Zip lookup · MD

21045
Columbia, Maryland.

Columbia, Howard County, MD · Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro · population 40,034

What it costs per month · 21045 $2,500/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,210 (+94%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $2,487 +1%
$473,907$476,394 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $70,791 +17%
$405,603$476,394 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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 21045 $2,500 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • 21045$2,500
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.

Typical home values in zip 21045 rose 0.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.

Asking rents in zip 21045 rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.

Owning the typical home in zip 21045 runs $1,223/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,392 in Apr 2024.

That is $3,474 a month against $2,252 rent: a $2,500 mortgage payment, plus $464 property tax and $510 insurance & upkeep.

Owning vs renting — zip 21045

The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.

$1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 $3,500 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Owning all in $3,474 Renting $2,252 Mortgage only $2,500
$1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 $3,500 2018 2022 2026
  • Owning all in$3,474
  • Renting$2,252
  • Mortgage only$2,500

Property tax · $464/mo 1.17% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Howard County, MD

Insurance & upkeep · $510/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.

Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.

Zillow also publishes an index for the city itself: Columbia, MD — measured over the city limits, which is a different area from this zip.

Asking rent $2,252 as of Sep 2026
+4.5%year on year
Typical home value $476,394 as of Sep 2026
+0.5%year on year

Asking rent — 21045

Against the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro and the national benchmark.

$1,250 $1,500 $1,750 $2,000 $2,250 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 21045 $2,252 Baltimore $1,937 United States $1,932
$1,250 $1,500 $1,750 $2,000 $2,250 2018 2022 2026
  • 21045$2,252
  • Baltimore$1,937
  • United States$1,932

Typical home value — 21045

Mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 21045 $476,394 Baltimore $396,959 United States $366,157
$250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 2018 2022 2026
  • 21045$476,394
  • Baltimore$396,959
  • United States$366,157

Within 20 miles

Showing 30 of 117 zips in range — sorting picks from all 117.

10 mi 20 mi 50 mi
Miles Zip City Population Rent Home value
2.4 21046 Columbia 15,608 $1,952 $514,796
3.0 21044 Columbia 44,114 $2,332 $537,079
3.9 21043 Ellicott City 48,525 $2,481 $626,717
4.0 21075 Elkridge 37,363 $2,379 $481,968
4.3 20794 Jessup 16,814 $2,147 $486,441
4.7 20763 Savage 2,601 — $485,150
5.2 20723 Laurel 36,866 $2,134 $578,114
5.7 21042 Ellicott City 43,327 $2,929 $796,991
5.8 20701 Annapolis Junction 513 $2,415 —
6.2 21076 Hanover 24,268 $2,632 $531,302
6.3 21228 Catonsville 50,492 $1,750 $424,864
6.5 20759 Fulton 6,624 — $994,204
6.7 21029 Clarksville 13,607 $3,500 $1,046,023
7.6 21077 Harmans 63 — $453,599
7.8 20777 Highland 3,221 — $984,731
8.2 20707 Laurel 37,278 $1,989 $404,226
8.3 21227 Halethorpe 34,907 $1,487 $305,120
8.5 21090 Linthicum Heights 10,652 $1,986 $430,756
8.8 20866 Burtonsville 15,986 $2,500 $454,175
8.9 20724 Laurel 19,369 $2,453 $463,013
9.1 21229 Baltimore 46,679 $1,528 $170,468
9.2 21244 Windsor Mill 38,208 $1,510 $321,947
9.4 20868 Spencerville 198 — $747,587
9.4 21163 Woodstock 7,539 — $649,015
9.6 21036 Dayton 2,569 — $1,008,338
10.0 21207 Gwynn Oak 47,099 $1,439 $287,860
10.0 21144 Severn 37,118 $2,234 $515,300
10.0 21794 West Friendship 2,192 — $1,028,318
10.1 20861 Ashton 2,890 — $946,555
10.4 20862 Brinklow 430 — $900,452

Coordinates and population from SimpleMaps US Zips (Basic). Rent and home values from Zillow Research.