Pick the private school. Then find the cheapest town that reaches it.
Most people choose the town and then look at the schools. If the school is already chosen — one of the 20 private schools Niche ranks highest in Massachusetts — the question flips. You need to live within reach of the campus, and nothing else about the town has to be expensive. The public schools can be ordinary. The house can be the cheapest one within the drive.
This lists the five cheapest places we cover within a radius of each campus, priced on the home you would actually buy. Underneath, it runs the comparison that decides whether the plan makes sense: two children at that school, from that town, against the same family buying in Lexington and using its public schools for nothing. Tuition is each school’s own published 2026-27 day rate, from $44,000 at Roxbury Latin to $71,800 at Belmont Hill, and you can overwrite it with what you would pay after aid.
Groton School: the 5 cheapest places within 15 miles
Niche rank #1 in Massachusetts · grades 8–12 · day tuition $48,850 a year for 2026-27, before aid, boarding $62,740 · the school’s figure. Boarding school; tuition free below $150,000 family income. 23 of the places we cover are within 15 straight-line miles of the campus.
| Place | To campus | 4BR house | Housing / mo | Tax / yr | Its public schools | To Boston |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitchburg | 11.7 mi | $420k | $2,764 | $5,582 | Tier 4 · mixed schools | 80 min |
| Leominster | 10.6 mi | $500k | $3,272 | $6,830 | Tier 4 · mixed schools | 76 min |
| Lowell | 13.9 mi | $525k | $3,326 | $5,959 | Tier 4 · mixed schools | 58 min |
| Ayer | 1.9 mi | $550k | $3,487 | $6,375 | Tier 4 · mixed schools | 68 min |
| Pepperell | 5.4 mi | $550k | $3,588 | $7,579 | Tier 3 · solid schools | 73 min |
Miles are straight-line from the campus, not a drive. Housing a month is mortgage, tax and insurance on the town’s own estimated price with 20% down at 6.5%. The public-school tier matters for the years before the school’s entry grade, and for any child who does not go.
2 children at Groton School from Fitchburg, or Lexington’s public schools?
| Over 10 years | Fitchburg + Groton School | Lexington, public |
|---|---|---|
| 4BR house | $420k | $2.05M |
| Cash to buy (20% down + closing) | ≈$90,000 | ≈$450,000 |
| Housing a month (mortgage, tax, insurance) | $2,764 | $12,644 |
| Tuition a month, everyone enrolled | $8,142 | — |
| Total a month, everyone enrolled | $10,906 | $12,644 |
| Tuition cheques, 8 years end to end | ≈$560,000 | — |
| Housing you never get back, today’s money | ≈$230,000 | ≈$1,025,000 |
| Tuition, today’s money | ≈$470,000 | — |
| Cost of the choice, today’s money | ≈$700,000 | ≈$1,025,000 |
The sticker gap between the two homes is $1.63M, but the district costs $796k over 10 years once you count the equity and appreciation a sale returns. That is the number the tuition has to beat. Children are assumed 3 years apart, so the fees run 8 years with 2 enrolled at the peak. Before grade 8 the children would be in Fitchburg's public schools (Tier 4 · mixed schools). Figures to the nearest $5,000. Compare Fitchburg and Lexington directly, or run the same question with your own mortgage in the stay-or-move calculator.
What this cannot tell you
Whether you would get in. These are selective schools with single-digit admit rates at some, and a house near the campus buys nothing but the drive. Tier 1 public schools, by contrast, admit anyone who lives in the town, which is the whole reason the house costs what it does.
Whether the schools are better for your child. Niche’s rank is a publisher’s formula, not ours, and it is the only reason a school appears here. Several of these are boarding schools where day students are the minority; one, Deerfield, is reported to be closing its day programme to new entrants. Three are single-sex. A Lexington seat and a seat at any of them are not the same product.
The radius is straight-line, and a twelve-mile line across greater Boston can be a forty-minute drive twice a day for the next six years. Check the actual route before you check the listings.
How the comparison works
Housing is costed as the money you never get back: mortgage payments at 20% down, property tax at the town’s own FY2026 rate, insurance and upkeep, less the equity and appreciation you recover when you sell, all in today’s dollars. That is why the gap between the two homes is much smaller than the gap in their prices — most of the dearer house comes back to you. Tuition is every year of fees for every child, inflating faster than prices, discounted the same way. It buys no asset, so none of it comes back. The method is the one worked through in private school vs. buying into a top school district, and the assumptions are listed there.
Tuition read from each school’s own site on ; the rest of the site’s data last updated . Every source is in the methodology. Nothing here is financial advice.
