Mansfield, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 25 miles from downtown Boston, about 56 minutes door-to-door at peak · 73% of households own their home.

Mansfield, Massachusetts
Mansfield · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$775k
$600k townhouse · $445k condo
Dearer than 54% of MA towns
Property tax
$10,100/yr
$13.09 per $1,000 on that house
Higher than 63% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
56 min
Commuter rail · ~44 min to terminal
Closer than 59% of MA towns
Schools
76th pct
growth 48th · 97% graduate
Ahead of 76% 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 Mansfield

Mansfield is a middle-tier school district south of Boston, about 25 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 56 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $775k for a 4BR house and $445k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $13.09 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $775k house works out to about $10,100 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 44 minutes, against a 60-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 76th percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 55th of 236. A big park-and-ride rail stop and the Xfinity Center amphitheater.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

About $775k for a 4BR, under the $750k median of our set.

Bad

About 52 minutes door-to-door — a real commute, even with the train.

Ugly

At 73% ownership, your neighbours are a moving target.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 76th MCAS · 4 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

4 public schools in Mansfield — 3 elementary and 1 middle
Elementary3–5 · 771 students
ElementaryK–2 · 667 students
ElementaryPK · 101 students
Middle6–8 · 747 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 14 center-based · 5 family child care19
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to973
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room933
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together40
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down180
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten469

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 180 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#55 of 236 MA districts · A-
U.S. News 2025-26 · Assigned high school#80 of 366 MA · Mansfield High School
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#30 of 135 · Mansfield High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement76th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)48th percentile
4-year graduation rate96.7%
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.

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 Mansfield
Adjacent town · FoxboroughTuition-free · lotteryK–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 48th pct · 96.5% graduate · Moderate progress toward targets · $17k/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

17 private schools in Mansfield and within 12 miles
In Mansfield6–12 · Middle / high · ~$9k–$18k/yr (est.)
In MansfieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 247 students · 15.3:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
In MansfieldPK–5 · Elementary · 59 students · 6.6:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · FoxboroughAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 139 students · 6.1:1 student-teacher · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · SharonPK–5 · Elementary · 188 students · ~$9k–$18k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · SharonAISNE accreditedPK–5 · Elementary · 101 students · ~$22k–$36k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · North AttleboroughPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 198 students · 10.1:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Attleboro9–12 · High school · 1,100 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AttleboroPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 223 students · 18.5:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AttleboroPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 179 students · 7.8:1 student-teacher · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AttleboroPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 178 students · 7.6:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Attleboro3–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 53 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · WalpolePK–8 · Elementary / middle · 341 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Walpole1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 103 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Walpole7–12 · Middle / high · 44 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · West BridgewaterPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 55 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · TauntonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 185 students · ~$8k–$15k/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 Mansfield, 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 Mansfield

Compact suburbs & town centersRail-servedmedium confidence

Moderate energy, town-centered/mixed, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; mixed in housing stock, from multifamily properties and smaller condos to higher-priced single-family homes, with moderate cultural scene, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy6
Compact town center6
Family amenities2
Culture6
Visitor presence4
Public gathering places7

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$775k 4BR · ≈$10,100 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$775k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$600k
2BR condo$445k
Property taxes (FY2026)$13.09 per $1,000 (1.31%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02048, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,390/mo
3 bedrooms$3,080/mo
2 bedrooms$2,560/mo
1 bedroom$2,160/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 Mansfield’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Mansfield home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Mansfield, 2016 to 2026: $409k to $727k, up 78 per cent.$371k$568k$765k20162026
Mansfield, 2016 to 2026: $409k to $727k, up 78% in 10 years — 5.9% a year compounded.
If a $775k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.9% — Mansfield’s own last decade$1.03M$1.37M$1.83M$4.33M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$898k$1.04M$1.21M$1.88M

These are not forecasts. They are what $775k 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 Mansfield

suburban1,187 people per square mile across 20.1 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
1
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries0
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryMansfield Public 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 households73%
White (non-Hispanic)84%
Asian (non-Hispanic)5.7%
Latino / Hispanic3.7%
African American (non-Hispanic)2.7%
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

MansfieldFigure
Residents23,860
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$116.4M
School district spending$79.1M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$22,878
School spending per resident$3,315
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,047

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 Mansfield

AshlandTier 3
Also Tier 3, $850k for a 4BR and 55 min to Boston
EastonTier 3
Also Tier 3, $825k for a 4BR and 55 min to Boston
PembrokeTier 3
Also Tier 3, $750k for a 4BR and 57 min to Boston
BellinghamTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $100k cheaper
MaynardTier 3
Also Tier 3, higher tax at $17.50 per $1,000
FraminghamTier 3
Also Tier 3, $800k for a 4BR and 52 min to Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

East LongmeadowTier 3
Both social · $275k cheaper, 62 min further out
WareTier 4
Both residential · $400k cheaper, 44 min further out

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 76th percentile but moves children in the 48th — the intake flatters this district.
7 min read
The state already grades every district. It costs $950,000 to buy into the top of it.
Scores in the 76th percentile, and the state still rates the district "moderate progress toward targets" — because that rating is about progress, not standing.
7 min read
Private school is not a plan B for a weak school district
Only 2 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 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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