Worcester, Massachusetts.
Typical home $432,708 (+1.6% in a year), asking rent $2,122 (+1.4%). Worcester, MA-CT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,311 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,888 +2%
- $425,820$432,708 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $97,545 +29%
- $335,163$432,708 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.
- Worcester$2,271
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Worcester, MA rose 1.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Worcester, MA rose 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Worcester runs $1,076/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,169 in May 2024.
That is $3,197 a month against $2,122 rent: a $2,271 mortgage payment, plus $463 property tax and $463 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Worcester
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$3,197
- Renting$2,122
- Mortgage only$2,271
Property tax · $463/mo 1.28% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Worcester County, MA
Insurance & upkeep · $463/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 Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city of 206,518 people in Worcester County. Half its households earn more than $70,102 a year and half less, against $95,939 across Worcester County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 43% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 57% are rented. Unemployment in Worcester was 4.6% in August 2026, and Worcester County had 1.4% 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. Worcester is a city and the largest in its county, with a young population compared with most places and a good many students and young adults among its residents. Fewer households own their homes than renters might suggest elsewhere, and incomes run well below the county's, with more people living below the poverty line than is typical. Winters are cold and very snowy, summers are warm, and precipitation is spread through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, shops and manufacturing also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Worcester are UMass Memorial Health, the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Worcester Schools. Unemployment is a little lower than a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. Within the city or right beside it, the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts hosts live shows, and Green Hill Park offers open space to walk. The Higgins Armory Museum is another nearby stop in or beside town. For time by the water, the Assabet River is a short drive away.
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- 79,501households
- 35%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Worcester County had 356,384 jobs in 2025, 1.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 62°. About 73 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Worcester Regional Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Worcester
- UMass Memorial HealthGeneral medical and surgical hospitals18,140
- University of Massachusetts Chan Medical SchoolUniversity or college5,780
- Worcester SchoolsSchool district4,289FTE
- AbbVie Bioresearch Center - ABC1,451
- Worcester Polytechnic InstituteUniversity or college1,378
- College of the Holy CrossUniversity or college1,226
- NBC DistributorsPrivate warehousing and storage, general merchandise1,225
- Saint Vincent HospitalGeneral hospital1,134FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 117 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 39,409 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively 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 Worcester’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 Worcester County and the Worcester, MA-CT metro.
Worcester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Worcester$432,708
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Worcester listings, and the typical home goes pending in 15 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.
- Worcester29.49%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Worcester15
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Worcester337
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Worcester137
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Worcester$429,035
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Worcester102.20%
Zip codes with a Worcester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Worcester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Worcester
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01604 | Worcester | 39,812 | $2,175 | $421,555 |
| 01605 | Worcester | 30,579 | $2,272 | $443,180 |
| 01610 | Worcester | 30,444 | $2,128 | $374,537 |
| 01602 | Worcester | 27,092 | $2,218 | $450,661 |
| 01606 | Worcester | 22,844 | $2,221 | $440,180 |
| 01609 | Worcester | 22,047 | $1,928 | $545,108 |
| 01603 | Worcester | 20,868 | $2,073 | $395,233 |
| 01607 | Worcester | 8,706 | $2,094 | $389,834 |
| 01608 | Worcester | 4,932 | $1,875 | $184,994 |