La Plata, Maryland.
Typical home $475,505 (-0.8% in a year), asking rent $2,680 . Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,173 (+89%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $3,604 -1%
- $479,109$475,505 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $46,527 +11%
- $428,978$475,505 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.
- La Plata$2,496
- Maryland$2,230
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 34 years.
Typical home values in La Plata, MD fell 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in La Plata, Charles County, Maryland
La Plata is a town of 10,159 people in Charles County. Half its households earn more than $121,208 a year and half less, against $122,816 across Charles County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in Charles County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. La Plata is a small town in Charles County, Maryland, where most homes are lived in by their owners and incomes run a little below the county's. Residents are somewhat older than in many places, and more than a few hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn warm, with plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in shops, or in professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in La Plata are Charles County Public Schools, Charles County Government and Civista Medical Center. Commutes tend to be long, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. For a day out, the National Mall in Washington is a park a longer drive away, lined with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The Smithsonian Institution, also a longer drive away, is one of the best known museums in the country. Many people make the trip for the museums and memorials.
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- 3,941households
- 35%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 40 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Charles County had 43,545 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 66°. About 15 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mechanicsville Northeast weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in La Plata
- Charles County Public SchoolsSchool district3,853FTE
- Charles County GovernmentAuditor's offices, government2,058
- Charles County Sheriff's OfficePolice departments664
- Civista Medical CenterGeneral hospital641FTE
- Green Acres Nursing_NursingSkilled nursing facilities300
- WalmartDiscount department stores261
- TargetDiscount department stores167
- NAI Saturn EasternSupermarkets and other grocery stores156
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,812 people in all. 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in La Plata’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 Charles County and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
La Plata home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- La Plata$475,505
- Maryland$424,890
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 La Plata listings, and the typical home goes pending in 42 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.
- La Plata36.25%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- La Plata42
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- La Plata130
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- La Plata35
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- La Plata$471,750
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- La Plata100.18%
Zip codes with a La Plata address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls La Plata — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.