Ocean City, Maryland.
Typical home $444,560 (-0.5% in a year), asking rent $1,658 . Salisbury, MD-DE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,284 (+122%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,064 -0%
- $446,624$444,560 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $63,239 +17%
- $381,321$444,560 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.
- Ocean City$2,333
- Maryland$2,230
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Ocean City, MD fell 0.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ocean City, Worcester County, Maryland
Ocean City is a town of 6,844 people in Worcester County. Half its households earn more than $77,750 a year and half less, against $81,745 across Worcester County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Worcester County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ocean City is a small seaside town whose residents are older than in most American communities, and most of them own the homes they live in. Household incomes sit a little below the county's, and a typical home costs a good deal more than a typical monthly rent would suggest at first glance. Winters are cold, summers are warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with professional and business services, schools and hospitals, and banks, insurance and property also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in town are Bay Shore Development, which runs amusement parks, along with the grocery chains Food Lion and Acme Markets. Jobs across Worcester County have slipped slightly over the past year, and the commute for most workers is fairly short.
Things to do. Jolly Roger Amusement Park sits in or beside town, and Trimper's Rides, another amusement park, is a short drive away. For time by the water, Isle of Wight Bay is in or beside town, and Assateague Island, a beach, is a longer drive away.
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- 3,828households
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Worcester County had 26,246 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 68°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ocean City Municipal Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ocean City
- Bay Shore DevelopmentAmusement parks161
- Food LionGrocery stores76
- Acme MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores58
- Sodexo Live!Food service contractors55
- Ocean InvestorsSummer resort hotels without casinos54
- Trimper Rides of Ocean CityTheme parks, amusement49
- Carousel F&BRestaurants, full service40
- Commander Hotel & SuitesHotels40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 733 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
- Coastal floodingVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of Ocean CityRelatively 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 Ocean City’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Salisbury, MD-DE metro.
Ocean City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ocean City$444,560
- Maryland$424,890
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Ocean City listings, and the typical home goes pending in 45 days — 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.
- Ocean City20.75%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Ocean City45
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ocean City548
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ocean City113
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Ocean City$443,627
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Ocean City97.14%
Zip codes with a Ocean City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ocean City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.