Zip lookup · MD

21046
Columbia, Maryland.

Columbia, Howard County, MD · Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro · population 15,608

What it costs per month · 21046 $2,702/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,294 (+92%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $653 +0%
$514,143$514,796 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $72,494 +16%
$442,302$514,796 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 21046 $2,702 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • 21046$2,702
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.

Typical home values in zip 21046 rose 0.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.

Asking rents in zip 21046 rose 0.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.

Owning the typical home in zip 21046 runs $1,802/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,914 in Apr 2024.

That is $3,754 a month against $1,952 rent: a $2,702 mortgage payment, plus $501 property tax and $551 insurance & upkeep.

Owning vs renting — zip 21046

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 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Owning all in $3,754 Renting $1,952 Mortgage only $2,702
$1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 $3,500 2022 2024 2026
  • Owning all in$3,754
  • Renting$1,952
  • Mortgage only$2,702

Property tax · $501/mo 1.17% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Howard County, MD

Insurance & upkeep · $551/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 $1,952 as of Sep 2026
+0.1%year on year
Typical home value $514,796 as of Sep 2026
+0.1%year on year

Asking rent — 21046

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

$1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 21046 $1,952 Baltimore $1,937 United States $1,932
$1,500 $1,600 $1,700 $1,800 $1,900 2022 2024 2026
  • 21046$1,952
  • Baltimore$1,937
  • United States$1,932

Typical home value — 21046

Mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$300,000 $400,000 $500,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 21046 $514,796 Baltimore $396,959 United States $366,157
$300,000 $400,000 $500,000 2018 2022 2026
  • 21046$514,796
  • Baltimore$396,959
  • United States$366,157

Within 20 miles

Showing 30 of 124 zips in range — sorting picks from all 124.

10 mi 20 mi 50 mi
Miles Zip City Population Rent Home value
2.4 21045 Columbia 40,034 $2,252 $476,394
2.7 20763 Savage 2,601 — $485,150
2.9 20723 Laurel 36,866 $2,134 $578,114
3.2 20794 Jessup 16,814 $2,147 $486,441
3.4 21044 Columbia 44,114 $2,332 $537,079
4.2 20701 Annapolis Junction 513 $2,415 —
4.8 20759 Fulton 6,624 — $994,204
5.2 21075 Elkridge 37,363 $2,379 $481,968
5.8 20707 Laurel 37,278 $1,989 $404,226
6.3 21043 Ellicott City 48,525 $2,481 $626,717
6.3 21029 Clarksville 13,607 $3,500 $1,046,023
6.4 21076 Hanover 24,268 $2,632 $531,302
6.6 20866 Burtonsville 15,986 $2,500 $454,175
6.7 20777 Highland 3,221 — $984,731
7.0 20724 Laurel 19,369 $2,453 $463,013
7.3 21042 Ellicott City 43,327 $2,929 $796,991
7.6 20868 Spencerville 198 — $747,587
7.7 21077 Harmans 63 — $453,599
8.5 21228 Catonsville 50,492 $1,750 $424,864
8.6 20861 Ashton 2,890 — $946,555
8.9 20708 Laurel 27,593 $1,653 $480,603
9.1 20905 Silver Spring 19,004 $2,658 $665,546
9.4 20705 Beltsville 28,713 $1,671 $449,990
9.5 20862 Brinklow 430 — $900,452
9.5 21144 Severn 37,118 $2,234 $515,300
9.6 21036 Dayton 2,569 — $1,008,338
9.6 21090 Linthicum Heights 10,652 $1,986 $430,756
9.9 21227 Halethorpe 34,907 $1,487 $305,120
10.2 20860 Sandy Spring 2,035 — $804,824
10.5 20904 Silver Spring 58,646 $1,946 $576,041

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