Mashpee, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 62 miles from downtown Boston, about 100 minutes door-to-door at peak · 78% of households own their home.

Mashpee, Massachusetts
Mashpee · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$750k
$575k townhouse · $425k condo
Dearer than 49% of MA towns
Property tax
$5,600/yr
$7.50 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 90% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
100 min
No MBTA rail
Further than 86% of MA towns
Schools
31st pct
growth 47th · 90% graduate
Behind 69% 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 Mashpee

Mashpee is a middle-tier school district on Cape Cod, about 62 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 100 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $750k for a 4BR house and $425k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $7.50 per $1,000, low for Massachusetts, but on a $750k house that is still about $5,600 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 31st percentile statewide on MCAS. Mashpee Commons and south-side beaches.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

$7.50 per $1,000 — 7th-lowest tax rate of the 241 places we track.

Bad

About 100 minutes to downtown at peak, and no rail to escape it.

Ugly

Mid-tier schools in a state where the next town over often isn't — that gap is the whole local conversation.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 31st MCAS · 2 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

2 public schools in Mashpee — 1 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryPK–2 · 383 students
Elementary / middle3–6 · 423 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 4 center-based · 8 family child care12
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to227
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room163
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together64
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down9
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten76

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 9 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#234 of 361 MA localities
U.S. News 2025-26 · Assigned high school#87 of 366 MA · Mashpee High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement31st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)47th percentile
4-year graduation rate89.7%
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 Mashpee
Adjacent town · HyannisTuition-free · lottery9–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · 98% graduate · Substantial progress toward targets · $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

8 private schools in Mashpee and within 12 miles
Falmouth AcademyNiche #43 · A+
Adjacent town · FalmouthNEASC accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 174 students · 5.2:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Sandwich6–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 208 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · SandwichPK–2 · Elementary · 66 students · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Barnstable5–12 · Middle / high · 449 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Cape Cod AcademyNiche #85 · A-
Adjacent town · BarnstableK–12 · PK/K–12 · 220 students · ~$28k–$44k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BarnstablePK–12 · PK/K–12 · 177 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BournePK–6 · Elementary / middle · 71 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · TisburyPK–3 · Elementary · 66 students · ~$18k–$30k/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 Mashpee, 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 Mashpee

Coastal & waterfront destinationsVisitor destinationhigh confidence

Moderate energy, lower-density, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; higher-cost in housing and well-maintained in public spaces, with visible cultural identity, notable visitor presence, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy6
Compact town center5
Family amenities8
Culture7
Visitor presence8
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$750k 4BR · ≈$5,600 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$750k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$575k
2BR condo$425k
Property taxes (FY2026)$7.50 per $1,000 (0.75%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02649, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,647/mo
3 bedrooms$3,173/mo
2 bedrooms$2,577/mo
1 bedroom$1,963/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 Mashpee’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Mashpee home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Mashpee, 2016 to 2026: $381k to $717k, up 88 per cent.$341k$549k$757k20162026
Mashpee, 2016 to 2026: $381k to $717k, up 88% in 10 years — 6.5% a year compounded.
If a $750k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.5% — Mashpee’s own last decade$1.03M$1.41M$1.93M$4.96M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$869k$1.01M$1.17M$1.82M

These are not forecasts. They are what $750k 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 Mashpee

suburban644 people per square mile across 23.4 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
5
Bookshops
See the list
1
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list
2
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryMashpee 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 households78%
White (non-Hispanic)82%
Asian (non-Hispanic)1.0%
Latino / Hispanic4.0%
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

MashpeeFigure
Residents15,060
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$76.0M
School district spending$38.5M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$24,148
School spending per resident$2,555
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)661

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 Mashpee

BarnstableTier 3
Also Tier 3, $775k for a 4BR and 98 min to Boston
YarmouthTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $125k cheaper
HarwichTier 3
Also Tier 3, 8 min further from Boston
DennisTier 3
Also Tier 3, 6 min further from Boston
BrewsterTier 3
Also Tier 3, 10 min further from Boston
FalmouthTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $225k more expensive

Surprisingly similar in character

ScituateTier 2
Both a visitor draw and social · $350k dearer, 45 min closer in
Manchester-by-the-SeaTier 2
Both well-equipped for recreation and a visitor draw · $750k dearer, 42 min closer in
FoxboroughTier 3
Both a visitor draw and social · 45 min closer in
CohassetTier 2
Both well-equipped for recreation and social · $850k dearer, 52 min closer in

Read next

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The ocean or the best schools: Massachusetts makes you choose
On the water, and Tier 3. Every one of the state's 23 Tier 1 districts is inland.
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Private school is not a plan B for a weak school district
Only 1 accredited private schools within twelve miles, which is the thin end of the state's supply.
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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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