Lancaster, Massachusetts.
Typical home $579,934 (+1.8% in a year). Worcester, MA-CT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,675 (+122%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,455 +2%
- $569,479$579,934 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $120,556 +26%
- $459,378$579,934 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.
- Lancaster$3,044
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Lancaster, MA rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Lancaster is a town of 8,441 people in Worcester County. Half its households earn more than $134,833 a year and half less, against $95,939 across Worcester County; 1% 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lancaster is a small town in Worcester County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and the typical household earns well above the county's income, with very few people living in poverty. Residents are older than in many places, and a four-year degree is common among adults. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July is warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, professional and business services, and wholesale. Within Lancaster itself, the larger workplaces include VitalCore, River Terrace Operator and Koch Lancaster. Commutes are fairly long, and more people work from home than in many towns.
Things to do. Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge and Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area both lie in or beside town, offering protected open land close to home. The Nashua River is a short drive away, and for a longer outing the Harvard Art Museums are a longer drive away.
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- 2,960households
- 50%of adults have a degree
- 1%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
- 34%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 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fitchburg Municipal Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lancaster
- VitalCorePractical nurses' offices, licensed107
- River Terrace OperatorSkilled nursing facilities91
- Koch LancasterAutomobile dealers, new only or new and used75
- JB Hunt64
- J.C. MadiganTruck bodies assembling on purchased chassis61
- International Ceramic EngineeringElectrical supplies, ceramic, manufacturing50
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 448 people in all. 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.
Lancaster home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lancaster$579,934
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lancaster14
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lancaster10
Zip codes with a Lancaster address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lancaster — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.