Key Metrics at a Glance
The median listing price for a Howard County home is $685,000, and a two-bedroom apartment runs $1,947–$3,069 a month.
- Realtor.com, Howard County, MD market trends — median listing price and price per square foot, retrieved August 3, 2026.
- Howard County Housing Commission, Housing Choice Voucher payment standards — effective January 1, 2026.
What It Takes to Buy the Median-Priced Home
A single 10% down-payment scenario, using the current median listing price and the latest Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate.
to afford the median Howard County listed home — assuming 10% down, a 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.66%, PMI of ~0.55% on the loan, and housing costs at 28% of gross income.
| Principal & interest | $3,962 |
| Property tax (1.014%) | $579 |
| Homeowners insurance | $150 |
| PMI (~0.55% of loan) | $283 |
| Total monthly housing cost | $4,974 |
- Home price: Realtor.com Howard County median listing price, $685,000 (retrieved August 3, 2026). Loan amount $616,500 after 10% down.
- Rate: Freddie Mac PMMS 30-year fixed, 6.66% (week ending July 30, 2026), amortized over 360 months.
- Property tax: 1.014% effective combined Howard County and State of Maryland rate, per Howard County Department of Finance.
- Insurance: $150/month, typical Howard County estimate. PMI: ~0.55% of loan annually, required with less than 20% down.
- Income required: total monthly housing cost at a 28% front-end debt-to-income ratio.
- Affordability context: Comptroller of Maryland, Howard County affordability profile.
Prices & Homeownership by Community
Howard County is not one housing market. Prices and ownership rates vary sharply across its communities.
Median Listing Prices by Community
Comparing prices across Howard County neighborhoods
Homeownership Rate by Community
Share of occupied homes that are owner-occupied
Gap in Affordable Rental Housing by Income Level
Is this housing market producing enough rental homes for each income band?
AMI = area median income
- Real Property Research Group for the Howard County Housing Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development, 2024 Howard County Rental Survey, Table 64, “Penetration Rate Analysis,” page 93 (cover dated February 2024; the copy DHCD distributes is labeled June 2024). Demand is the table's “Estimated No. of Qualifying Renter Hhlds”; supply is its “Inventory Serving this Band.” Total renter households countywide: 36,901. Linked from DHCD's Publications & Reports page.
- The report publishes a penetration rate (supply ÷ demand), not a gap. The shortage and surplus figures shown here are supply minus demand, calculated from the table's own counts. The 12,627 / 4,518 / 8,109 sub-60% figures are the sum of the table's three lowest rows — the report's narrative gives slightly different totals in two places (4,479 units on page 92 and 4,519 in the executive summary), an inconsistency it does not reconcile.
- A unit counts as affordable when gross rent (contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities) is 30% or less of household income, using HUD's 2023 median family income of $121,700 for the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro area. Units are classified by their rent level across the whole surveyed stock — not by whether an income-qualified household actually occupies them. The report notes the high-rent surplus means those units are “serving renter households from other income bands.”
- Two limits the report states directly: the income bands overlap, because a band's floor is set by one-bedroom rents and its ceiling by three-bedroom rents, so a household can qualify for two bands depending on its size; and scattered-site rentals (10,300 of the 36,901 units) are modeled from a 13% sample rather than counted. The band inventory rows sum to 36,716 against a stated 36,901-unit universe, leaving 185 units unexplained.
Moderate Income Housing Unit (MIHU) Program
Howard County's inclusionary zoning program. Developers in designated zoning districts must sell or rent a share of new units to moderate-income households at prices and rents the County sets — and those restrictions run in perpetuity.
How the Two Tracks Work
For Homebuyers
| Income limit | ≤80% AMI |
| Max income, family of four | $117,586 |
| Average new MIHU townhome | $348,017 |
| Average MIHU resale | $306,940 |
| Affordability term | Perpetual |
Prices are set twice yearly at what a household earning 70% of median can afford for a single-family or proffered home, 65% for a townhouse, and 50% for a condominium. On resale, the price may rise only by the change in consumer prices or median income, whichever is lower, capped at 3.5% a year. Enrollment opens quarterly and applications stay valid three years.
For Renters
| Income limit | ≤60% AMI |
| Max income, family of four | $88,189 |
| Average MIHU rent | $1,488 |
| Typical 2BR MIHU rent | $1,456–$1,507 |
| Affordability term | Perpetual |
Rents are capped at 30% of the monthly income of a household at 60% of median, and must include a utility allowance. There is no county waiting list — renters apply directly to a participating community on a first-come, first-served basis, and income is recertified each year at lease renewal.
What MIHU Saves a Household
Purchase price, MIHU vs. market
Monthly rent, MIHU vs. market
Who Actually Gets In
Income-eligible homebuyer applicants compared with homes actually awarded
Calendar-year figures from the County's statutory MIHU Annual Analysis. Percentages are awarded homes as a share of income-eligible applicants.
For-Sale MIHUs Awarded by Fiscal Year
Homes awarded to first-time homebuyers
- Howard County Department of Housing and Community Development, MIHU program overview, MIHU Homeownership Program (buyer income limits effective January 1, 2026), and MIHU rental program (renter income limits effective January 1, 2026).
- Howard County DHCD, 2025 MIHU Annual Analysis — CY2025 applicants, eligibility, awards, average prices and rents, and rental inventory.
- Howard County DHCD, 2024 MIHU Annual Analysis — CY2024 applicants, eligibility, awards, and average prices and rents.
- Howard County, Who Can Afford to Buy a Home in Howard County — the County's own "about 1 in 10 applicants" statement.
- Howard County Code, Title 13, Subtitle 4 — § 13.403 pricing and rent formulas, § 13.404 resale price cap, § 13.405 perpetual rental restrictions, § 13.406 eligibility and priorities.
- Howard County DHCD, FY27 Budget Presentation (FY26 awards, 287 homes 2018–2025, perpetual affordability) and FY26 Budget Presentation (FY25 awards).
- Howard County, FY2025 Executive's Proposed Operating Budget — FY24 awards.
- Market comparisons: Redfin Howard County median sale price, $628,000 (May 2026); 2024 Howard County Rental Survey countywide average market rent of $1,979 and 2BR market average of $2,135.
- Unmet-need estimate of roughly 20,000 units: Housing Affordability Coalition comments on the draft Housing Opportunities Master Plan, September 14, 2021, citing the County's consultant study.
- Percentages comparing MIHU prices and rents with market figures, and shares of eligible applicants served, are calculated from the sourced values above. The purchase comparison is not a matched pair: the MIHU figure covers new townhomes in CY2025 while the market median covers all home types in May 2026.
Housing Cost Burdens for Renters and Homeowners
A household is cost-burdened if it spends more than 30% of gross income on housing costs.
Renter Cost Burden
Source: Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year (B25070). Universe: 33,503 renter households paying rent.
Owner Cost Burden (w/ Mortgage)
Source: Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year (B25091). Universe: 62,295 owner households with a mortgage.
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B25070 — gross rent as a percentage of household income.
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B25091 — mortgage status by selected monthly owner costs as a percentage of household income.
Housing Cost Burdens by Race & Ethnicity
The same cost burden falls unevenly across Howard County households.
Renter Cost Burden by Race & Ethnicity
Homeowner Cost Burden by Race & Ethnicity
All owner-occupied households, with or without a mortgage.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) data, 2018–2022 release (published December 23, 2025), Table 9 — tenure by race and ethnicity of householder by cost burden, Howard County, Maryland (county-level CSV, GEOID 0500000US24027). Percentages are calculated from the published household counts; hover any bar for the underlying counts.
- Denominator is all households in each group, including the small number for whom cost burden was not computed (no or negative income). CHAS rounds household counts to the nearest 5, so shares carry roughly ±0.2 percentage points of rounding noise.
- Note on vintage: CHAS is built on ACS 2018–2022 5-year estimates, an earlier period than the ACS 2020–2024 estimates used in the countywide cost-burden card above. HUD has not yet released a CHAS edition based on 2020–2024 data, so the two cards are not directly comparable and the countywide totals differ slightly.
Methodology & Sources
How every figure on this dashboard is calculated, and where it comes from.
Median listing price, not median sale price
The homebuying section uses the Realtor.com median listing price for Howard County, which reflects what is currently on the market rather than what has closed. It is refreshed monthly.
Mortgage cost assumptions
10% down on a 30-year fixed loan at the latest Freddie Mac PMMS rate; property tax at the 1.014% effective combined county and state rate; homeowners insurance at $150/month; PMI at ~0.55% of the loan annually. Income required is the total monthly cost at a 28% front-end debt-to-income ratio.
Rent benchmark
The two-bedroom rent range uses Howard County Housing Commission Housing Choice Voucher payment standards rather than asking-rent estimates, because payment standards are an official, citable county benchmark set by bedroom count and ZIP code.
Affordable rental gap
Taken verbatim from Table 64, “Penetration Rate Analysis,” page 93 of the 2024 Howard County Rental Survey. The report publishes supply, demand, and a penetration rate for each band; the shortage and surplus figures here are supply minus demand. The headline figure sums the three bands below 60% of area median income, which together represent the most deeply underserved renters.
MIHU program
Applicant, award, price, and rent figures come from the County's statutory MIHU Annual Analysis, which reports on a calendar-year basis. Award counts by fiscal year come from DHCD budget presentations. The two series are not interchangeable and are never combined in one chart. Rental inventory counts in County documents measure different things across years, so only the most recent count is shown rather than a trend.
Cost burden
A household is cost-burdened at more than 30% of gross income for housing, and severely burdened at more than 50%. Renter figures come from ACS Table B25070 and cover renter households paying cash rent; owner figures come from Table B25091 and cover owner households with a mortgage.
Race and ethnicity
Cost burden by race and ethnicity uses HUD CHAS tabulations of ACS microdata, which cross tenure and cost burden with the race and ethnicity of the householder — a breakdown the published ACS tables do not provide. Because the current CHAS release is built on ACS 2018–2022, that card runs two years behind the ACS 2020–2024 figures used elsewhere, and its homeowner series covers all owner-occupied households rather than only those with a mortgage.
Refresh cadence
The median listing price and mortgage rate are reviewed on the 5th of each month. The listing price is updated whenever it changes; the mortgage rate is updated when it has moved a quarter percentage point or more from the rate shown, so that the homebuying figures reflect meaningful shifts rather than week-to-week noise. The “data as of” date advances only when a figure changes. HCHC payment standards are reviewed each January, when new standards take effect. Census and Rental Housing Survey figures update when new releases are published.
Static figures
This dashboard is a static page. Every value, chart series, and citation is fixed at publication and changes only when the dashboard is rebuilt and republished.
- Realtor.com — Howard County, MD market trends.
- Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
- Howard County Housing Commission — Housing Choice Voucher payment standards, effective January 1, 2026.
- Real Property Research Group for the Howard County Housing Commission and DHCD — 2024 Howard County Rental Survey, Table 64, page 93.
- U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Tables B19013, B25003, B25070, B25091.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — CHAS data, 2018–2022 release, Table 9, and FY2026 income limits.
- Howard County Department of Finance — property tax rates.
- Comptroller of Maryland — county affordability profile.