Greenfield, MA Tier 4

Tier 4 · mixed schools · 84 miles from downtown Boston, about 122 minutes door-to-door at peak · 55% of households own their home.

Greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$400k
$310k townhouse · $230k condo
Cheaper than 94% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,200/yr
$20.50 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 59% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
122 min
No MBTA rail
Further than 95% of MA towns
Schools
10th pct
growth 49th · 86% graduate
Behind 90% 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 Greenfield

Greenfield is a fourth-tier school district in the Pioneer Valley, about 84 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 122 minutes door-to-door at peak, and one of the more affordable markets we cover: roughly $400k for a 4BR house and $230k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $20.50 per $1,000, high for Massachusetts, which on a $400k house works out to about $8,200 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 10th percentile statewide on MCAS. Franklin County's seat and rail crossroads.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

Among the cheapest housing we track — 9th of 241 at about $400k for a 4BR.

Bad

About 122 minutes to downtown at peak, and no rail to escape it.

Ugly

At 55% ownership, your neighbours are a moving target.

Schools and child caremixed schools · 10th MCAS · 5 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

5 public schools in Greenfield — 4 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryK–4 · 198 students
ElementaryK–4 · 183 students
ElementaryK–4 · 151 students
Elementary / middle5–7 · 312 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 · 8 family child care15
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to530
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room460
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together70
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down75
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten114

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 75 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
SchoolDigger 2025 · City/locality test-score rank#321 of 361 MA localities
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement10th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)49th percentile
4-year graduation rate85.7%
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

1 charter school near Greenfield
In GreenfieldTuition-free · lottery7–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 44th pct · 100% graduate · In need of focused/targeted support · $20k/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

7 private schools in Greenfield and within 12 miles
In GreenfieldAISNE accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 86 students · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
In GreenfieldAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 115 students · 6.1:1 student-teacher · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Deerfield AcademyNiche #5 · A+
Adjacent town · Deerfield9–13 · High school · 651 students · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · DeerfieldAISNE accredited6–9 · Middle / high · 259 students · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · DeerfieldAISNE accreditedK–9 · PK/K–12 · 226 students · 5.5:1 student-teacher · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · NorthfieldNEASC accredited9–13 · High school · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · NorthfieldK–6 · Elementary / middle · ~$16k–$32k/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 Greenfield, 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 Greenfield

Regional citiesCompact centreStrong culturehigh confidence

Moderate energy, town-centered/mixed, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; lower-cost and older in housing stock, with visible cultural identity, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy6
Compact town center7
Family amenities7
Culture8
Visitor presence5
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$400k 4BR · ≈$8,200 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$400k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$310k
2BR condo$230k
Property taxes (FY2026)$20.50 per $1,000 (2.05%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01301, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$2,450/mo
3 bedrooms$2,217/mo
2 bedrooms$1,850/mo
1 bedroom$1,410/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 Greenfield’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Greenfield home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Greenfield, 2016 to 2026: $190k to $344k, up 81 per cent.$171k$267k$363k20162026
Greenfield, 2016 to 2026: $190k to $344k, up 81% in 10 years — 6.1% a year compounded.
If a $400k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.1% — Greenfield’s own last decade$538k$723k$972k$2.36M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$464k$538k$623k$971k

These are not forecasts. They are what $400k 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 Greenfield

suburban830 people per square mile across 21.4 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list

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

7
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries0
Colleges and universities
See the list
1
Public libraryGreenfield Public Library

1,544 students — 9% of Greenfield’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 households55%
White (non-Hispanic)85%
Asian (non-Hispanic)2.0%
Latino / Hispanic7.0%
African American (non-Hispanic)2.0%
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

GreenfieldFigure
Residents17,768
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$71.7M
School district spending$41.5M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$22,195
School spending per resident$2,335
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)780

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 Greenfield

HolyokeTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $60k cheaper
ChicopeeTier 4
Also Tier 4, 6 min closer to Boston
West SpringfieldTier 4
Also Tier 4, lower tax at $14.02 per $1,000
PalmerTier 4
Also Tier 4, 19 min closer to Boston
EasthamptonTier 3
Tier 3, about $50k more expensive
WareTier 4
Also Tier 4, 22 min closer to Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

WoburnTier 3
Both social and cultural · $425k dearer, 86 min closer in
HudsonTier 3
Both cultural and social · $300k dearer, 62 min closer in
GrotonTier 2
Both cultural and social · $550k dearer, 51 min closer in
LowellTier 4
Both cultural and social · 64 min closer in

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 10th percentile but moves children in the 49th — this district does more than its test scores suggest.
7 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 14 years of the local rent, against a statewide median of 18 — one of the places where buying is cheap relative to renting.
6 min read
Private school is not a plan B for a weak school district
Only 5 accredited private schools within twelve miles, which is the thin end of the state's supply.
7 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
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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