South Coast Towns, Compared

The southeastern corner — New Bedford and Fall River on the water, the Attleboro–Taunton corridor inland, with South Coast Rail bringing Boston service back.

Of the 18 South Coast towns we cover, Mansfield both leads on school tier and sits closest to downtown Boston, at about 56 minutes, and Fall River is the cheapest at roughly $450k for a 4BR house. 7 of them have MBTA rail.

Every South Coast 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	Mansfield	solid schools · Niche 55thT3	$775kT2	56 minT3	Rail · 44 min	$13.09T3	≈$10,100
2	Norton	solid schools · Niche 98thT3	$650kT2	65 minT4	None	$12.50T3	≈$8,100
3	Raynham	solid schoolsT3	$700kT2	65 minT4	None	$13.50T3	≈$9,500
4	Attleboro	solid schools · Niche 110thT3	$620kT2	66 minT4	Rail · 54 min	$12.20T2	≈$7,600
5	North Attleborough	solid schools · Niche 95thT3	$650kT2	68 minT4	None	$11.06T2	≈$7,200
6	Rehoboth	solid schoolsT3	$700kT2	76 minT4	None	$12.00T2	≈$8,400
7	Freetown	solid schoolsT3	$625kT2	78 minT4	Rail · 96 min	$12.00T2	≈$7,500
8	Seekonk	solid schools · Niche 60thT3	$675kT2	78 minT4	None	$12.50T3	≈$8,400
9	Somerset	solid schoolsT3	$575kT1	80 minT4	None	$13.50T3	≈$7,800
10	Swansea	solid schoolsT3	$575kT1	82 minT4	None	$12.50T3	≈$7,200
11	Westport	solid schools · Niche 139thT3	$700kT2	86 minT4	None	$8.50T1	≈$6,000
12	Acushnet	solid schoolsT3	$550kT1	87 minT4	None	$11.50T2	≈$6,300
13	Dartmouth	solid schools · Niche 87thT3	$625kT2	93 minT4	None	$8.03T1	≈$5,000
14	Taunton	mixed schoolsT4	$575kT1	69 minT4	Rail · 74 min	$11.14T2	≈$6,400
15	Middleborough	mixed schoolsT4	$525kT1	72 minT4	Rail · 64 min	$13.12T3	≈$6,900
16	Fall River	mixed schoolsT4	$450kT1	82 minT4	Rail · 103 min	$11.48T2	≈$5,200
17	New Bedford	mixed schoolsT4	$475kT1	86 minT4	Rail · 94 min	$10.95T2	≈$5,200
18	Fairhaven	mixed schools · Niche 84thT4	$525kT1	88 minT4	None	$10.00T2	≈$5,300

How this region is defined: “South Coast” has no legal boundary, so we use the membership of the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District rather than drawing our own line. Data last reviewed July 18, 2026. See the methodology for every source.