Randolph, MA Tier 4

Tier 4 · mixed schools · 12 miles from downtown Boston, about 44 minutes door-to-door at peak · 70% of households own their home.

Randolph, Massachusetts
Randolph · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$650k
$515k townhouse · $380k condo
Cheaper than 62% of MA towns
Property tax
$7,500/yr
$11.58 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 69% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
44 min
Commuter rail · ~32 min to terminal
Closer than 78% of MA towns
Schools
11th pct
growth 42nd · 86% graduate
Behind 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 Randolph

Randolph is a fourth-tier school district south of Boston, about 12 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 44 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $650k for a 4BR house and $380k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $11.58 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $650k house that is still about $7,500 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 32 minutes, against a 45-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 11th percentile statewide on MCAS. One of the state's most diverse towns, with a Holbrook rail share.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Editorial
Good

Close in, affordable, and a rail share with Holbrook.

Bad

Tier 4 schools and a $11.58 rate.

Ugly

Route 24 and 128 traffic bracket the town on both sides.

Schools and child caremixed schools · 11th MCAS · 5 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

5 public schools in Randolph — 4 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryPK–5 · 461 students
ElementaryK–5 · 401 students
ElementaryK–5 · 329 students
ElementaryPK–5 · 308 students
Middle6–8 · 667 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 · 44 family child care58
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to1,120
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room750
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together370
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down73
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten210

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 73 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#339 of 361 MA localities
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#124 of 135 · Randolph High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement11th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)42nd percentile
4-year graduation rate85.9%
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

18 private schools in Randolph and within 12 miles
In Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 183 students · placement/specialized
In Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 150 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · BraintreeNEASC accredited5–12 · Middle / high · 746 students · 6.4:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BraintreeNEASC accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 768 students · 11.8:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BraintreePK–5 · Elementary · 106 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Braintree6–12 · Specialized / placement · 48 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · CantonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 253 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Canton3–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 156 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Holbrook2–9 · PK/K–12 · 2 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Milton AcademyNiche #6 · A+
Adjacent town · MiltonNEASC accreditedK–12 · PK/K–12 · 1,031 students · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · MiltonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 397 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MiltonNEASC accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 323 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MiltonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 284 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MiltonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 141 students · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MiltonAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 108 students · 7:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WeymouthPK–4 · Elementary · 283 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Weymouth5–8 · Elementary / middle · 132 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Weymouth3–5 · Elementary · 5 students · ~$32k–$45k/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 Randolph, 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 Randolph

Compact suburbs & town centersRail-servedmedium confidence

Active, town-centered/mixed, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; higher-cost in housing and well-maintained in public spaces, with moderate cultural scene, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy7
Compact town center8
Family amenities5
Culture6
Visitor presence4
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$650k 4BR · ≈$7,500 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$650k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$515k
2BR condo$380k
Property taxes (FY2026)$11.58 per $1,000 (1.16%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02368, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,617/mo
3 bedrooms$3,280/mo
2 bedrooms$2,733/mo
1 bedroom$2,303/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 Randolph’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Randolph home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Randolph, 2016 to 2026: $310k to $600k, up 94 per cent.$275k$455k$635k20162026
Randolph, 2016 to 2026: $310k to $600k, up 94% in 10 years — 6.8% a year compounded.
If a $650k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.8% — Randolph’s own last decade$903k$1.25M$1.74M$4.68M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$754k$874k$1.01M$1.58M

These are not forecasts. They are what $650k 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 Randolph

dense suburb3,559 people per square mile across 9.8 sq mi a packed suburb — 2,000–5,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
2
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries0
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryRandolph, Turner 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 households70%
White (non-Hispanic)28%
Asian (non-Hispanic)13%
Latino / Hispanic13%
African American (non-Hispanic)40%
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

RandolphFigure
Residents34,984
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$126.6M
School district spending$79.2M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$24,025
School spending per resident$2,263
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,535

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 Randolph

RocklandTier 4
Also Tier 4, higher tax at $15.50 per $1,000
HolbrookTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $100k cheaper
BrocktonTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $100k cheaper
TauntonTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $75k cheaper
StoughtonTier 3
Tier 3, $675k for a 4BR and 47 min to Boston
NorwoodTier 3
Tier 3, about $150k more expensive

Surprisingly similar in character

SpringfieldTier 4
Both compact and social · $275k cheaper, 72 min further out

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 11th percentile but moves children in the 42nd — this district does more than its test scores suggest.
7 min read
The district spending the most per pupil is not the best one
Spends $24,025 per pupil — 76th percentile for money, 11th for results. The two barely track each other statewide.
7 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 15 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
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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