Bedford, Massachusetts.
Typical home $1,023,685 (+1.9% in a year), asking rent $3,154 (+2.1%). Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,792 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,847 +2%
- $1,004,838$1,023,685 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $204,780 +25%
- $818,905$1,023,685 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.
- Bedford$5,373
- 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 Bedford, MA rose 1.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Bedford, MA rose 2.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Bedford runs $4,194/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $7,348 a month against $3,154 rent: a $5,373 mortgage payment, plus $879 property tax and $1,096 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Bedford
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$7,348
- Renting$3,154
- Mortgage only$5,373
Property tax · $879/mo 1.03% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Middlesex County, MA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,096/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 Bedford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Bedford is a town of 14,383 people in Middlesex County. Half its households earn more than $172,400 a year and half less, against $130,847 across Middlesex County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% 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 professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Bedford is a town in Middlesex County where residents tend to be somewhat older than in many places, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well above the county's, and typical home values and rents are high. A large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days, and precipitation is steady through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Bedford are St. Luke's Hospital, the Veterans Health Administration and Instrumentation Laboratory. Many people work from home, and the typical commute is moderate.
Things to do. Walden Pond, a reservoir, and the Concord River are both a short drive away, and suit a walk or a quiet afternoon by the water. Farther afield, a longer drive reaches the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Fenway Park, along with other museums and the Charles River.
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- 5,869households
- 70%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 32%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 36° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 61°. About 59 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bedford weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bedford
- St. Luke's HospitalHospitals, general medical and surgical2,178
- Instrumentation LaboratoryAutomatic chemical analyzers, laboratory-type, manufacturing1,728
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,443
- Middlesex Community CollegeTwo-year college759
- iRobotCentral vacuuming systems, household-type, manufacturing515
- Bedford SchoolsSchool district440FTE
- Carleton-Willard VillageRetirement homes with nursing care397
- EMD Millipore - 80 Ashby and 75 WigginsNovelties, not specified elsewhere, manufacturing364
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 31 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,496 people in all. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts 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 stormsVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Middlesex County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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.
Bedford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bedford$1,023,685
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Bedford listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Bedford18.37%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bedford44
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bedford16
Zip codes with a Bedford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bedford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.