Sandwich, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 53 miles from downtown Boston, about 91 minutes door-to-door at peak · 89% of households own their home.

Sandwich, Massachusetts
Sandwich · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$725k
$550k townhouse · $405k condo
Cheaper than 50% of MA towns
Property tax
$7,400/yr
$10.19 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 69% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
91 min
No MBTA rail
Further than 82% of MA towns
Schools
73rd pct
growth 52nd · 89% graduate
Ahead of 73% of MA districts

marks the Massachusetts median of $750k for a 4BR, $8,800 in tax and 62 min to Boston. Prices and the tax bill are estimates, not appraisals.

About Sandwich

Sandwich is a middle-tier school district on Cape Cod, about 53 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 91 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $725k for a 4BR house and $405k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $10.19 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $725k house that is still about $7,400 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 73rd percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 103rd of 236. The oldest town on Cape Cod, glass museum included.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Editorial
Good

The oldest town on Cape Cod, with 89% homeownership and a glass museum.

Bad

53 miles out with no rail.

Ugly

The Sagamore Bridge is the only way home, and the bridge replacement will take a decade.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 73rd MCAS · 2 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

2 public schools in Sandwich — 2 elementary
ElementaryPK–2 · 561 students
Elementary3–6 · 657 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 10 center-based · 12 family child care22
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to585
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room481
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together104
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down125
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten298

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 125 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#103 of 236 MA districts · B
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement73rd percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)52nd percentile
4-year graduation rate89.4%
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 Sandwich
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

7 private schools in Sandwich and within 12 miles
In Sandwich6–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 208 students · placement/specialized
In SandwichPK–2 · Elementary · 66 students · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BournePK–6 · Elementary / middle · 71 students · ~$18k–$30k/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.)
Falmouth AcademyNiche #43 · A+
Adjacent town · FalmouthNEASC accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 174 students · 5.2:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/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 Sandwich, 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 Sandwich

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.

Energy5
Compact town center4
Family amenities4
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$725k 4BR · ≈$7,400 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$725k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$550k
2BR condo$405k
Property taxes (FY2026)$10.19 per $1,000 (1.02%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02644, one of 3 in Sandwich, and the two will not match.

By bedroom countMedian value (Zillow)
3BR home$691k
5+ BR home$969k

Not the same kind of number as the table above. These are Zillow’s observed medians for the middle third of the market at that bedroom count, as of July 2026; the prices above are this site’s estimates for one particular property. They are measuring different things and will not agree. Zillow publishes the bedroom split for houses and condos together, so a “3BR home” here blends both, where each estimate above prices one building type and says which. And 5+ BR means five bedrooms or more: Zillow’s buckets stop at five, so that figure carries the largest houses in Sandwich and sits above what a plain five-bedroom median would be.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,917/mo
3 bedrooms$3,283/mo
2 bedrooms$2,633/mo
1 bedroom$2,013/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 FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents for Sandwich’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Sandwich home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Sandwich, 2016 to 2026: $349k to $701k, up 101 per cent.$307k$525k$743k20162026
Sandwich, 2016 to 2026: $349k to $701k, up 101% in 10 years — 7.2% a year compounded.
If a $725k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
7.2% — Sandwich’s own last decade$1.03M$1.45M$2.06M$5.84M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$840k$974k$1.13M$1.76M

These are not forecasts. They are what $725k 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 Sandwich

rural472 people per square mile across 42.9 sq mi — rural — under 500 people 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 galleries
See the list

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

7
Colleges and universities0
Public librarySandwich Free 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 2020–2024, US Census BureauShare
Homeowner households89%
White (non-Hispanic)92%
Asian (non-Hispanic)1.6%
Latino / Hispanic2.1%
African American (non-Hispanic)0.2%
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

SandwichFigure
Residents20,259
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$103.6M
School district spending$63.8M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$26,678
School spending per resident$3,150
Subsidized housing (Ch. 40B)360 units on the state inventory, of 8,296 year-round homes4.34%below the state’s 10% threshold

Budget: FY2025 General Fund total expenditures, DLS Schedule A · Schools: DESE Per Pupil Expenditure · Subsidized housing: Ch. 40B Subsidized Housing Inventory, EOHLC, as of 30 September 2025; the percentage is over year-round housing units counted in the 2020 Census. Never used to rank or filter towns.

Realistic alternatives to Sandwich

BourneTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $75k cheaper
BarnstableTier 3
Also Tier 3, 7 min further from Boston
MashpeeTier 3
Also Tier 3, 6 min further from Boston
DennisTier 3
Also Tier 3, 11 min further from Boston
BrewsterTier 3
Also Tier 3, 13 min further from Boston
HarwichTier 3
Also Tier 3, 15 min further from Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

MarshfieldTier 3
Both social and a visitor draw · 27 min closer in
DuxburyTier 2
Both social and a visitor draw · $675k dearer, 26 min closer in
IpswichTier 3
Both a visitor draw and social · 29 min closer in
EssexTier 2
Both a visitor draw and social · 33 min closer in

More on Sandwich

Read next

Cape Cod has the lowest tax rates of any region, and spends the most per pupil
One of the 10 Cape towns this site covers, where the tax rate is $10.19 against $6.59 across the Cape and $12.31 statewide — and every district is the same tier.
7 min read
A school rating is an average. Of how many schools?
The district is two schools, so its rating is a promise about the exact building your child would attend.
6 min read
The rent benchmark rose 3% — and fastest where it was already lowest
HUD cut the three-bedroom rent benchmark here from $3,310 to $3,283 for FY2027 — one of only 19 towns where it fell.
7 min read
The pandemic re-priced Massachusetts by distance, and never gave it back
Prices rose 50% here between 2019 and 2022 and have added 16% since. The boom in the far suburbs never gave anything back.
8 min read
Data statusdata updated October 9, 2026
FigureStatus
Home pricesCalibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. For comparison, not appraisal.Estimate
Median value by bedroom countZillow Home Value Index by bedroom count, July 2026, houses and condos together — Zillow publishes no single-family-only bedroom split. Observed medians, so they will not match the modeled prices above. The top bucket is five bedrooms OR MORE, because Zillow’s buckets stop at five: it carries a town’s largest houses and runs well above a true 5BR median, which is why it is labelled 5+ everywhere. Absent for Boston’s 18 neighborhoods, which are not cities and have no series, and for the smaller towns at the top bucket.Sourced
Property tax rateFY2026 residential rate per $1,000, from the Division of Local Services’ Tax Rates by Class, for every municipality. Towns with a residential exemption bill owner-occupied homes less than this.Sourced
Census shares and homeownershipAmerican Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates, US Census Bureau, for every municipality. The survey does not report Boston’s neighborhoods, so none are shown for them. Never used to rank, filter or recommend.Sourced
RentsHUD FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents, by ZIP, in effect from 1 October 2026.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 are estimates calibrated against Zillow and Redfin, as described in our methodology. Its tax rate, like every town’s, is the state’s certified FY2026 figure. Data last updated . Full detail on every source is in the methodology.

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