Wilmington, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 15 miles from downtown Boston, about 44 minutes door-to-door at peak · 87% of households own their home.

Wilmington, Massachusetts
Wilmington · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$775k
$600k townhouse · $445k condo
Dearer than 54% of MA towns
Property tax
$8,800/yr
$11.41 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 51% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
44 min
Commuter rail · ~35 min to terminal
Closer than 78% of MA towns
Schools
67th pct
growth 50th · 93% graduate
Ahead of 67% 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 Wilmington

Wilmington is a middle-tier school district north of Boston, about 15 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 44 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $775k for a 4BR house and $445k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $11.41 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $775k house that is still about $8,800 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 35 minutes, against a 44-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 67th percentile statewide on MCAS, and Niche ranks it 90th of 236. Two rail lines cross here — commuting flexibility few towns match.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

$11.41 per $1,000 keeps the yearly bill near $9k on that 4BR.

Bad

Schools sit mid-table — our Tier 3, which usually means solid in parts and uneven in others.

Ugly

40 minutes door-to-door, every day, both ways.

Schools and child caresolid schools · 67th MCAS · 6 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

6 public schools in Wilmington — 5 elementary and 1 middle
Elementary1–3 · 370 students
ElementaryPK–5 · 300 students
Elementary1–3 · 293 students
Elementary4–5 · 236 students
ElementaryPK–K · 143 students
Elementary / middlePK–8 · 807 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 6 center-based · 6 family child care12
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to539
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room495
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together44
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down148
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten277

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 148 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#90 of 236 MA districts · B+
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#37 of 135 · Wilmington High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement67th percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)50th percentile
4-year graduation rate93.4%
DESE accountabilitySubstantial 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.

Available Private School Options

18 private schools in Wilmington and within 12 miles
Austin PrepNiche #77 · A
Adjacent town · ReadingNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 775 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Burlington5–13 · Middle / high · 54 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WoburnPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 173 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
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.)
Adjacent town · WakefieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 262 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WakefieldAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 46 students · 7.6:1 student-teacher · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LynnfieldPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 330 students · 12.1:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · StonehamPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 254 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · BedfordPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 135 students · 9.2:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · WinchesterK–9 · PK/K–12 · 117 students · 4:1 student-teacher · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · WinchesterPK–5 · Elementary · files no enrolment with the state
BrooksNiche #15 · A+
Adjacent town · North AndoverNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · 362 students · 7:1 student-teacher · ~$40k–$52k/yr (est.) · ~$70k/yr boarding
Adjacent town · North AndoverPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 519 students · 17:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/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 Wilmington, 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 Wilmington

High-cost suburbsRail-servedmedium confidence

Low-key, lower-density, and extensively provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; higher-cost in housing and well-maintained in public spaces, with limited cultural offerings, mostly residential, and moderate gathering options.

Energy4
Compact town center4
Family amenities6
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$775k 4BR · ≈$8,800 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$775k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$600k
2BR condo$445k
Property taxes (FY2026)$11.41 per $1,000 (1.14%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01887, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$4,230/mo
3 bedrooms$3,827/mo
2 bedrooms$3,193/mo
1 bedroom$2,690/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 Wilmington’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Wilmington home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Wilmington, 2016 to 2026: $473k to $801k, up 69 per cent.$434k$637k$841k20162026
Wilmington, 2016 to 2026: $473k to $801k, up 69% in 10 years — 5.4% a year compounded.
If a $775k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.4% — Wilmington’s own last decade$1.01M$1.31M$1.71M$3.75M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$898k$1.04M$1.21M$1.88M

These are not forecasts. They are what $775k 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 Wilmington

suburban1,376 people per square mile across 17 sq mi suburban — 500–2,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
2
Bookshops
See the list
1
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list
1
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryWilmington Memorial 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 households87%
White (non-Hispanic)86%
Asian (non-Hispanic)4.3%
Latino / Hispanic2.5%
African American (non-Hispanic)1.3%
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

WilmingtonFigure
Residents23,349
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$131.3M
School district spending$74.4M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$25,808
School spending per resident$3,185
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,025

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 Wilmington

BillericaTier 3
Also Tier 3, $700k for a 4BR and 49 min to Boston
MiddletonTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $175k more expensive
PeabodyTier 3
Also Tier 3, lower tax at $9.47 per $1,000
TewksburyTier 3
Also Tier 3, 8 min further from Boston
DanversTier 3
Also Tier 3, 6 min further from Boston
SaugusTier 3
Also Tier 3, 9 min closer to Boston

Read next

How many times will your child change schools before high school?
At least one building here runs kindergarten through eighth grade — no mid-childhood school change at all.
6 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
A house here costs 15 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
Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
Scores in the 67th percentile but moves children in the 50th — the intake flatters this district.
7 min read
Four of Boston’s job centers are the same commute. Longwood is not.
The commute figure everyone quotes for this town, 35 minutes, is to downtown. To Longwood it is 61 — 26 minutes more, each way, every day.
7 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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