Tewksbury, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 20 miles from downtown Boston, about 52 minutes door-to-door at peak · 85% of households own their home.

Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Tewksbury · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$700k
$545k townhouse · $405k condo
Cheaper than 52% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,800/yr
$12.56 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 53% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
52 min
No MBTA rail
Closer than 66% of MA towns
Schools
51st pct
growth 52nd · 93% graduate
Ahead of 51% 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 Tewksbury

Tewksbury is a middle-tier school district north of Boston, about 20 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 52 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $700k for a 4BR house and $405k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $12.56 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $700k house works out to about $8,800 a year. There is no MBTA rail here, so the commute is by car. The district sits in the 51st percentile statewide on MCAS. I-93/495 corner with steady Tier 3 schools.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

About $700k for a 4BR, under the $750k median of our set.

Bad

About 52 minutes to downtown at peak, and no rail to escape it.

Ugly

Mid-tier schools in a state where the next town over often isn't — that gap is the whole local conversation.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 51st MCAS · 5 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

5 public schools in Tewksbury — 3 elementary and 2 middle
Elementary2–4 · 807 students
ElementaryPK–1 · 394 students
ElementaryPK–1 · 306 students
Elementary / middle5–6 · 520 students
Middle7–8 · 514 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 · 25 family child care38
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to1,322
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room1,108
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together214
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down265
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten598

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 265 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#123 of 361 MA localities
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#56 of 135 · Tewksbury Memorial High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement51st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)52nd percentile
4-year graduation rate93.4%
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

3 charter schools near Tewksbury
Adjacent town · LowellTuition-free · lotteryK–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 48th pct · 82.8% graduate · Substantial progress toward targets · $14k/pupil
Adjacent town · LowellTuition-free · lotteryPK–8 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 50th pct · Substantial progress toward targets · $24k/pupil
Adjacent town · LowellTuition-free · lottery9–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · 38.3% graduate · In need of focused/targeted support · $18k/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

15 private schools in Tewksbury and within 12 miles
Adjacent town · AndoverNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · 1,169 students · 6:1 student-teacher · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · AndoverPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 416 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AndoverAISNE accreditedPK–9 · PK/K–12 · 402 students · 7:1 student-teacher · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AndoverK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 196 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · AndoverAISNE accreditedPK–7 · Elementary / middle · 137 students · 9.4:1 student-teacher · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · AndoverPK–7 · Elementary / middle · 15 students · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Lowell CatholicNiche #93 · A-
Adjacent town · LowellPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 656 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LowellPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 353 students · 15.5:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LowellPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 173 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LowellPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 148 students · 13.1:1 student-teacher · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LowellPK–5 · Elementary · 96 students · 5.9:1 student-teacher · ~$16k–$32k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LowellPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 94 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Central Catholic HighNiche #80 · A-
Adjacent town · Lawrence9–12 · High school · 1,217 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LawrencePK–8 · Elementary / middle · 535 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Lawrence9–12 · High school · 269 students · ~$18k–$28k/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 Tewksbury, 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 Tewksbury

Compact suburbs & town centersmedium 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 amenities5
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$700k 4BR · ≈$8,800 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$700k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$545k
2BR condo$405k
Property taxes (FY2026)$12.56 per $1,000 (1.26%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01876, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$4,300/mo
3 bedrooms$3,900/mo
2 bedrooms$3,250/mo
1 bedroom$2,480/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 Tewksbury’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Tewksbury home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Tewksbury, 2016 to 2026: $383k to $689k, up 80 per cent.$346k$536k$725k20162026
Tewksbury, 2016 to 2026: $383k to $689k, up 80% in 10 years — 6.1% a year compounded.
If a $700k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6.1% — Tewksbury’s own last decade$941k$1.27M$1.70M$4.14M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$811k$941k$1.09M$1.70M

These are not forecasts. They are what $700k 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 Tewksbury

suburban1,512 people per square mile across 20.7 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
4
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries0
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryTewksbury 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 households85%
White (non-Hispanic)87%
Asian (non-Hispanic)3.9%
Latino / Hispanic4.2%
African American (non-Hispanic)2.5%
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

TewksburyFigure
Residents31,342
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$155.8M
School district spending$79.4M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$23,195
School spending per resident$2,533
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,376

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 Tewksbury

MaynardTier 3
Also Tier 3, higher tax at $17.50 per $1,000
AshlandTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $150k more expensive
PeabodyTier 3
Also Tier 3, 7 min closer to Boston
FraminghamTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $100k more expensive
BillericaTier 3
Also Tier 3, $700k for a 4BR and 49 min to Boston
DanversTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $125k more expensive

Read next

The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 14 years of the local rent, against a statewide median of 18 — one of the places where buying is cheap relative to renting.
6 min read
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.
6 min read
After schools, the biggest thing your town buys isn’t a service
32% of the budget goes to benefits, insurance and debt — spending that buys no service, and one of the heaviest such loads in the state.
6 min read
How many times will your child change schools before high school?
3 separate school levels before high school, which is more building changes than most districts ask of a child.
6 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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