Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Typical home $847,087 (+2.2% in a year), asking rent $2,764 . Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,468 (+125%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,126 +2%
- $828,961$847,087 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $183,287 +28%
- $663,801$847,087 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.
- Ipswich$4,446
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Ipswich, MA rose 2.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts
Ipswich, in Essex County, had 4,370 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $104,102 a year and half less, against $101,883 across Essex County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Essex County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ipswich is a small community in Essex County, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home costs a good deal to buy, with rents high as well. Incomes run a little above the county's, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than you might expect. Adults here are well educated, with a majority holding a four-year degree, and the population is somewhat older than the national picture. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, shops, and banks, insurance and property. Across Essex County, some of the largest workplaces are Amazon, Johnson Johnson and General Electric. The commute is a moderate one, and a good number of people work from home. Joblessness across the county is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Crane Beach and the Ipswich River are both in or beside town, for a day by the water or time on the river. A short drive away is the Merrimack River. For a longer outing, Boston is a longer drive away, with the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Fenway Park among the best known stops.
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- 2,126households
- 55%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 18%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Essex County had 326,688 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more 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 80° and lows near 60°. About 51 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beverly weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Essex County
- Raytheon_Andover_MA5,177
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage4,153
- Johnson JohnsonSurgical medical instruments3,110
- General Electric2,628
- Lynn SchoolsSchool district2,413FTE
- Lawrence SchoolsSchool district2,349FTE
- PfizerVaccines manufacturing2,230
- North Shore Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,150FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 528 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 94,818 people in all across the county; Ipswich has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ipswich’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 Essex County and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
Ipswich home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ipswich$847,087
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Ipswich 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.
- Ipswich16.08%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ipswich47
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ipswich21
Zip codes with a Ipswich address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ipswich — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.