The median home price is edging toward $1m. Expect to pay more.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

These days, the answer to that question may as well be any prospective home buyer in Greater Boston.

The median sale price of a single-family home in the region has continually inched closer to the seven-figure mark recently. The latest figures the Greater Boston Association of Realtors released in July showed another record-setting median price of $960,000 in June.

The latest number builds on a trend in which we hit record overall highs three months in a row: The median sales price clocked in at $950,000 in April, as the market picked up in the spring.

While there’s still some way to go before the typical single-family home here hits the $1 million mark, the market shows no indications that prices will drop off significantly any time in the near future.

“It’s so strange to be talking about $1 million being a median,” said Jon Auger, executive vice president and chief retail lending officer at Middlesex Savings Bank, headquartered in Natick. “I’ve been at this for over 35 years, and it’s just mind-boggling to me how huge these prices have gotten.”

And it’s not just sales prices that have jumped since the market shake-up began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019.

With higher sales prices, buyers likely have to offer larger down payments, and they can face higher closing costs, and homeowners insurance premiums — not to mention the relatively high interest rates currently looming over borrowers.

So what is the true cost of buying and owning a $1 million home in today’s market?

Here’s a glance at a few figures buyers have to consider:

That 20 percent down payment

Historically, home buyers have strived to hit the desired 20 percent mark for a down payment. That threshold saves buyers cash down the line as they forgo the need for the private mortgage insurance, or PMI, lenders typically require of buyers who put down less. There are federal, state, and local programs that offer down payment assistance or require zero down, but let’s stick to the typical buyer here.

So for a buyer looking to purchase a $1 million home, a 20 percent down payment makes for some simple math and a hefty sum: $200,000.

For a 30-year-fixed mortgage at an interest rate of approximately 6.5 percent, the monthly principal and interest costs come to about $5,057, according to Auger.

The total is a substantial jump even from just a few years ago, when rates were about half what they are now. At that 3 percent rate, for the same purchase price and loan amount, a buyer would pay only about $3,373, according to Auger.

A borrower who puts down 20 percent and makes no additional payments beyond the required monthly minimum balance would end up paying $1,820,355 over the 30-year loan for a $1 million home at a 6.5 interest rate, Auger said.

For prospective buyers putting 10 percent down on a $1 million transaction, the down payment would be $100,000, making for a monthly principal and interest payment of about $5,689, Auger said.

A buyer with that down payment would end up paying $2,047,900 over the life of the loan, should he or she forgo sending in an extra check every now and then, according to Auger.

So how are first-time home buyers wrangling such large down payments together?

“A lot of them are getting help from family, getting gift money, or making just the smallest possible down payment, and then suffering on the monthly costs as a result,” Auger said.

Taxes and insurance

Notably, those estimated monthly payments do not include property taxes and insurance costs — two expenses usually made monthly and placed in an escrow account. Both can vary greatly, given that they are based on the assessment of the home and the community in which it is located.

In Massachusetts, the average annual insurance premium is $1,712, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That comes out to about $143 a month, although individual premiums depend on a host of factors, such as proximity to the coastline, the age of the home, the condition of the roof, and even how close the property is to the nearest fire department, the institute reported.

Meanwhile, the average single-family tax bill in the state in 2024 is roughly $7,400 a year, or about $617 a month, per the state’s Department of Revenue.

Taxes have been on the rise, too, and several communities in Greater Boston have average tax bills well above that figure: Taxpayers in more than a dozen affluent communities west of the city, for example, from Brookline to Sudbury, pay more than $15,000 a year on average, the department said.

Let’s go back to that buyer putting only 10 percent down. Here, PMI comes into play.

A monthly PMI cost can be a bit trickier to pin down, as it can sway significantly based upon the borrower’s credit score, according to Auger.

For example, someone with a 750 credit score may expect to pay approximately $187 for PMI monthly, according to Auger, but for a buyer with a credit score of 725, just 25 points lower — which he characterizes as “an average score, certainly a good score” — that payment could jump to $337 a month.

“It really does fluctuate by so many variables,” Auger said.

On average, home closing costs are $13,000

Closing costs in Massachusetts, on average, reflect about 1.3 percent of the home’s purchase price, according to data compiled by CoreLogic, a California-based consumer information provider.

That figure includes a host of fees and expenses buyers may encounter, including settlement service, appraisal, title, recording, transfer, and “any state/local or municipal special mortgage taxes,” a CoreLogic representative wrote in an email.

Factoring for the cost of a $1 million sales price, based on CoreLogic’s calculated rate, a buyer here could expect to pay a sum of about $13,000 for those costs.

Still, there are additional expenses to consider as well, such as the cost of a home inspection — should the buyer opt to have one completed — and the cost of hiring a real estate attorney.

According to Jameson Malgeri, the owner of Another Level Inspection LLC in Gloucester and New England president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, buyers looking for a high-quality home inspector in the Boston area could see a range of pricing, starting at around $1,000.

“It’s changed over time, but compared with the pricing of everything else you know, it hasn’t really changed drastically,” Malgeri said.

Attorney fees can be more difficult to estimate.

Noel Di Carlo, a real estate attorney with Washaw, Di Carlo, & Poncia in Boston, has seen services go for as little as $0 — depending on the arrangement with the buyer — and up to $2,000 or more. Various factors can determine the true cost, such as the services the attorney is providing and the complexity of the transaction, said Di Carlo, who is also cochair for the residential conveyancing section of the Real Estate Bar Association.

“Because they vary so much, and because they vary so much based off of what’s presented to the attorney, it’s hard to really say,” Di Carlo said.

And then there’s your agent’s commission

Buyers should also be mindful of their realtor’s commission.

While that cost is often covered by the seller, that is not necessarily a guarantee: In March, the National Association of Realtors reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit under which sellers will not be required to pay the buyer’s agent commission, among other determinations.

Other, similar lawsuits have played out or are still ongoing in courts around the country, including in Massachusetts.

Even with those legal components still in flux, commissions always have been and remain negotiable, according to Melvin A. Vieira Jr., a Boston-based realtor with the Vieira Group at RE/Max Destiny.

Vieira still sees mostly sellers covering that cost these days.

“If the seller wants to pay that money, they can. They have the choice to pay any dollar figure they want to pay. It’s on them to decide to do it,” said Vieira, a former GBAR president. “We cannot dictate a number or a fee and never could. It’s always been negotiable.”

The high cost of utilities in Massachusetts

Of course, the cost of homeownership doesn’t end once the mortgage is signed.

Utilities can make up a significant portion of monthly expenses for homeowners — and according to a recent study by WalletHub, folks in Massachusetts pay more than most of the rest of the country for heating and electricity.

The state ranked sixth in the nation for utility expenses. Here, the monthly cost of electricity typically sets customers back about $158 a month, natural gas $157 a month, and home heating oil $309 a month, the study indicated.

The cost of not buying a $1 million home

When Joselin Malkhasian, a realtor with Lamacchia Realty in Waltham and GBAR’s vice president, is asked when is the best time to buy a house, she always gives the same answer.

“When you find the right house,” Malkhasian said.

Indeed, despite high price tags that may make some prospective buyers anxious, she cautioned that those trying to time their purchase with the right market conditions — i.e. falling prices — may end up seeing their opportunity pass them by.

Take, for instance, the common refrain Malkhasian heard from would-be buyers throughout 2020, when prices skyrocketed amid the low inventory on the market: “I’m going to wait for the market to crash.”

“We all know what happened,” Malkhasian said. “The market has not crashed. The market is not giving any indications of crashing. And now home values from 2020 are 30 to 40 percent appreciated, and interest rates went from 2.5 percent to 7.5 percent.”

A $1 million house today was likely worth $800,000 just a few years ago — and interest rates were a mere 2.5 percent back then, she added.

“What’s it going to be next year? What’s it going to be in two years?” Malkhasian said. “So what’s the cost of not buying it?”

Christopher Gavin can be reached at [email protected].