Merrimack Valley Towns, Compared

The old mill cities and river towns of the northeast — Lawrence, Haverhill and Newburyport on the water, with more affordable housing than the metro belt to the south.

Of the 15 Merrimack Valley towns we cover, Andover both leads on school tier and sits closest to downtown Boston, at about 54 minutes, and Lawrence is the cheapest at roughly $500k for a 4BR house. 5 of them have MBTA rail.

Every Merrimack Valley town

Sorted by school tier, then commute to Boston. Every column links through to the town’s own page.

#	Town	Schools	4BR house	Commute	Rail	Tax rate	Est. bill
1	Andover	strong schools · Niche 24thT2	$1MT3	54 minT3	Rail · 46 min	$12.31T2	≈$12,300
2	North Andover	strong schools · Niche 56thT2	$875kT2	55 minT3	None	$11.24T2	≈$9,800
3	Boxford	strong schools · Niche 43rdT2	$1.1MT3	57 minT3	None	$14.50T3	≈$16,000
4	Newburyport	strong schools · Niche 67thT2	$1.1MT3	71 minT4	Rail · 71 min	$10.50T2	≈$11,600
5	Georgetown	solid schools · Niche 131stT3	$800kT2	63 minT4	None	$12.50T3	≈$10,000
6	Rowley	solid schoolsT3	$800kT2	63 minT4	Rail · 64 min	$13.00T3	≈$10,400
7	Groveland	solid schools · Niche 94thT3	$750kT2	66 minT4	None	$13.00T3	≈$9,800
8	Newbury	solid schoolsT3	$900kT3	68 minT4	None	$10.50T2	≈$9,500
9	West Newbury	solid schools · Niche 94thT3	$950kT3	70 minT4	None	$13.00T3	≈$12,400
10	Merrimac	solid schools · Niche 94thT3	$675kT2	71 minT4	None	$13.50T3	≈$9,100
11	Amesbury	solid schoolsT3	$650kT2	74 minT4	None	$15.50T4	≈$10,100
12	Salisbury	solid schoolsT3	$575kT1	74 minT4	None	$11.00T2	≈$6,300
13	Lawrence	mixed schoolsT4	$500kT1	58 minT3	Rail · 59 min	$8.64T1	≈$4,300
14	Methuen	mixed schoolsT4	$630kT2	63 minT4	None	$10.40T2	≈$6,600
15	Haverhill	mixed schoolsT4	$625kT2	68 minT4	Rail · 66 min	$10.61T2	≈$6,600

How this region is defined: “Merrimack Valley” has no legal boundary, so we use the membership of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission rather than drawing our own line. Data last reviewed July 18, 2026. See the methodology for every source.