Methodology & data sources
This site ranks 200 Massachusetts municipalities — approximately the state’s largest by population — against your priorities. Everything runs in your browser — we store nothing you choose. Here is exactly how the numbers are made.
The fit score
- Schools — the town’s tier (1–4), scaled so Tier 1 = 100.
- Commute — exponential decay on door-to-door minutes to downtown Boston (half-value about every 31 minutes), using the better of driving or the train.
- Price — how inexpensive your selected home type (4BR house, 3BR townhouse, or 2BR condo) is in that town relative to the rest of the state, on a log scale.
Your two sliders weight schools and commute; price always carries a fixed, modest weight so rankings stay grounded in cost. Each result card shows all three components — no black box.
Monthly cost
Estimated monthly cost assumes a 6.5% 30-year fixed mortgage with 20% down, property tax at that town’s FY2026 residential rate, and $175/month insurance. “Income needed” figures on town pages keep that cost at 28% of gross household income.
Data sources & quality
- Tax rates — FY2026 residential rates from municipal assessor/treasurer pages (a few local-news fallbacks).
- Home prices — estimates for a good-condition 4BR/2BA detached house and 3BR/2BA townhouse, calibrated to Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. 2BR condo estimates are derived from townhouse prices (≈74%). Estimates, not appraisals.
- Towns 101–200 — the newest hundred towns carry preliminary, estimated tax rates, prices, and demographics (flagged on their pages) pending verification against municipal and census sources. The original hundred are sourced per the notes above.
- School tiers — editorial four-tier groupings of district reputation and outcomes. A composite of state DESE data (MCAS growth, graduation rates) is planned to replace them.
- Commutes — peak drive times are modeled from distance with corridor adjustments for known chokepoints; train times are typical MBTA peak schedule times plus station overhead (12 min commuter rail, 8 min rapid transit). Measured routing-API and GTFS times are planned.
- Demographics & homeownership — American Community Survey 2019–2023 via MAPC DataCommon.
Fair housing
Race and ethnicity data appears on every town page as identical, neutral census fact. It is never an input to search, filtering, or ranking, and this site will never offer a way to seek or avoid towns by who lives there. Steering home-seekers by demographics violates the federal Fair Housing Act — and our values.
Disclaimers
Nothing here is financial, legal, or real-estate advice. Verify tax rates with the town, prices with a local agent, and commutes with your own test drive. Then go visit — the data gets you to a shortlist, not to a decision.
