Stoughton, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 17 miles from downtown Boston, about 47 minutes door-to-door at peak · 77% of households own their home.

Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$675k
$525k townhouse · $390k condo
Cheaper than 58% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,000/yr
$11.81 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 63% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
47 min
Commuter rail · ~46 min to terminal
Closer than 73% of MA towns
Schools
39th pct
growth 47th · 89% graduate
Behind 61% 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 Stoughton

Stoughton is a middle-tier school district south of Boston, about 17 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 47 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $675k for a 4BR house and $390k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $11.81 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $675k house that is still about $8,000 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 46 minutes, against a 47-minute peak drive. That rail time is modeled, not read off the timetable. The district sits in the 39th percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 91st of 236. Its own rail branch terminus and IKEA-anchored retail.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Editorial
Good

Its own rail branch terminus and IKEA-anchored retail.

Bad

Tier 3 schools and a 47-minute drive.

Ugly

The town has cycled through school superintendents and budget fights for years.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 39th MCAS · 7 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

7 public schools in Stoughton — 6 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryK–5 · 389 students
ElementaryK–5 · 375 students
ElementaryK–5 · 329 students
ElementaryK–5 · 281 students
ElementaryK–5 · 267 students
ElementaryPK · 105 students
Middle6–8 · 777 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 13 center-based · 19 family child care32
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to1,498
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room1,340
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together158
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down240
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten491

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 240 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#91 of 236 MA districts · B+
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#83 of 135 · Stoughton High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement39th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)47th percentile
4-year graduation rate88.6%
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: The replacement Stoughton High School completed the Core Program and received final-audit approval; total project budget was about $121.0 million. MSBA project list.

Charter School Options

1 charter school near Stoughton
Adjacent town · BrocktonTuition-free · lottery6–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 50th pct · 96.3% graduate · Moderate progress toward targets · $21k/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 Stoughton and within 12 miles
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 · SharonPK–5 · Elementary · 188 students · ~$9k–$18k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · SharonAISNE accreditedPK–5 · Elementary · 101 students · ~$22k–$36k/yr (est.)
Cardinal Spellman HighNiche #90 · A-
Adjacent town · Brockton9–12 · High school · 513 students · 13.9:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BrocktonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 432 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Brockton2–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 54 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 183 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Randolph1–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 150 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Holbrook2–9 · PK/K–12 · 2 students · ~$18k–$28k/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 · AbingtonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 305 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · West BridgewaterPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 55 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
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.)

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 Stoughton, 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 Stoughton

Compact suburbs & town centersRail-servedmedium confidence

Moderate energy, town-centered/mixed, 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 moderate cultural scene, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy6
Compact town center6
Family amenities6
Culture6
Visitor presence4
Public gathering places7

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$675k 4BR · ≈$8,000 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$675k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$525k
2BR condo$390k
Property taxes (FY2026)$11.81 per $1,000 (1.18%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02072, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,473/mo
3 bedrooms$3,153/mo
2 bedrooms$2,623/mo
1 bedroom$2,213/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 Stoughton’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Stoughton home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Stoughton, 2016 to 2026: $340k to $617k, up 81 per cent.$307k$479k$650k20162026
Stoughton, 2016 to 2026: $340k to $617k, up 81% in 10 years — 6.1% a year compounded.
If a $675k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.1% — Stoughton’s own last decade$908k$1.22M$1.64M$3.99M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$783k$907k$1.05M$1.64M

These are not forecasts. They are what $675k 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 Stoughton

suburban1,820 people per square mile across 16.1 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
4
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list

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

4
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryStoughton 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)60%
Asian (non-Hispanic)5.7%
Latino / Hispanic4.5%
African American (non-Hispanic)18%
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

StoughtonFigure
Residents29,281
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$142.6M
School district spending$81.1M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$20,194
School spending per resident$2,770
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,285

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 Stoughton

CantonTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $150k more expensive
AbingtonTier 3
Also Tier 3, higher tax at $14.00 per $1,000
WalpoleTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $200k more expensive
NorwoodTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $125k more expensive
WeymouthTier 3
Also Tier 3, 7 min closer to Boston
HansonTier 3
Also Tier 3, 8 min further from Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

GraftonTier 3
Both social · 25 min further out
North ReadingTier 2
Both social · $275k dearer

Read next

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.
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Four of Boston’s job centers are the same commute. Longwood is not.
The commute figure everyone quotes for this town, 40 minutes, is to downtown. To Longwood it is 65 — 25 minutes more, each way, every day.
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After schools, the biggest thing your town buys isn’t a service
30% of the budget goes to benefits, insurance and debt — spending that buys no service, and one of the heaviest such loads in the state.
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A paid-off condo and private school, or a mortgage in a better district?
A condo here is $390k against $675k for the house — the gap that pays for a lot of tuition, worked through in full.
10 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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