Where can a household earning $150,000 afford good schools in Massachusetts?

Thirty-three towns as a condo, three as a townhouse, none as a four-bedroom house. Houses barely open at $200,000, and the best districts stay shut even at $300,000.

One household, four salaries. Each has $150,000 in cash for the purchase, $600 a month of other debts, and wants a town with strong public schools. Everything is computed with the same engine as the affordability calculator, at 6.55% over 30 years.

The answer for $150,000

On $150,000, a comfortable budget is $3,500 a month. That buys a strong school district in 33 towns as a condo, 3 as a townhouse, and 0 as a four-bedroom house.

That is the whole finding in one line. The district is not out of reach at this income — the house is. A household that will only consider a four-bedroom single-family home has no options in Massachusetts at $150,000 with this cash; the same household willing to buy a condo has 33, including Freetown, Salisbury, Halifax, Hopedale.

Open this as a condo search · or see the empty house search

All four incomes, all three home types

Towns whose modeled home of that type fits inside a comfortable budget, out of the 101 with strong public schools. Every number links to that search. The calculator also flags towns just over the line as “within reach” and groups them alongside, so the list it opens is a little longer than the count here — these are the ones that fit outright.

Read down a column and the picture is ordinary: more income, more towns. Read across a row and it is not. At $200,000 the house column is 3 while the condo column is 72. Changing what you buy moves the answer further than a $50,000 raise does.

Houses barely open at $200,000

The four-bedroom house column is empty at $150,000 and opens at $200,000 with just 3 towns: Salisbury, Freetown, Sturbridge. At $300,000 it is 34 — still fewer than a condo reaches on $150,000.

None of those are commuter-belt towns near Boston. They are the western and southern edges of what we cover — the same trade the site keeps finding, which is that the school premium is mostly a proximity premium.

The best districts stay shut

Four-bedroom house, $150,000 of cash. Counts are towns whose modeled house fits a comfortable budget at that income. Columns are the calculator’s four school standards: strong public schools, very strong public schools, top public schools, strong student growth.

The top-schools column is empty at every income on this page, including $300,000. Buying the modeled four-bedroom house in the highest-achieving districts, on $150,000 of cash and a comfortable budget, is not a $300,000 proposition — it is well past it. That is worth knowing before spending a year looking.

The deposit does something the salary cannot

At $200,000, $575,000 for a house in Salisbury is $239 a month out of reach with $100,000 down. Adding $15,000 to the deposit — not to the salary — makes it fit.

The step is not gradual. Crossing 20% of the price removes private mortgage insurance entirely — $297 a month here — and shrinks the loan at the same time, a swing of $392 for $15,000 more down. If a deposit is close to that line, closing the gap is worth more than the equivalent pay rise.

What to do with this

• If the salary is fixed, the levers are the home type and the deposit, in that order. Both are on the calculator.
• If the four-bedroom house is fixed, the lever is geography — the towns that open first are the ones furthest from Boston. The non-Boston commute article prices that trade.
• If neither can move, renting into the district or staying put and paying tuition may beat buying outright. The rent, buy or tuition calculator prices all three over the years you would actually stay.

Assumptions. Prices are modeled medians calibrated to Zillow and Redfin, not appraisals. Property tax is each town’s FY2026 residential rate; insurance $2,100 a year; maintenance 1% of value; PMI 0.75% of the loan below 20% equity. The rate is the Freddie Mac 30-year fixed average, 16 July 2026, a national survey average and not a quote. “Comfortable” means the all-in monthly cost fits the conventional planning ratios and the cash to close fits the cash you actually have — a lender may approve more. See the methodology.