Arlington, Massachusetts.
Typical home $1,057,808 (+2.8% in a year), asking rent $2,925 (+3.5%). Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,804 (+102%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $28,929 +3%
- $1,028,879$1,057,808 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $208,065 +24%
- $849,742$1,057,808 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Arlington$5,552
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Arlington, MA rose 2.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Arlington, MA rose 3.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Arlington runs $4,668/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $4,736 in Jan 2025.
That is $7,593 a month against $2,925 rent: a $5,552 mortgage payment, plus $909 property tax and $1,132 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Arlington
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$7,593
- Renting$2,925
- Mortgage only$5,552
Property tax · $909/mo 1.03% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Middlesex County, MA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,132/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Arlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Arlington, in Middlesex County, had 46,308 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $150,701 a year and half less, against $130,847 across Middlesex County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Middlesex County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Arlington is a suburban town in Middlesex County where incomes run well above the county's, and relatively few residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though the typical home value and typical rent are both high. Adults here are very well educated, with a large majority holding a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs and lows both below freezing, and summers are warm, with July the warmest month. Rain and melted snow fall through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, or in banking, insurance and property. Within the town, the largest workplaces include Arlington Schools, Armstrong Ambulance Service and Stop & Shop. Commutes are fairly long, and a good share of residents work from home. Across Middlesex County, unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, a large art museum, is a short drive away, as is Boston Common, the city's central garden. Fenway Park, the baseball stadium, is also a short drive. For time outdoors, Walden Pond, a reservoir, is a short drive away.
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- 20,005households
- 76%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
- 34%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Middlesex County had 903,942 jobs in 2025, 2.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 37° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 62°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bedford Hanscom Field weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Arlington
- Arlington SchoolsSchool district936FTE
- Armstrong Ambulance ServiceEmergency medical service provider363
- Arlington Center111
- Stop & ShopGrocery stores91
- Sunrise Senior Living, LLC.Assisted living81
- Trader Joe's 0505 ArlingtonGrocery store80
- ArlingtonMail and parcel delivery77
- RCN Telecom Services, LLC ArlingtonTelecommunications carriers, wired75
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 965 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of ArlingtonRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Arlington’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Middlesex County and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
Arlington home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Arlington$1,057,808
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Arlington listings, and the typical home goes pending in 9 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Arlington25.02%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Arlington9
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Arlington85
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Arlington39
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Arlington$984,539
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Arlington104.99%
Zip codes with a Arlington address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Arlington — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Arlington
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02474 | Arlington | 28,642 | $2,676 | $1,044,447 |
| 02476 | Arlington | 17,708 | $3,132 | $1,078,713 |