This is one predictable result when progressives capture both state and federal governments:

The median house price in Rhode Island for 2014 as a whole was $215,000, the highest in six years, yet the number of sales was nearly unchanged — up only 0.25 percent compared with 2013, according to statistics from the state Realtors’ association. 

For Rhode Island’s luxury market, however, 2014 was a very good year. For homes priced at $2 million or above, sales volume was up by more than 20 percent, according to John Hodnett, principal broker/owner of Lila Delman Real Estate. This small segment of the market is largely fueled by buyers from out of state.

The policies pursued by the likes of Barack Obama and Lincoln Chafee — whether regulatory, fiscal, monetary, or social — although sold as helping “the working people” wind up helping the very rich (sometimes making a whole new sort of person very rich).  It’s an obvious consequence of the incentives and restrictions that they impose on the economy, so it seems likely to be deliberate… for any of them who aren’t intoxicated on the rhetoric that they peddle or of, let’s say, insufficient intellectual capacity.

Note, for emphasis, this line farther down the article:

“As property values build, it’s getting better,” McCarthy said. But another problem holding back the Rhode Island market “is the tax structure [high property and income taxes],” he added. “That’s the killer.”