Massachusetts Housing Market: Home Prices, Rent and Affordability
The typical Massachusetts home is worth $661,896, up 2.3% over the past year and up 25.3% over five years, 79.5% above the national $368,697 (Zillow, latest release). That ranks #3 of 50 on price. A 20%-down mortgage runs $3,405 a month and takes about $177,190 of income; the median Massachusetts household earns $101,370, $75,820 short.
In Boston, the state's largest metro, typical rent is $3,074 a month against a $3,774 principal-and-interest payment on the typical home, so renting is $700 a month cheaper before taxes, insurance and maintenance. The market is warm: 23.1% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 32 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 10.5% from a year ago.
All figures are Zillow Research's published numbers for August; median household income is from the Census Bureau. How the data works → · Home prices in all 50 states →
Massachusetts Housing by the Numbers
How much does a house cost in Massachusetts? The typical home is worth $661,896, the median sale price is $656,633 and the median list price $701,350. The six figures below describe the market this month, each with the national comparison.
How Have Massachusetts Home Prices Changed?
The typical Massachusetts home value every month since 2000, with the national typical home as a dashed line. Values rose 2.3% over the past year, are up 25.3% over five years, up 78.2% over ten, and up 233% since January 2000.
Is It Cheaper to Rent or Buy in Massachusetts?
Two direct answers from the Zillow data. Rent versus buy sets typical asking rent in Boston, the state's largest metro, against the mortgage payment on the typical home there, since Zillow publishes rents by metro rather than by state. The affordability gap is the income needed to buy the typical Massachusetts home minus what the median household actually earns.
Rent vs. buy · Boston, MA
The payment excludes property tax (1.15% of value in Massachusetts), insurance and maintenance, all of which push the cost of owning higher; renting builds no equity. If values kept rising at the past five years' pace (25.3%), equity would narrow that gap over a long stay.
Affordability gap · #48 of 50
A $3,405 monthly payment takes 40.3% of the median Massachusetts household's income before property tax and insurance; lenders generally cap total housing costs near 28–31%. Full budget for your household →
Is Massachusetts a Buyer's or a Seller's Market?
Market temperature is our label from three Zillow signals compared with the national market: the share of listings with a price cut, days from listing to pending (days on market), and whether homes for sale are up from a year ago. Massachusetts is warm: it slightly favors sellers: one of the three market signals points cooler than the national market.
Median sale price $656,633 against a median list price of $701,350, so the typical home closes 6.4% below asking.
Where the Massachusetts market is heading
Compared with a year ago, two of the three signals point looser, in buyers' favor: the share of listings with a price cut is up 1.6 points from a year ago to 23.1%, homes take 1 day less to go pending than a year ago (32 now), and the number of homes for sale is up 10.5%. The typical home value rose 2.3% over the same period and is at an all-time high. We publish no forecasts: these are Zillow's current-month readings, not a prediction of where Massachusetts home prices go next.
Home Values and Rents in Massachusetts Cities
Zillow publishes a city-level home value or rent for 20 of the Massachusetts cities we track. The most expensive is Newton ($1,509,055) and the cheapest Springfield ($305,068). Click a city for its full profile.
| City | Population | Home value | 1 yr | 5 yr | Rent | Rent 1 yr | Value ÷ income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston | 652,442 | $774,723 | -1.4% | ||||
| Worcester | 207,629 | $435,944 | +1.6% | ||||
| Springfield | 153,672 | $305,068 | +4.3% | ||||
| Cambridge | 118,208 | $1,031,739 | -0.6% | ||||
| Lowell | 114,289 | $486,078 | +0.9% | ||||
| Brockton | 104,884 | $508,661 | +2.2% | ||||
| Quincy | 101,607 | $679,587 | +1.8% | ||||
| Lynn | 101,250 | $580,377 | +0.7% | ||||
| New Bedford | 100,683 | $442,741 | +3.6% | ||||
| Fall River | 93,864 | $450,311 | +2.3% | ||||
| Newton | 88,415 | $1,509,055 | +2.3% | ||||
| Lawrence | 88,174 | $513,746 | +2.4% | ||||
| Somerville | 80,407 | $923,850 | +0.4% | ||||
| Framingham | 71,866 | $663,061 | +0.5% | ||||
| Haverhill | 67,398 | $548,436 | +2.2% | ||||
| Malden | 65,136 | $674,568 | +1.9% | ||||
| Waltham | 64,723 | $819,328 | +1.1% | ||||
| Brookline | 62,822 | $1,122,975 | -5.4% | ||||
| Revere | 59,933 | $613,679 | +1.1% | ||||
| Taunton | 59,719 | $521,740 | +4.0% |
Home value and rent are Zillow's city-level indexes; population and median household income are Census ACS. Cities without a Zillow index are omitted. All Massachusetts cities ranked →
How Massachusetts Compares With Nearby States
The Northeast states closest to Massachusetts on price. Each card links to that state's housing page; the compare link puts the two states side by side on every category.
More on Massachusetts
Massachusetts dashboard
→Overall rank and grade, every category score, taxes, utilities, safety, schools and all tracked cities.
What you'd keep in Massachusetts
→Take-home after housing, taxes, childcare, utilities and groceries for your household and income.
Who is moving to Massachusetts
→IRS migration data: where new residents come from, where leavers go, and what both groups earn.
Massachusetts Housing Market FAQ
What is the average house price in Massachusetts?
$661,896 is the typical Massachusetts home value according to the latest Zillow Research release of the Zillow Home Value Index, which tracks homes in the middle third of the market. The median sale price was $656,633 and the median list price $701,350. That makes Massachusetts the #3 most expensive state; the national typical home is worth $368,697.
Are home prices dropping in Massachusetts?
No. The typical Massachusetts home value rose 2.3% over the past year and is at an all-time high. Over five years it is up 25.3% and over ten years up 78.2%. Nationally, values rose 1.2% over the year.
How have Massachusetts home prices changed over the past 1, 5 and 10 years?
+2.3% over one year, +25.3% over five years and +78.2% over ten years for the typical Massachusetts home value, per the latest Zillow Research release; the national figures are +1.2%, +20.3% and +77.9%. Since January 2000 the typical Massachusetts home is up 233%. The monthly chart above shows the full series against the national line.
Will the Massachusetts housing market crash?
We publish no forecasts, so this page cannot answer that; it can show the current readings and the historical worst case. Right now the typical Massachusetts home value is at an all-time high after it rose 2.3% over the past year; 23.1% of listings have cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 32 days (national 53), and inventory is up 10.5% from a year ago, per Zillow Research. The largest decline in Zillow's monthly series for Massachusetts was 22.4% from December 2005 to April 2012, and values took 56 months to regain that peak.
Is it a good time to buy a house in Massachusetts?
The Massachusetts market is warm right now, which means it slightly favors sellers: one of the three market signals points cooler than the national market. 23.1% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 32 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 10.5% from a year ago. Affordability is the constraint: buying the typical home takes $177,190 of income, $75,820 more than the median household earns. Whether the timing is right also depends on mortgage rates and how long you plan to stay.
Is Massachusetts a buyer's or seller's market?
Massachusetts leans toward sellers. Fewer listings are cutting prices than the national average (23.1% vs. 26.4%), homes take 32 days to go pending (national 53), and the number of homes for sale is up 10.5% from a year ago at 19K listings. One of those three signals points toward buyers.
What is the average rent in Massachusetts?
In Boston, Massachusetts's largest metro, the typical asking rent is $3,074 a month, up 2.4% over the past year and up 26.7% over five years, per the Zillow Observed Rent Index. The national typical rent is $1,948. Among Massachusetts cities we track, rents range from $1,841 to $3,559 a month.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Massachusetts?
Renting is cheaper month to month in Boston, Massachusetts's largest metro. Typical rent is $3,074 and the principal-and-interest payment on the typical home with 20% down is $3,774, a difference of $700 a month in favor of renting. The payment excludes property tax (1.15% of value in Massachusetts), insurance and maintenance, and renting builds no equity, so the full answer depends on how long you stay.
How much income do you need to buy a house in Massachusetts?
About $177,190 a year, using Zillow's assumptions of 20% down at current mortgage rates and a payment of no more than 30% of income. The median Massachusetts household earns $101,370, so the typical household is $75,820 short. That is the #48 smallest affordability gap of the 50 states. The monthly payment of $3,405 equals 40.3% of the median household's income.
Where are homes cheapest and most expensive in Massachusetts?
Among the Massachusetts cities we track with Zillow data, the most expensive typical home is in Newton ($1,509,055) and the cheapest in Springfield ($305,068). Also at the top: Brookline ($1,122,975), Cambridge ($1,031,739), and Somerville ($923,850). The city table above lists every tracked Massachusetts city with its value, one-year change and rent.
How does Massachusetts compare with nearby states?
In the Northeast, the closest comparisons on price are New Jersey ($580,353, up 3.9% in a year), New York ($526,714, up 5.6% in a year), and New Hampshire ($516,306, up 2.9% in a year). Massachusetts's typical home is $661,896, up 2.3%. On affordability, Massachusetts ranks #48 of 50 versus New Jersey at #46, New York at #47, and New Hampshire at #26.
How current is the Massachusetts housing data?
Every figure on this page comes from Zillow Research, which publishes state, metro and city data free each month for the prior month; the latest month shown is August. Median household income is from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. We rebuild the page from the newest Zillow files as they are released.
Home values, rents, mortgage payments, income needed, inventory, price cuts, days to pending and sale and list prices are published by Zillow Research and shown as released, with attribution. Median household income and city populations are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Home prices and housing markets in all 50 states →