Potomac, Maryland.
Typical home $1,348,693 (+0.8% in a year), asking rent $4,426 (+4.0%). Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,567 (+102%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,943 +1%
- $1,337,750$1,348,693 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $225,832 +20%
- $1,122,861$1,348,693 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.
- Potomac$7,079
- Maryland$2,230
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Potomac, MD rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Potomac, MD rose 4.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Potomac runs $5,069/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $5,497 in Jan 2025.
That is $9,495 a month against $4,426 rent: a $7,079 mortgage payment, plus $972 property tax and $1,444 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Potomac
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.
- Owning all in$9,495
- Renting$4,426
- Mortgage only$7,079
Property tax · $972/mo 0.87% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Montgomery County, MD
Insurance & upkeep · $1,444/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.
Living in Potomac, Montgomery County, Maryland
Potomac, in Montgomery County, had 47,018 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $236,675 a year and half less, against $132,450 across Montgomery County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Montgomery County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Potomac is a community where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the homes are among the more costly in the region, with rents to match. Households here earn well above the county's typical income, and very few people live below the poverty line. Residents tend to be older than in many places, and nearly all adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the hottest. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, and in banks, insurance and property. Many people work from home, and those who commute spend a moderate amount of time getting to work. Within Potomac, Montgomery County Public Schools, Ivymount School and Peaceful Mind Home Care are among the largest workplaces. Across Montgomery County, unemployment is lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. The National Zoological Park is a zoo a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the National Mall, a park in the heart of Washington, and to the Smithsonian Institution, a museum. The National Museum of Natural History, also a museum, is a longer drive away as well.
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- 16,316households
- 85%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 38%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Montgomery County had 456,358 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 69°. About 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rockville Northeast weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Potomac
- Peaceful Mind Home CareServices for the elderly and persons with disabilities535
- Montgomery County Public SchoolsBus operation, school and employee308
- Ivymount SchoolSchools for the intellectually and developmentally disabled260
- Macy'sDepartment stores244
- WestlakeMail and parcel delivery211
- AramarkFood service contractors175
- Potomac OperatorNursing homes163
- Jim Coleman AUtomotive of BethesdaAutomobile dealers, new only or new and used129
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,134 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Potomac’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 Montgomery County and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
Potomac home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Potomac$1,348,693
- 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 4 Potomac listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 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.
- Potomac25.11%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Potomac20
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Potomac129
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Potomac46
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Potomac$1,406,679
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Potomac99.85%
Zip codes with a Potomac address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Potomac — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.