Danvers, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 16 miles from downtown Boston, about 50 minutes door-to-door at peak · 69% of households own their home.

Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$825k
$625k townhouse · $460k condo
Dearer than 59% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,800/yr
$10.69 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 52% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
50 min
No MBTA rail
Closer than 68% of MA towns
Schools
41st pct
growth 42nd · 92% graduate
Behind 59% of MA districts

marks the Massachusetts median of $750k for a 4BR, $9,100 in tax and 62 min to Boston. Prices and the tax bill are estimates, not appraisals.

About Danvers

Danvers is a middle-tier school district north of Boston, about 16 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 50 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $825k for a 4BR house and $460k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $10.69 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $825k house that is still about $8,800 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 41st percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 85th of 236. Rail-trail downtown and North Shore mall convenience.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

$10.69 per $1,000 — 47th-lowest tax rate of the 241 places we track.

Bad

Only 69% of households own — much of the town turns over.

Ugly

50 minutes each way. That is roughly 8 hours a week in the car — a part-time job you pay for.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 41st MCAS · 6 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

6 public schools in Danvers — 5 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryK–5 · 361 students
ElementaryK–5 · 341 students
ElementaryPK–5 · 323 students
ElementaryK–5 · 292 students
ElementaryK–5 · 278 students
Middle6–8 · 734 students

These are assigned by address, not chosen. A regional district’s schools appear on every member town’s page. Charters are public but allocated by lottery, and are listed separately below.

DESE 2025–26 enrolment report

Before kindergarten

Licensed programs 22 center-based · 5 family child care27
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to1,311
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room1,273
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together38
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down252
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten482

Licensed capacity is not availability. These are places programs may operate, not vacancies. The age split covers centers only — family programs report no breakdown, so 252 is a floor on infant care here, not a count of it.

MA Dept. of Early Education and Care, pulled 2026-08-02 · search current openings

Public School Rankings

Publisher rankingResult
Niche 2026 · Best School Districts#85 of 236 MA districts · B+
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#76 of 135 · Danvers High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement41st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)42nd percentile
4-year graduation rate92.3%
DESE accountabilityModerate progress toward targets

Each publisher ranks a different thing. A district, a locality, or one high school, each by its own method — shown separately, never blended.

MCAS percentile is the district’s statewide rank on % Meeting/Exceeding expectations, ELA + Math.

Latest school building project: Ivan G. Smith Elementary School was the newest completed Core Program project located; total project budget was about $51.2 million. The earlier Danvers High renovation was approximately $70 million. MSBA project list.

Available Private School Options

18 private schools in Danvers and within 12 miles
In DanversNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 1,432 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
In DanversPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 339 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
In DanversPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 169 students · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Peabody9–12 · High school · 451 students · 12:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · PeabodyPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 427 students · 9.4:1 student-teacher · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · PeabodyPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 391 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LynnfieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 330 students · 12.1:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Waring SchoolNiche #46 · A+
Adjacent town · BeverlyNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 175 students · 8.2:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BeverlyNEASC accredited9–12 · Specialized / placement · 289 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · BeverlyAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 224 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BeverlyPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 205 students · 11.6:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Beverly7–12 · Specialized / placement · 128 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Beverly2–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 99 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · BeverlyAISNE accreditedPK–6 · Elementary / middle · 98 students · 3.5:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BeverlyPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 79 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · BeverlyAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · BeverlyAISNE accreditedPK–12 · PK/K–12 · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · SalemAISNE accreditedK–8 · Elementary / middle · 26 students · 8.7:1 student-teacher · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)

Tuition is an estimated range by school type, not school-published pricing — a parochial school and an independent day school are priced very differently. Private schools sit no MCAS, so no figure here is a state measure.

How to read this list

Schools within 12 miles of Danvers, from the MA DESE 2025–26 non-public enrollment report plus the Niche ranking of Massachusetts private high schools. Tuition shown as an estimated range by school type, grades and region — not school-published pricing. A parochial school and an independent day school are priced very differently, so treat these as a starting point and confirm with the school. Niche ranks private high schools only, so an elementary school never carries a number; where one shows a letter instead, that is Niche’s own overall grade, which reaches schools no ranked list does. Neither is a state measure — private schools sit no MCAS and report no results to Massachusetts. That Niche extract is also partial, so a school showing neither was not judged and found wanting; it may simply not have been in it. Student numbers are the figure schools do report, from the same DESE return. Where a student-teacher ratio is shown it is students over full-time-equivalent teachers in the federal Private School Universe Survey, 2021–22, the most recent published — a rough guide to class size, not a class size, and not a ranking either. It is shown only where that survey and the state agree on how many pupils the school has, which is why many schools here have none. Accreditation comes from the AISNE member directory, which records whether a school holds AISNE or NEASC accreditation — the two split the work by age rather than compete, AISNE taking the elementary and middle schools and NEASC the secondary ones. It means an outside body has reviewed the school against published standards on a ten-year cycle. It is not a measure of results, and its absence is not a mark against a school: plenty are not members at all. That directory is also where the schools marked files no enrolment with the state come from. They are real schools that simply make no return to Massachusetts, so the state holds no size for them and this page can show none — and for those, the grade range is read off AISNE’s age bands rather than taken from the school, so treat it as approximate and confirm with the school.

The vibe of Danvers

Compact suburbs & town centersCollege presencehigh confidence

Active, town-centered/mixed, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; higher-cost in housing and well-maintained in public spaces, with visible cultural identity, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy7
Compact town center6
Family amenities6
Culture7
Visitor presence6
Public gathering places8

Six 1–10 scales for the intensity of each quality, not a score of how good the place is. Higher just means more of that thing. Family amenities counts public recreation infrastructure, not who lives here; these never use race, ethnicity or other protected characteristics, and never measure safety. See the methodology.

What it takes to live here$825k 4BR · ≈$8,800 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$825k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$625k
2BR condo$460k
Property taxes (FY2026)$10.69 per $1,000 (1.07%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01923, one of 2 in Danvers, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,503/mo
3 bedrooms$3,180/mo
2 bedrooms$2,647/mo
1 bedroom$2,233/mo

These are benchmark rents, not asking rents. HUD sets them at the 40th percentile of standard-quality units, so a nice single-family will ask more — which is why the links are not capped at the figure beside them.

HUD FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents for Danvers’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Danvers home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Danvers, 2016 to 2026: $422k to $749k, up 77 per cent.$383k$586k$789k20162026
Danvers, 2016 to 2026: $422k to $749k, up 77% in 10 years — 5.9% a year compounded.
If a $825k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.9% — Danvers’s own last decade$1.10M$1.46M$1.95M$4.61M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$956k$1.11M$1.29M$2.00M

These are not forecasts. They are what $825k becomes at a fixed rate, shown for two rates because nobody can tell you which one the next thirty years will bring. The last decade included a period of unusually fast growth across Massachusetts; repeating it for thirty years would be a strong assumption. The inflation row is the conservative case — a house that holds its value and earns nothing beyond it. History from the Zillow Home Value Index, a whole-town index that sits at a different level from the 4BR estimate above and is used here for the trend.

What’s around Danvers

dense suburb2,115 people per square mile across 13.3 sq mi a packed suburb — 2,000–5,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
4
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list
2
Colleges and universities
See the list
1
Public libraryDanvers, Peabody Institute Library

4,833 students — 17% of Danvers’s population. None of them live on campus — every one commutes in. Enrolment is counted at the campus, so students who commute from elsewhere are included here.

Density is Census population over land area. Café, bookshop and culture counts are what is mapped in OpenStreetMap — a volunteer map, so a well-mapped town looks busier than a thinly-mapped one. Read a low count as “little mapped here”, not “nothing here”. Colleges are active degree-granting institutions in the federal IPEDS directory; enrolment and campus housing capacity are its 2023 figures. The public library comes from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which lists library systems rather than every branch. These figures describe places, never the people in them — see our methodology.

Census snapshot
ACS 2019–2023 (via MAPC DataCommon)Share
Homeowner households69%
White (non-Hispanic)88%
Asian (non-Hispanic)1.9%
Latino / Hispanic5.1%
African American (non-Hispanic)2.5%
These figures are neutral census facts, shown for every town equally. They are never used to filter, rank, or recommend towns — see our methodology and the federal Fair Housing Act.

Town spending & civic data

DanversFigure
Residents28,087
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$128.5M
School district spending$75.0M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$21,728
School spending per resident$2,670
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,233

Budget: FY2025 General Fund total expenditures, DLS Schedule A · Schools: DESE Per Pupil Expenditure · Affordable units: state Subsidized Housing Inventory. Never used to rank or filter towns.

Realistic alternatives to Danvers

BeverlyTier 3
Also Tier 3, $850k for a 4BR and 54 min to Boston
PeabodyTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $90k cheaper
TewksburyTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $125k cheaper
WoburnTier 3
Also Tier 3, 14 min closer to Boston
BurlingtonTier 3
Also Tier 3, 9 min closer to Boston
HullTier 3
Also Tier 3, 6 min closer to Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

ChicopeeTier 4
Both social and lively · $405k cheaper, 66 min further out

Read next

Charter and private school options for North Shore families
What the charter and private options actually look like from a North Shore address, and where the charter scores below the district it sits in.
8 min read
The best North Shore towns under $900,000
On the North Shore at $825k — inside the budget that clears only ten towns up here.
8 min read
Massachusetts towns with a real downtown under $1M
A genuinely active center and a 4BR under $1M — a combination only seventeen towns in the state manage.
6 min read
The child care near you depends on what your town costs
Only 19% of the child care here is home-based, against two-thirds statewide — the pattern the expensive towns share.
7 min read
Data statusreviewed August 14, 2026
FigureStatus
Home pricesCalibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. For comparison, not appraisal.Estimate
Property tax rateFY2026 residential rate per $1,000, from municipal assessor and treasurer pages.Sourced
RentsHUD FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents, by ZIP.Sourced
School dataDESE published state reports. Publisher ranks carry their own edition and denominator. The school tier is editorial.Sourced
CommuteRail times for the 75 towns we could verify against the MBTA's published timetable are real scheduled journeys, transfers included. Where a town has rail but no verified journey, its rail time is modeled too, and the town page says so. Driving is modeled from distance with corridor adjustments, and station access is a flat allowance. Not measured by a routing API.Measured + modeled

This town’s prices and tax rate are sourced as described in our methodology. Data last reviewed . Full detail on every source is in the methodology.

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