Reading, Massachusetts.
Typical home $909,955 (+3.1% in a year), asking rent $2,888 (+0.2%). Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,590 (+118%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,561 +3%
- $882,394$909,955 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $209,207 +30%
- $700,747$909,955 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.
- Reading$4,776
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Reading, MA rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Reading, MA rose 0.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Reading runs $3,644/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $6,532 a month against $2,888 rent: a $4,776 mortgage payment, plus $782 property tax and $974 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Reading
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$6,532
- Renting$2,888
- Mortgage only$4,776
Property tax · $782/mo 1.03% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Middlesex County, MA
Insurance & upkeep · $974/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 Reading, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Reading, in Middlesex County, had 25,518 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $165,912 a year and half less, against $130,847 across Middlesex County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 82% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 18% are rented. Unemployment in Middlesex County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, 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. Reading is a suburban community where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the people who live there tend to be somewhat older than in much of the country. Household incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Homes are costly to buy, and rents are high too. Most adults hold a four-year degree, and a good share of residents work from home. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, and a lot of snow falls each year. Summers are warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a good deal through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in banks, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Reading are Eliassen Group, Weston & Sampson Engineering and Reading Schools. Commutes are fairly long, and across Middlesex County unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Boston is a longer drive away, and it holds most of the places people head for. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is a large art museum, and Fenway Park is the city's well-known baseball stadium. Boston Common is a public garden at the heart of the city. Walden Pond, also a longer drive away, is a reservoir with a long literary history.
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- 9,740households
- 66%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 30%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Middlesex County had 903,942 jobs in 2025, 2.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 64 inches of snow and 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Reading weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Reading
- Eliassen GroupHelp supply services1,730
- Weston & Sampson EngineeringEngineering services943
- Reading SchoolsSchool district570FTE
- Middlesex Essex PDCMail and parcel delivery464
- Demoulas Super Markets378
- Jordan's Furniture-ReadingFurniture stores131
- Super Stop & ShopGrocery stores95
- The Residence at Pearl StreetAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities91
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,059 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. 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 stormsrelatively high in parts of ReadingRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Reading’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 Middlesex County and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
Reading home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Reading$909,955
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Reading listings, and the typical home goes pending in 9 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.
- Reading15.85%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Reading50
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Reading25
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Reading$894,421
- United States$371,553
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Reading105.76%
Zip codes with a Reading address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Reading — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.