Rockport, Massachusetts.
Typical home $864,172 (+3.6% in a year), asking rent $2,747 . Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,503 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $29,819 +4%
- $834,353$864,172 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $176,525 +26%
- $687,648$864,172 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.
- Rockport$4,536
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Rockport, MA rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts
Rockport, in Essex County, had 5,010 people in the 2020 census. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Essex County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rockport is a small coastal community on Cape Ann, home to an older population than most of the country, with many residents well past middle age. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are high, with rents running high as well. Incomes in the surrounding county are comfortable, relatively few residents live below the poverty line, and many adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are warm, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, shops, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. A fair number of people work from home, and the typical commute is fairly long. Across Essex County, some of the largest workplaces are Raytheon in Andover, Amazon and Johnson & Johnson.
Things to do. Thacher Island National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, and the Paper House, a museum, are both in or beside town. A short drive away are Halibut Point State Park, a protected area, and Crane Beach, a beach. Wingaersheek Beach is another beach a short drive away.
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- 2,295households
- 57%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 29 mintypical commute
- 26%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Essex County had 326,688 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 37° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 60°. About 51 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beverly weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Essex County
- Raytheon_Andover_MA5,177
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage4,153
- Johnson JohnsonSurgical medical instruments3,110
- General Electric2,628
- Lynn SchoolsSchool district2,413FTE
- Lawrence SchoolsSchool district2,349FTE
- PfizerVaccines manufacturing2,230
- North Shore Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,150FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 528 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 94,818 people in all across the county; Rockport has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Coastal floodingVery high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rockport’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Essex County and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
Rockport home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rockport$864,172
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Rockport listings — 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.
- Rockport27.02%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rockport43
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rockport13
Zip codes with a Rockport address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rockport — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.