Dudley, Massachusetts.
Typical home $460,972 (+2.2% in a year). Worcester, MA-CT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,366 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,945 +2%
- $451,027$460,972 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $106,173 +30%
- $354,799$460,972 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.
- Dudley$2,420
- 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 Dudley, MA rose 2.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dudley, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Dudley is a town of 11,921 people in Worcester County. Half its households earn more than $84,604 a year and half less, against $95,939 across Worcester County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% 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 manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dudley is a town in Worcester County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run below the county's. Residents are of middle age on the whole, and fewer hold a four-year degree than you might expect. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July is warm and the year brings a good deal of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, retail, and restaurants and hotels also employing many. The largest workplaces in Dudley include the Dudley-Charlton Regional Schools and Shield Packaging, which makes synthetic lubricating oils and greases. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and only a small number of people work from home.
Things to do. Lake Chaubunagungamaug, a lake a short drive away, is the best known place nearby for time on the water. Thompson International Speedway, a race track, is also a short drive away. For a longer outing, Bigelow Hollow State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, good for walking among woods and ponds.
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- 4,375households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 9%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, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dudley
- Dudley-Charlton Reg SchoolsSchool district444FTE
- Shield PackagingLubricating oils and greases, synthetic, manufacturing90
- Webco ChemicalDetergents manufacturing64
- Webco Chemical CompanyDetergents manufacturing35
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 189 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.
Dudley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dudley$460,972
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 2 Dudley 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.
- Dudley40.09%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dudley28
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dudley11
Zip codes with a Dudley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dudley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.