Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Even on the area’s higher pay, Chelmsford costs more to live in than 90% of U.S. towns
It ranks #194 of 282 in Massachusetts for affordability. Up 1.2% in a year, close to the Massachusetts typical home.
Census 2020–24 home values, rents, tax bills and cost burden, measured against the median household income of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area ($116K). How TownRatings grades cost of living
The grade measures what housing costs against what households in the area earn. Chelmsford’s area earns well above the typical U.S. town ($116K against $74K), but homes, rent and taxes here run higher still. Owners keep up better than renters: 25% of owners pay 30% or more of income for housing (typical U.S. town: 20%), against 52% of renters.
In dollars
- $674Ktypical home, 3% above the Massachusetts typical homeZillow, September 2026
- $2,770a month for a two-bedroom, utilities includedHUD Fair Market Rent, 2026
- 108prices across the Boston metro, where the U.S. is 100 (housing 148)BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024
In paychecks the grade
- 5.1 yrsof area income buys the typical home; the typical U.S. town: 3.3$116K, Boston-area income
- 21%of area income goes to the median rent; the typical U.S. town: 18%Census 2020–24
- 52%of renters pay 30%+ of income for housing; across Massachusetts: 52%Census 2020–24
- 25%of owners do; the typical U.S. town: 20%Census 2020–24
What Chelmsford’s housing numbers say
About two in three homes sell above asking
In May, 70% of the homes that sold went for more than the asking price and 80% went under contract within two weeks. There were about 1.7 months of homes for sale at that pace, against 2.6 across Massachusetts: 63 listings for 37 sales that month. Expect competition on well-priced homes. How fast homes sell ↓
A burst of building in 2024
Chelmsford permitted 353 new homes in 2024, 98% of them in buildings with two or more homes, against about 75 in a typical year of the past decade. 2025 came in at 17. New homes ↓
Most new homes are apartments and condos
Of the 1,025 homes permitted in Chelmsford’s past 10 years, 85% were in buildings with two or more homes, not single-family houses. New homes ↓
Prices vary a lot across the town lines
Typical values in the towns next door run from $482K in Lowell to $1.3M in Carlisle. At $674K, Chelmsford is the 4th most expensive of the 5. Vs. neighbors ↓
Written from the data on this page. Home values are the Zillow Home Value Index, through September 2026; sales and supply are Redfin’s for May 2026; permits are Census figures through 2025; incomes, rents paid, taxes and ownership come from the Census American Community Survey.
What’s behind Chelmsford’s grade
Measured against what households in the area earn, Chelmsford is more affordable than 10% of U.S. towns, #194 of 282 in Massachusetts. Property tax pulls the grade down most; the share of households paying 30%+ for housing holds it up.
Prices here have kept pace with Massachusetts: up 28.6% in five years, against 25.7% statewide (Zillow).
Up 28.6% in five years
About the same pace as Massachusetts (25.7%).
Show as a table
| January | Chelmsford | Massachusetts |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $385,000 | $378,000 |
| 2018 | $410,000 | $402,000 |
| 2019 | $426,000 | $421,000 |
| 2020 | $440,000 | $433,000 |
| 2021 | $486,000 | $479,000 |
| 2022 | $530,000 | $529,000 |
| 2023 | $571,000 | $565,000 |
| 2024 | $630,000 | $609,000 |
| 2025 | $669,000 | $640,000 |
| 2026 | $672,000 | $650,000 |
| September 2026 | $674,000 | $655,000 |
A typical Chelmsford home worth $377K in October 2016 is worth about $674K today.
Zillow Home Value Index: the typical value of all homes (middle third), smoothed and seasonally adjusted, through September 2026.
A strong seller's market
Homes are selling faster than new ones are listed: less than two months of supply. Well-priced homes can draw several offers.
Under ~4 months of supply favors sellers; over ~6 favors buyers.
Redfin Data Center, all residential sales, May 2026.
A typical home costs 5.1 years of area income
The calculator starts from the area income the grade uses. Switch to Chelmsford’s own median, or type yours.
That’s $250K short of a typical Chelmsford home.
A two-bedroom rents for about $2,770 a month here, $1,530 less than owning.
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, Chelmsford’s typical property tax (1.36% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
A two-bedroom rents for about $2,770
Renters already here pay a median of $2,062, so moving in tends to cost more than staying put.
Fair Market Rent a month, utilities included
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents by ZIP code (Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area): the 40th-percentile rent plus utilities for a standard unit. Median rent and renters: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
17 new homes permitted in 2025
Builders were permitted 17 new homes in Chelmsford in 2025: 8 single-family houses and 9 in buildings with two or more homes, worth about $4 million to build. That's 0.5 per 1,000 residents, slower than across Massachusetts (1.8). Over the past 10 years, Chelmsford has permitted 1,025 homes in all.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Chelmsford gained 2,590 residents while 647 new homes were permitted: about 4 new residents per new home. Population grew faster than building, so existing homes filled up: a sign of tight supply. Across Massachusetts: 3.4 new residents per new home.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 16 | 16 | 0 | $3.7 million |
| 2025 | 17 | 8 | 9 | $4 million |
| 2024 | 353 | 6 | 347 | $75.9 million |
| 2023 | 12 | 8 | 4 | $3.8 million |
| 2022 | 31 | 19 | 12 | $6.9 million |
| 2021 | 77 | 34 | 43 | $13.2 million |
| 2020 | 40 | 8 | 32 | $6 million |
| 2019 | 195 | 14 | 181 | $31.5 million |
| 2018 | 145 | 17 | 128 | $25.5 million |
| 2017 | 132 | 18 | 114 | $14.4 million |
| 2016 | 23 | 23 | 0 | $5.4 million |
| 2015 | 60 | 37 | 23 | $11.3 million |
| 2014 | 11 | 11 | 0 | $2.9 million |
| 2013 | 28 | 24 | 4 | $5.9 million |
| 2012 | 18 | 18 | 0 | $3.8 million |
| 2011 | 25 | 22 | 3 | $4.8 million |
| 2010 | 10 | 10 | 0 | $1.8 million |
| 2009 | 15 | 13 | 2 | $2.9 million |
| 2008 | 12 | 12 | 0 | $2.5 million |
| 2007 | 23 | 23 | 0 | $4.3 million |
| 2006 | 182 | 65 | 117 | $23.2 million |
| 2005 | 64 | 64 | 0 | $10.7 million |
| 2004 | 135 | 109 | 26 | $20.4 million |
| 2003 | 88 | 57 | 31 | $12.1 million |
| 2002 | 170 | 26 | 144 | $15.4 million |
| 2001 | 54 | 30 | 24 | $6.4 million |
| 2000 | 45 | 29 | 16 | $5 million |
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
Property tax runs above the Massachusetts norm
The median bill is $8,047 (Massachusetts: $5,992), 1.36% of a home’s value a year, against 1.07% statewide.
Census American Community Survey 2020–24: the median real-estate tax bill homeowners report, and that bill ÷ the median home value. Bills include town, school and county taxes. The Census reports bills over $10,000 only as “$10,000+”.
The rest of a budget near Chelmsford
Only figures published free for the whole country, each labeled with the area it covers: the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, or Massachusetts. Groceries follow the goods price level; nobody publishes them town by town.
| Cost | Here | Compared with | Area | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prices overall U.S. = 100 | 108 | MA 106 | metro | BEA, 2024 |
| Goods (groceries, clothing, cars…) U.S. = 100 | 100 | MA 99 | metro | BEA, 2024 |
| Utilities U.S. = 100 | 149 | MA 152 | metro | BEA, 2024 |
| Other services U.S. = 100 | 104 | MA 103 | metro | BEA, 2024 |
Price levels: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities 2024 (metro area and state). Electricity: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, table 5.6.A.
Chelmsford vs. its neighbors
Of the 5 towns here with a Zillow value, Chelmsford has the 2nd-lowest. Tyngsborough has no Zillow value, so it is in the table only.
Cost next door · one source per column
| Town | Cost | Typical home Zillow, September 2026 | Median value Census 2020–24 | Tax rate bill ÷ value | 2-bed rent HUD 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelmsford | D | $674K | $594K | 1.36% | $2,770 |
| Tyngsborough | D | — | $553K | 1.34% | $2,550 |
| Lowell | C | $482K | $429K | 1.05% | $2,220 |
| Westford | D | $827K | $749K | 1.30% | $3,450 |
| Billerica | D | $697K | $612K | 1.04% | $2,770 |
| Carlisle | B | $1.3M | $1.1M | 0.91%+ | $2,560 |
“—” under Zillow: Zillow publishes no value for that town, so it’s left blank rather than mixed with Census figures. “+”: the Census reports the tax bill only as $10,000 or more, so the rate is at least that.
Questions about the cost of living in Chelmsford
Is Chelmsford expensive to live in?
Measured against what households in the area earn, Chelmsford costs more than 90% of U.S. towns: a D for cost of living, #194 of 282 in Massachusetts. The typical home costs 5.1 years of the median household income of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area ($116K).
How much does a house cost in Chelmsford?
About $674K, Zillow’s typical value for September 2026, up 1.2% in a year. The Massachusetts typical home is $655K.
What salary do you need to live in Chelmsford?
To buy the typical home with 20% down at 6.3%, about $184,000 a year, keeping the payment (about $4,300 a month with tax and insurance) at 28% of income. To rent a two-bedroom at 30% of income, about $111,000.
How much is rent in Chelmsford?
HUD puts a two-bedroom at about $2,770 a month with utilities, the going rate for someone moving in. Renters already here pay a median of $2,062 (Census 2020–24).
What are property taxes in Chelmsford?
The median bill is $8,047 a year, 1.36% of the median home value (Massachusetts: $5,992, 1.07%), from the Census 2020–24.
Are home prices in Chelmsford going up?
Yes: up 1.2% in the past year and 28.6% in five years, against 25.7% across Massachusetts (Zillow).
Neighbors talk housing
What Chelmsford buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research, September 2026. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center, May 2026. Income, ownership, taxes and rent: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. New homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The calculator is an estimate, not a loan offer. Regional price levels: BEA; electricity: EIA. How TownRatings grades cost of living.