Duxbury, MA Tier 2

Tier 2 · strong schools · 27 miles from downtown Boston, about 63 minutes door-to-door at peak · 90% of households own their home.

Duxbury, Massachusetts
Duxbury · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$1.4M
$975k townhouse · $720k condo
Dearer than 90% of MA towns
Property tax
$17,500/yr
$12.50 per $1,000 on that house
Higher than 90% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
63 min
No MBTA rail
Further than 50% of MA towns
Schools
89th pct
growth 52nd · 98% graduate
Ahead of 89% 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 Duxbury

Duxbury is a strong school district south-east of Boston, about 27 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 63 minutes door-to-door at peak, and one of the priciest markets in the state: roughly $1.4M for a 4BR house and $720k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $12.50 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $1.4M house works out to about $17,500 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 89th percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 20th of 236. Miles of barrier beach and a top South Shore district.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Editorial
Good

Miles of barrier beach and a top South Shore district.

Bad

27 miles out with no rail.

Ugly

The 2023 Clancy tragedy put the town through national coverage no community wants.

Schools and child carestrong schools · 89th MCAS · 3 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

3 public schools in Duxbury — 2 elementary and 1 middle
Elementary3–5 · 644 students
ElementaryPK–2 · 639 students
Middle6–8 · 596 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 7 center-based · 1 family child care8
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to510
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room500
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together10
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down52
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten336

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 52 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#20 of 236 MA districts · A
SchoolDigger 2025 · City/locality test-score rank#26 of 361 MA localities
U.S. News 2025-26 · Assigned high school#41 of 366 MA · Duxbury High School
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#28 of 135 · Duxbury High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement89th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)52nd percentile
4-year graduation rate98.2%
DESE accountabilitySubstantial 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.

School building projects: No major full-school construction or comprehensive rebuild with a published total project budget was located in the live MSBA, municipal, school-project, contractor, and local-news review completed in July 2026. This does not mean no school capital work occurred.

Charter School Options

3 charter schools near Duxbury
Adjacent town · NorwellTuition-free · lotteryK–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 46th pct · 96.2% graduate · Moderate progress toward targets · $18k/pupil
Adjacent town · PlymouthTuition-free · lottery9–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · 27.9% graduate · In need of focused/targeted support · $21k/pupil
Adjacent town · PlymouthTuition-free · lottery5–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 58th pct · 92.9% graduate · Substantial progress toward targets · $18k/pupil

Admission is by lottery, not address — a seat is never guaranteed. Some charters here are alternative or recovery high schools enrolling students already off-track, so their MCAS and graduation figures are not comparable with a traditional school’s.

Public and tuition-free; results from DESE

Available Private School Options

8 private schools in Duxbury and within 12 miles
In DuxburyAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · KingstonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 249 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Hanover7–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 90 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · NorwellAISNE accredited6–8 · Middle school · files no enrolment with the state
Inly SchoolNiche A-
Adjacent town · ScituateAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 195 students · 5.5:1 student-teacher · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Plymouth5–12 · Middle / high · 25 students · ~$28k–$44k/yr (est.)
Calvary Chapel AcademyNiche #108 · B
Adjacent town · RocklandPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 156 students · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Rockland8–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 113 students · placement/specialized

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 Duxbury, 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 Duxbury

High-cost suburbsCoastalhigh confidence

Moderate energy, lower-density, and extensively provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; high-cost in housing, upscale in commercial districts, and extensively maintained in public realm, with visible cultural identity, notable visitor presence, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy5
Compact town center4
Family amenities6
Culture7
Visitor presence7
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$1.4M 4BR · ≈$17,500 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$1.4M
3BR / 2BA townhouse$975k
2BR condo$720k
Property taxes (FY2026)$12.50 per $1,000 (1.25%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02332, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,417/mo
3 bedrooms$3,100/mo
2 bedrooms$2,580/mo
1 bedroom$2,177/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 Duxbury’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Duxbury home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Duxbury, 2016 to 2026: $595k to $1.15M, up 93 per cent.$529k$871k$1.21M20162026
Duxbury, 2016 to 2026: $595k to $1.15M, up 93% in 10 years — 6.8% a year compounded.
If a $1.40M house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.8% — Duxbury’s own last decade$1.95M$2.70M$3.76M$10.1M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$1.62M$1.88M$2.18M$3.40M

These are not forecasts. They are what $1.40M 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 Duxbury

suburban679 people per square mile across 23.7 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops0
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list

1 more is mapped without a name, so it cannot be listed.

8
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryDuxbury Free Library

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 households90%
White (non-Hispanic)93%
Asian (non-Hispanic)2.0%
Latino / Hispanic2.0%
African American (non-Hispanic)1.0%
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

DuxburyFigure
Residents16,090
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$95.8M
School district spending$58.6M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$21,034
School spending per resident$3,642
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)706

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 Duxbury

ScituateTier 2
Also Tier 2, about $300k cheaper
CohassetTier 2
Also Tier 2, about $200k more expensive
HinghamTier 2
Also Tier 2, about $250k more expensive
MiltonTier 2
Also Tier 2, 29 min closer to Boston
NorwellTier 2
Also Tier 2, about $200k cheaper

Surprisingly similar in character

IpswichTier 3
Both social and cultural · $500k cheaper
BrewsterTier 3
Both a visitor draw and social · $650k cheaper, 47 min further out
SandwichTier 3
Both social and a visitor draw · $675k cheaper, 28 min further out

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 89th percentile but moves children in the 52nd — the intake flatters this district.
7 min read
Two numbers explain 82% of what a Massachusetts house costs
Dearer than its school tier and commute predict, by 32%. Something here is being paid for that neither of those two numbers can see.
8 min read
The pandemic re-priced Massachusetts by distance, and never gave it back
Prices rose 45% here between 2019 and 2022 and have added 21% since. The boom in the far suburbs never gave anything back.
8 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 34 years of the local rent, against a statewide median of 18. Buying is the expensive way to live here.
6 min read
Data statusSome figures preliminary · reviewed August 14, 2026
FigureStatus
Home pricesCalibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. For comparison, not appraisal.Preliminary
Property tax rateFY2026 residential rate per $1,000, from municipal assessor and treasurer pages.Preliminary
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 community was added after the original hundred, so its prices and tax rate are preliminary estimates pending verification against municipal and census records. Data last reviewed . Full detail on every source is in the methodology.

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