Southwick, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 91 miles from downtown Boston, about 129 minutes door-to-door at peak · 83% of households own their home.

Southwick, Massachusetts
Southwick · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$450k est.
$350k townhouse · $260k condo
Cheaper than 89% of MA towns
Property tax
$6,500/yr
$14.42 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 78% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
129 min
No MBTA rail
Further than 97% of MA towns
Schools
42nd pct
growth 44th · 97% graduate
Behind 58% 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, and Southwick’s prices are preliminary: not yet checked against sales.

About Southwick

Southwick is a middle-tier school district in the Pioneer Valley, about 91 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 129 minutes door-to-door at peak, and one of the more affordable markets we cover: roughly $450k for a 4BR house and $260k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $14.42 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $450k house works out to about $6,500 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 42nd percentile statewide on MCAS. Tobacco-field flats and the Congamond Lakes.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

Among the cheapest housing we track — 18th of 241 at about $450k for a 4BR.

Bad

About 129 minutes to downtown at peak, and no rail to escape it.

Ugly

That $14.42 rate is 38th-highest of 241: about $6k a year, every year, forever.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 42nd MCAS · 2 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

2 public schools in Southwick — 2 elementary
ElementaryPK–2 · 307 students
Elementary3–6 · 375 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 2 center-based · 4 family child care6
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to209
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room179
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together30
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down59
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten60

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 59 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

Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement42nd percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)44th percentile
4-year graduation rate96.5%
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.

Latest school building project: Southwick Regional School's major addition and renovation project had a total project budget of about $36.0 million. MSBA project list.

Available Private School Options

9 private schools in Southwick and within 12 miles
Adjacent town · Westfield9–12 · High school · 91 students · 9.1:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WestfieldK–6 · Elementary / middle · 62 students · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Westfield4–12 · PK/K–12 · 56 students · 2.9:1 student-teacher · ~$28k–$44k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · West SpringfieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 194 students · 10.1:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · West SpringfieldPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 97 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · LongmeadowPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 267 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LongmeadowPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 81 students · ~$22k–$36k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LongmeadowPK–11 + SP · Specialized / placement · 70 students · 4.5:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · LongmeadowK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 35 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 Southwick, 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 Southwick

Residential suburbs & small townsmedium 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 amenities4
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$450k 4BR · ≈$6,500 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$450k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$350k
2BR condo$260k
Property taxes (FY2026)$14.42 per $1,000 (1.44%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01077, and the two will not match.

By bedroom countMedian value (Zillow)
3BR home$427k
5+ BR home$681k

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 Southwick and sits above what a plain five-bedroom median would be.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$2,400/mo
3 bedrooms$2,257/mo
2 bedrooms$1,810/mo
1 bedroom$1,430/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 Southwick’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Southwick home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Southwick, 2016 to 2026: $247k to $422k, up 70 per cent.$227k$335k$443k20162026
Southwick, 2016 to 2026: $247k to $422k, up 70% in 10 years — 5.5% a year compounded.
If a $450k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.5% — Southwick’s own last decade$588k$769k$1.00M$2.24M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$522k$605k$701k$1.09M

These are not forecasts. They are what $450k 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 Southwick

rural300 people per square mile across 30.8 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 librarySouthwick 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 households83%
White (non-Hispanic)92%
Asian (non-Hispanic)1.1%
Latino / Hispanic3.1%
African American (non-Hispanic)0.7%
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

SouthwickFigure
Residents9,232
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$29.2M
School district spendingSouthwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District district$29.7M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$20,753
Subsidized housing (Ch. 40B)141 units on the state inventory, of 4,038 year-round homes3.49%below the state’s 10% threshold

Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District is a regional district, so the school spend covers every member town, not just this one, and is not divided per resident here.

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 Southwick

WestfieldTier 3
Also Tier 3, $440k for a 4BR and 126 min to Boston
LudlowTier 3
Also Tier 3, 18 min closer to Boston
South HadleyTier 3
Also Tier 3, 13 min closer to Boston
BelchertownTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $50k more expensive
WilbrahamTier 2
Tier 2, about $100k more expensive
GreenfieldTier 4
Tier 4, about $50k cheaper

Surprisingly similar in character

HoldenTier 3
Both quiet and spread out · $250k dearer, 50 min closer in
MedfieldTier 1
Both quiet and spread out · $900k dearer, 82 min closer in
NorfolkTier 2
Both quiet and spread out · $500k dearer, 74 min closer in
WhitmanTier 3
Both quiet and spread out · 77 min closer in

More on Southwick

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
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
A low property tax rate does not mean a low tax bill
83rd percentile on the tax rate at $14.42 per $1,000, but only 21st on the bill — about $6,500. The rate is not the thing to compare.
6 min read
The graduation rate cannot tell a $450,000 district from a $2.9M one
Graduates 96.5% at $450k — one of 96 towns whose district graduates 95% or more, a group that runs to $2.9M.
6 min read
Data statusPrices preliminary · data updated October 9, 2026
FigureStatus
Home pricesCalibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. For comparison, not appraisal.Preliminary
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 community was added after the original hundred, so its prices are preliminary estimates, not yet checked against sales. 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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