Sharon, MA Tier 2

Tier 2 · strong schools · 18 miles from downtown Boston, about 47 minutes door-to-door at peak · 87% of households own their home.

Sharon, Massachusetts
Sharon · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$950k
$720k townhouse · $535k condo
Dearer than 72% of MA towns
Property tax
$16,600/yr
$17.50 per $1,000 on that house
Higher than 88% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
47 min
Commuter rail · ~35 min to terminal
Closer than 73% of MA towns
Schools
91st pct
growth 52nd · 96% graduate
Ahead of 91% 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 Sharon

Sharon is a strong school district south of Boston, about 18 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 47 minutes door-to-door at peak, and an expensive market: roughly $950k for a 4BR house and $535k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $17.50 per $1,000, high for Massachusetts, which on a $950k house works out to about $16,600 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 35 minutes, against a 49-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 91st percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 7th of 236. Lake Massapoag plus a 35-minute train — a longtime favorite for value-minded families.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

Schools are the draw: a Tier 2 district, and only 23 towns rate higher.

Bad

$17.50 per $1,000 is among the steeper rates we track — about $17k a year on that 4BR.

Ugly

$950k buys a 4-bedroom — which is only cheap next to the towns you actually want.

Schools and child carestrong schools · 91st MCAS · 5 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

5 public schools in Sharon — 4 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryK–5 · 542 students
ElementaryK–5 · 423 students
ElementaryK–5 · 416 students
ElementaryPK · 61 students
Middle6–8 · 830 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 11 center-based · 13 family child care24
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to691
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room577
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together114
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down157
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten402

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 157 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#7 of 236 MA districts · A+
SchoolDigger 2025 · City/locality test-score rank#20 of 361 MA localities
U.S. News 2025-26 · Assigned high school#26 of 366 MA · Sharon High School
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#16 of 135 · Sharon High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement91st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)52nd percentile
4-year graduation rate95.7%
DESE accountabilityMeeting or exceeding 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.

Latest school building project: The replacement Sharon High School opened in fall 2022 and reached Building Complete status in 2023; total project budget was about $163 million. MSBA project list.

Charter School Options

1 charter school near Sharon
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 Sharon and within 12 miles
In SharonPK–5 · Elementary · 188 students · ~$9k–$18k/yr (est.)
In SharonAISNE accreditedPK–5 · Elementary · 101 students · ~$22k–$36k/yr (est.)
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 · FoxboroughAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 139 students · 6.1:1 student-teacher · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · NorwoodPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 403 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · NorwoodK–12 · PK/K–12 · files no enrolment with the state
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 · Mansfield6–12 · Middle / high · ~$9k–$18k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MansfieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 247 students · 15.3:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MansfieldPK–5 · Elementary · 59 students · 6.6:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WestwoodNEASC accredited7–12 · Middle / high · 981 students · 13.3:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Montrose SchoolNiche #60 · A+
Adjacent town · MedfieldNEASC accreditedK–12 · PK/K–12 · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 183 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 150 students · placement/specialized

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 Sharon, 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 Sharon

High-cost suburbsRail-servedhigh confidence

Moderate energy, lower-density, and extensively provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; high-cost in housing, upscale in commercial districts, and extensively maintained in public realm, with visible cultural identity, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy5
Compact town center4
Family amenities5
Culture7
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$950k 4BR · ≈$16,600 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$950k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$720k
2BR condo$535k
Property taxes (FY2026)$17.50 per $1,000 (1.75%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02067, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,933/mo
3 bedrooms$3,563/mo
2 bedrooms$2,970/mo
1 bedroom$2,503/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 Sharon’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Sharon home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Sharon, 2016 to 2026: $559k to $898k, up 61 per cent.$519k$728k$938k20162026
Sharon, 2016 to 2026: $559k to $898k, up 61% in 10 years — 4.8% a year compounded.
If a $950k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
4.8% — Sharon’s own last decade$1.20M$1.52M$1.92M$3.88M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$1.10M$1.28M$1.48M$2.31M

These are not forecasts. They are what $950k 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 Sharon

suburban793 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
2
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list
1
Colleges and universities0
Public librarySharon 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 households87%
White (non-Hispanic)68%
Asian (non-Hispanic)18%
Latino / Hispanic4.0%
African American (non-Hispanic)6.0%
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

SharonFigure
Residents18,575
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$106.9M
School district spending$80.1M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$21,958
School spending per resident$4,313
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)815

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 Sharon

NatickTier 2
Also Tier 2, lower tax at $12.17 per $1,000
HanoverTier 2
Also Tier 2, lower tax at $13.00 per $1,000
HollistonTier 2
Also Tier 2, 8 min further from Boston
NorfolkTier 2
Also Tier 2, 8 min further from Boston
StowTier 2
Also Tier 2, 10 min further from Boston
NorwellTier 2
Also Tier 2, about $250k more expensive

Surprisingly similar in character

SudburyTier 1
Both social · $750k dearer
WaylandTier 1
Both social · $650k dearer
SalisburyTier 3
Both social · $375k cheaper, 27 min further out

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 91st percentile but moves children in the 52nd — 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.
The state's own determination for this district is "meeting or exceeding targets" — one of only 25 towns on its top rung, and none of them is cheap.
7 min read
The cheap towns grew fastest. The expensive ones made far more money.
4.8% a year over the last decade, near the bottom in percentage terms — which in an expensive town can still be the larger gain in dollars.
7 min read
How much income do you need to buy in a good Massachusetts school district?
A 4BR here needs roughly $273k of household income. That is what a Tier 2 district costs to buy into.
7 min read
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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