Towson, Maryland.
Typical home $471,018 (+2.6% in a year), asking rent $1,871 (+1.8%). Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,161 (+89%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,918 +3%
- $459,100$471,018 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $64,031 +16%
- $406,987$471,018 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.
- Towson$2,472
- Maryland$2,230
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 24 years.
Typical home values in Towson, MD rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Towson, MD rose 1.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Towson runs $1,525/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,569 in May 2024.
That is $3,396 a month against $1,871 rent: a $2,472 mortgage payment, plus $420 property tax and $504 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Towson
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$3,396
- Renting$1,871
- Mortgage only$2,472
Property tax · $420/mo 1.07% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Baltimore County, MD
Insurance & upkeep · $504/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 Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland
Towson, in Baltimore County, had 59,553 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $101,320 a year and half less, against $91,768 across Baltimore County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Baltimore County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% 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. Towson is a community of residents who are younger than in many American towns, with incomes above the county's and a high share of adults holding a four-year degree. Homeowners are the majority, though there are more renters than in many places, and the typical home is priced well above what most of the country pays. Winters are cold, with highs only a little above freezing in January, and summers turn properly warm by July.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, restaurants and hotels, and shops also employing a good number. Baltimore County Public Schools, Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Goucher College are among the largest workplaces in Towson. Commutes are of middling length, and a fair number of people work from home, while jobs across the county have slipped a little over the past year.
Things to do. Within the town or right beside it, Lake Roland Park and the Hampton National Historic Site offer open space and a protected historic landscape. A short drive away are the Baltimore Museum of Art, an art museum, and Fort McHenry, a fort of the kind that draws history lovers. The Maryland Zoo is also a short drive away for a family day out.
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- 23,262households
- 69%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 23%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Baltimore County had 369,662 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 86° and lows near 69°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cylburn weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Towson
- Baltimore County Public SchoolsSchool district15,462FTE
- Baltimore County PoliceLaw enforcement statistics centers, government2,400
- Greater Baltimore Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,263FTE
- Sheppard & Enoch Pratt HospitalPsychiatric hospital1,995FTE
- St. Joseph Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,525FTE
- Goucher CollegeUniversity or college402
- TargetDiscount department stores285
- BlakehurstRetirement communities, continuing care275
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 33 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 11,214 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of TowsonRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherrelatively high in parts of TowsonRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Towson’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Baltimore County and the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro.
Towson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Towson$471,018
- 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 3 Towson listings, and the typical home goes pending in 12 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Towson29.48%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Towson12
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Towson147
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Towson61
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Towson$466,374
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Towson101.21%
Zip codes with a Towson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Towson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Towson
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21286 | Towson | 21,853 | $1,777 | $398,217 |
| 21204 | Towson | 19,845 | $1,943 | $590,649 |