Sudbury, MA Tier 1

Tier 1 · top schools · 19 miles from downtown Boston, about 50 minutes door-to-door at peak · 90% of households own their home.

Sudbury, Massachusetts
Sudbury · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$1.7M
$1.15M townhouse · $850k condo
Dearer than 94% of MA towns
Property tax
$24,700/yr
$14.50 per $1,000 on that house
Higher than 97% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
50 min
No MBTA rail
Closer than 68% of MA towns
Schools
97th pct
growth 58th · 98% graduate
Ahead of 97% 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 Sudbury

Sudbury is a top-tier school district west of Boston, about 19 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 50 minutes door-to-door at peak, and one of the priciest markets in the state: roughly $1.7M for a 4BR house and $850k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $14.50 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $1.7M house works out to about $24,700 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 97th percentile statewide on MCAS. Large-lot family neighborhoods feeding the strong Lincoln-Sudbury regional high school.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Editorial
Good

Big-lot family neighborhoods feeding the strong Lincoln-Sudbury regional high school.

Bad

No rail at all — 50 minutes of driving, every day.

Ugly

Route 20 is the only way through, and it's a parking lot at rush hour.

Schools and child caretop schools · 97th MCAS · 5 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

5 public schools in Sudbury — 4 elementary and 1 middle
ElementaryPK–5 · 509 students
ElementaryK–5 · 430 students
ElementaryK–5 · 373 students
ElementaryPK–5 · 358 students
Middle6–8 · 865 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 21 center-based · 5 family child care26
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to1,932
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room1,886
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together46
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down387
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten809

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 387 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#24 of 361 MA localities
U.S. News 2025-26 · Assigned high school#68 of 366 MA · Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#17 of 135 · Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement97th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)58th percentile
4-year graduation rate98%
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.

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 Sudbury
Adjacent town · FraminghamTuition-free · lottery6–8 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 58th pct · Meeting or exceeding targets · $23k/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 Sudbury and within 12 miles
In SudburyNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 67 students · 3.7:1 student-teacher · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
In Sudbury6–12 · Middle / high · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · WaylandK–8 · Elementary / middle · 151 students · 7.7:1 student-teacher · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · MaynardPK–9 · PK/K–12 · 132 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Maynard9–12 · High school · 11 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · FraminghamPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 214 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · FraminghamPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 126 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · FraminghamAISNE accreditedPK–6 · Elementary / middle · 125 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · FraminghamPK–6 · Elementary / middle · 68 students · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · FraminghamPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 52 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Framingham3–8 · Elementary / middle · 17 students · ~$22k–$36k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Framingham6–12 · Middle / high · 16 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Framingham5–12 · Middle / high · 14 students · 2.5:1 student-teacher · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Framingham9–11 · High school · 6 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Concord AcademyNiche #8 · A+
Adjacent town · ConcordNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
MiddlesexNiche #9 · A+
Adjacent town · ConcordNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · 427 students · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · WestonAISNE accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 533 students · 5.6:1 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 Sudbury, 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 Sudbury

High-cost suburbshigh confidence

Low-key, rural/spread out, 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 moderate cultural scene, mostly residential, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy4
Compact town center3
Family amenities5
Culture6
Visitor presence3
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$1.7M 4BR · ≈$24,700 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$1.7M
3BR / 2BA townhouse$1.15M
2BR condo$850k
Property taxes (FY2026)$14.50 per $1,000 (1.45%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01776, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,830/mo
3 bedrooms$3,473/mo
2 bedrooms$2,893/mo
1 bedroom$2,440/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 Sudbury’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Sudbury home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Sudbury, 2016 to 2026: $706k to $1.18M, up 68 per cent.$649k$945k$1.24M20162026
Sudbury, 2016 to 2026: $706k to $1.18M, up 68% in 10 years — 5.3% a year compounded.
If a $1.70M house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.3% — Sudbury’s own last decade$2.20M$2.85M$3.69M$8.00M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$1.97M$2.28M$2.65M$4.13M

These are not forecasts. They are what $1.70M 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 Sudbury

suburban780 people per square mile across 24.3 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
3
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list

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

2
Colleges and universities0
Public librarySudbury, Goodnow 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 households90%
White (non-Hispanic)80%
Asian (non-Hispanic)10%
Latino / Hispanic4.0%
African American (non-Hispanic)2.0%
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

SudburyFigure
Residents18,934
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$123.0M
School district spendingLincoln-Sudbury district$42.6M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$28,504
School spending per resident$2,251
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)831

Lincoln-Sudbury is a regional district, so the school spend covers every member town, not just this one.

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 Sudbury

WaylandTier 1
Also Tier 1, $1.6M for a 4BR and 46 min to Boston
CarlisleTier 1
Also Tier 1, about $200k cheaper
SherbornTier 1
Also Tier 1, about $200k cheaper
MedfieldTier 1
Also Tier 1, about $350k cheaper
NeedhamTier 1
Also Tier 1, 12 min closer to Boston
DoverTier 1
Also Tier 1, about $300k more expensive

Surprisingly similar in character

DartmouthTier 3
Both quiet and spread out · $1.07M cheaper, 43 min further out
WarehamTier 4
Both quiet and spread out · $1.18M cheaper, 33 min further out
SalisburyTier 3
Both social · $1.13M cheaper, Tier 3 schools
SharonTier 2
Both social · $750k cheaper

Read next

Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 97th percentile but moves children in the 58th — 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
Quiet towns, strong schools, a real Boston commute: pick two
Quiet, Tier 1 schools, 50 minutes to Boston — the combination the search was for, and it is never cheap.
6 min read
What a top school district actually adds to a house price
Tier 1 schools at $1.7M for a 4BR, 50 minutes out — how much of that price is the district and how much is the distance.
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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