Charlton, Massachusetts.
Typical home $530,362 (+2.4% in a year). Worcester, MA-CT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,590 (+133%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,408 +2%
- $517,954$530,362 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $126,665 +31%
- $403,697$530,362 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.
- Charlton$2,784
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Charlton, MA rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Charlton, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Charlton is a town of 13,315 people in Worcester County. Half its households earn more than $117,587 a year and half less, against $95,939 across Worcester County; 2% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Worcester County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Charlton is a small town where most homes are lived in by their owners, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than is typical. Household incomes run higher than across Worcester County, and the typical home is valued well above what many places ask. A fair share of adults hold a four-year degree, and the population leans somewhat older. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs staying near freezing, while summers are warm in July and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, professional and business services, and shops. In town, the largest workplaces include Amazon, The Overlook, a nursing home, and the Southern Worcester County Regional Vocational District. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of people work from home. Across Worcester County, unemployment is a little lower than a year ago and the number of jobs has edged up.
Things to do. Water and woods are close at hand. Lake Chaubunagungamaug is a lake a short drive away, and Spencer State Forest and Wells State Park are protected areas, also a short drive away. Capen Hill Nature Sanctuary lies in or beside town, an easy place for a walk.
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- 5,007households
- 38%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Worcester County had 356,384 jobs in 2025, 1.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 34° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 47 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Buffumville Lake weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Charlton
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage2,457
- The OverlookNursing homes233
- Southern Worcester County Regional Vocational DistrictSchool district167FTE
- Incom, RteBlanks, ophthalmic lens and optical glass, made from purchased glass110
- First Student88
- Foreign Auto ServicingAutomotive parts, new, merchant wholesalers58
- Insituform Technologies LLC - CharltonUtility line, construction50
- Nichols EnterprisesContainer trucking services, local40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,095 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 stormsVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively 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 Worcester County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Worcester County and the Worcester, MA-CT metro.
Charlton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Charlton$530,362
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Charlton 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.
- Charlton30.41%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Charlton38
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Charlton16
Zip codes with a Charlton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Charlton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.