Island Ferry, and the paired villages of Jerusalem (partially shared with neighboring South Kingstown) and Scarborough, are real, named parts of this same town, not separate municipalities with their own tax rates. This page's confirmed $6.79 rate and 0.66% effective-rate figure apply town-wide, including those villages; a deeper dive into Galilee's fishing-port history, the Galilee-Jerusalem naming story, and Scarborough State Beach specifically lives in this site's own dedicated coverage of that area, rather than being repeated here.

What This Means If You're Evaluating Property Tax Here

The honest summary is this: Narragansett, RI is governed by an elected town government that sets its property tax rate through an annual budget process, currently $6.79 per $1,000 of assessed value for residential real estate (FY2026, 2025 tax roll) -- notably lower than Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth on the same official document -- alongside a separately sourced 0.66% median effective rate from Ownwell that measures a different thing and should not be conflated with the mill rate. It sits on a tax base backed by a 2020 Census population of 14,532 (down from 16,361 in 2000), a median household income of $79,056 and median family income of $125,357, a headline poverty rate of 17.9% that is heavily skewed by college-student residents tied to URI's Narragansett Bay Campus, and a home-sale market sending mixed signals as of a February 2025 Redfin snapshot -- $659,000 median sale price, down 17.9% year over year, against $604 per square foot, up 45.9% year over year.

Before you make any purchase decision in Narragansett, RI, reconfirm both the current mill rate and any effective-rate estimate directly with the Town of Narragansett Tax Assessor's office in case a newer tax roll or updated figure has since taken effect -- do not rely solely on the figures above without that check. Pair that with guidance from a Rhode Island-licensed tax professional, who can walk through how the current rate, any applicable exemptions, and your specific property situation fit together. This page is informational background, not tax advice.