Middleborough, MA Tier 4

Tier 4 · mixed schools · 34 miles from downtown Boston, about 72 minutes door-to-door at peak · 77% of households own their home.

Middleborough, Massachusetts
Middleborough · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$525k
$410k townhouse · $305k condo
Cheaper than 83% of MA towns
Property tax
$6,900/yr
$13.12 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 76% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
72 min
Commuter rail · ~64 min to terminal
Further than 65% of MA towns
Schools
31st pct
growth 44th · 89% 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 Middleborough

Middleborough is a fourth-tier school district south-east of Boston, about 34 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 72 minutes door-to-door at peak, and one of the more affordable markets we cover: roughly $525k for a 4BR house and $305k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $13.12 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $525k house works out to about $6,900 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 64 minutes, against a 72-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 31st percentile statewide on MCAS. Cranberry capital with a rail stop and antique center.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

Among the cheapest housing we track — 32nd of 241 at about $525k for a 4BR.

Bad

About 70 minutes door-to-door — a real commute, even with the train.

Ugly

Nobody moves here for the schools. They sit in our bottom tier, and the state's own numbers say the same.

Schools and child caremixed schools · 31st MCAS · 4 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

4 public schools in Middleborough — 3 elementary and 1 middle
Elementary1–5 · 586 students
Elementary1–5 · 566 students
ElementaryPK–K · 279 students
Middle6–8 · 664 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 to804
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room762
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together42
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down122
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten304
Head Start programs Federally funded, income-eligible1

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 122 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#249 of 361 MA localities
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#89 of 135 · Middleborough High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement31st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)44th percentile
4-year graduation rate88.8%
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.

Available Private School Options

10 private schools in Middleborough and within 12 miles
In Middleborough1–12 · PK/K–12 · 60 students · ~$28k–$44k/yr (est.)
In Middleborough9–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 50 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · KingstonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 249 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Freetown5–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 38 students · 4.2:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Freetown1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 34 students · 7.3:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · AcushnetPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 227 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Berkley1–6 · Elementary / middle · 22 students · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Berkley6–8 · Specialized / placement · 16 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · East Bridgewater7–12 · Specialized / placement · 24 students · placement/specialized
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 Middleborough, 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 Middleborough

Residential suburbs & small townsRail-servedmedium confidence

Low-key, lower-density, 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 limited cultural offerings, mostly residential, and moderate gathering options.

Energy4
Compact town center4
Family amenities3
Culture4
Visitor presence2
Public gathering places6

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$525k 4BR · ≈$6,900 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$525k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$410k
2BR condo$305k
Property taxes (FY2026)$13.12 per $1,000 (1.31%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02346, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,387/mo
3 bedrooms$3,117/mo
2 bedrooms$2,557/mo
1 bedroom$2,087/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 Middleborough’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Middleborough home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Middleborough, 2016 to 2026: $315k to $579k, up 84 per cent.$283k$447k$611k20162026
Middleborough, 2016 to 2026: $315k to $579k, up 84% in 10 years — 6.3% a year compounded.
If a $525k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.3% — Middleborough’s own last decade$713k$967k$1.31M$3.28M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$609k$706k$818k$1.27M

These are not forecasts. They are what $525k 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 Middleborough

rural351 people per square mile across 69 sq mi rural — under 500 people per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
1
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list
1
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryMiddleborough 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 households77%
White (non-Hispanic)88%
Asian (non-Hispanic)1.5%
Latino / Hispanic4.4%
African American (non-Hispanic)0.8%
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

MiddleboroughFigure
Residents24,245
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$106.6M
School district spending$63.6M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$20,064
School spending per resident$2,623
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,064

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 Middleborough

CarverTier 4
Also Tier 4, higher tax at $15.00 per $1,000
WarehamTier 4
Also Tier 4, 11 min further from Boston
AvonTier 4
Also Tier 4, 28 min closer to Boston
LakevilleTier 3
Tier 3, about $175k more expensive
FreetownTier 3
Tier 3, about $100k more expensive
SwanseaTier 3
Tier 3, 10 min further from Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

WrenthamTier 2
Both quiet and spread out · $375k dearer, Tier 2 schools
GeorgetownTier 3
Both quiet and spread out · $275k dearer

Read next

Private school is not a plan B for a weak school district
Not one accredited private school within twelve miles, so there is no private plan B from here.
7 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 13 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
Four of Boston’s job centers are the same commute. Longwood is not.
The commute figure everyone quotes for this town, 64 minutes, is to downtown. To Longwood it is 88 — 24 minutes more, each way, every day.
7 min read
After schools, the biggest thing your town buys isn’t a service
28% of the budget goes to benefits, insurance and debt — spending that buys no service, and one of the heaviest such loads in the state.
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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