Whitman, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 20 miles from downtown Boston, about 52 minutes door-to-door at peak · 76% of households own their home.

Whitman, Massachusetts
Whitman · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$600k
$465k townhouse · $345k condo
Cheaper than 72% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,100/yr
$13.50 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 61% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
52 min
Commuter rail · ~43 min to terminal
Closer than 66% of MA towns
Schools
46th pct
growth 45th · 89% graduate
Behind 54% 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 Whitman

Whitman is a middle-tier school district south-east 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 $600k for a 4BR house and $345k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $13.50 per $1,000, on the high side for Massachusetts, which on a $600k house works out to about $8,100 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 43 minutes, against a 52-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 46th percentile statewide on MCAS. Birthplace of the chocolate-chip cookie, with a rail stop.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

Among the cheapest housing we track — 57th of 241 at about $600k for a 4BR.

Bad

About 52 minutes door-to-door — a real commute, even with the train.

Ugly

About $8k a year in property tax — the one housing bill that never amortises, never refinances and never ends.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 46th MCAS · 6 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

6 public schools in Whitman — 4 elementary and 2 middle
ElementaryK–4 · 496 students
ElementaryK–5 · 491 students
ElementaryK–5 · 431 students
ElementaryPK · 110 students
Elementary / middle5–8 · 430 students
Middle6–8 · 481 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 4 center-based · 10 family child care14
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to431
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room353
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together78
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down53
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten147

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 53 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#191 of 361 MA localities
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#116 of 135 · Whitman-Hanson Regional High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement46th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)45th percentile
4-year graduation rate88.9%
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

2 charter schools near Whitman
Adjacent town · BrocktonTuition-free · lottery6–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 50th pct · 96.3% graduate · Moderate progress toward targets · $21k/pupil
Adjacent town · NorwellTuition-free · lotteryK–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 46th pct · 96.2% graduate · Moderate progress toward targets · $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

16 private schools in Whitman and within 12 miles
Adjacent town · AbingtonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 305 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · East Bridgewater7–12 · Specialized / placement · 24 students · placement/specialized
Calvary Chapel AcademyNiche #108 · B
Adjacent town · RocklandPK–12 · PK/K–12 · 156 students · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Rockland8–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 113 students · placement/specialized
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 · Hanover7–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 90 students · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · Holbrook2–9 · PK/K–12 · 2 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · West BridgewaterPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 55 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · NorwellAISNE accredited6–8 · Middle school · files no enrolment with the state
Adjacent town · WeymouthPK–4 · Elementary · 283 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Weymouth5–8 · Elementary / middle · 132 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Weymouth3–5 · Elementary · 5 students · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
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 Whitman, 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 Whitman

Residential suburbs & small townsRail-servedmedium 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$600k 4BR · ≈$8,100 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$600k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$465k
2BR condo$345k
Property taxes (FY2026)$13.50 per $1,000 (1.35%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 02382, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$3,030/mo
3 bedrooms$2,863/mo
2 bedrooms$2,290/mo
1 bedroom$1,747/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 Whitman’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Whitman home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Whitman, 2016 to 2026: $313k to $562k, up 79 per cent.$284k$438k$592k20162026
Whitman, 2016 to 2026: $313k to $562k, up 79% in 10 years — 6% a year compounded.
If a $600k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
6% — Whitman’s own last decade$803k$1.07M$1.44M$3.45M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$696k$806k$935k$1.46M

These are not forecasts. They are what $600k 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 Whitman

dense suburb2,180 people per square mile across 6.9 sq mi a packed suburb — 2,000–5,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops0
Bookshops0
Museums, theatres and galleries0
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryWhitman 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 households76%
White (non-Hispanic)89%
Asian (non-Hispanic)2.0%
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

WhitmanFigure
Residents15,121
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$46.4M
School district spendingWhitman-Hanson district$69.2M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$19,094
School spending per resident$4,575
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)664

Whitman-Hanson 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 Whitman

HansonTier 3
Also Tier 3, $650k for a 4BR and 55 min to Boston
AbingtonTier 3
Also Tier 3, $650k for a 4BR and 49 min to Boston
East BridgewaterTier 3
Also Tier 3, higher tax at $15.00 per $1,000
PembrokeTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $150k more expensive
MillisTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $150k more expensive
HopedaleTier 3
Also Tier 3, 13 min further from Boston

Surprisingly similar in character

HoldenTier 3
Both quiet and spread out · 27 min further out
MedfieldTier 1
Both quiet and spread out · $750k dearer, Tier 1 schools
NorfolkTier 2
Both quiet and spread out · $350k dearer

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About $3,071 of municipal spending per resident at a $13.50 tax rate — the two have almost nothing to do with each other statewide.
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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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