Woburn, MA Tier 3

Tier 3 · solid schools · 10 miles from downtown Boston, about 36 minutes door-to-door at peak · 58% of households own their home.

Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn · photo via Wikipedia
4BR house
$825k
$650k townhouse · $480k condo
Dearer than 59% of MA towns
Property tax
$7,500/yr
$9.15 per $1,000 on that house
Lower than 68% of MA towns
To downtown Boston
36 min
Commuter rail · ~30 min to terminal
Closer than 88% of MA towns
Schools
31st pct
growth 45th · 91% graduate
Behind 69% 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 Woburn

Woburn is a middle-tier school district north of Boston, about 10 miles from downtown Boston as the crow flies and 36 minutes door-to-door at peak, and moderately priced by Massachusetts standards: roughly $825k for a 4BR house and $480k for a 2BR condo. The residential rate is $9.15 per $1,000, low for Massachusetts, but on a $825k house that is still about $7,500 a year. Commuter rail runs downtown in about 30 minutes, against a 36-minute peak drive. The district sits in the 31st percentile statewide on MCAS. Anderson Regional's express trains and I-93/95 access.

The good, the bad, the ugly

From the data
Good

$9.15 per $1,000 — 20th-lowest tax rate of the 241 places we track.

Bad

Only 58% of households own — much of the town turns over.

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 · 31st MCAS · 9 schools

Public elementary & middle schools

9 public schools in Woburn — 7 elementary and 2 middle
ElementaryPK–5 · 447 students
ElementaryK–5 · 363 students
ElementaryK–5 · 322 students
ElementaryK–5 · 319 students
ElementaryPK–5 · 292 students
ElementaryK–5 · 225 students
ElementaryK–5 · 224 students
Middle6–8 · 498 students
Middle6–8 · 434 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 27 center-based · 36 family child care63
Licensed places, all ages The ceiling these programs may operate to2,343
Places in centers Commercial premises, licensed room by room2,055
Places in family child care A provider’s own home, mixed ages together288
Infant & toddler places in centers Age bands ending under three; family programs are not broken down558
Preschool places in centers Roughly 33 months to kindergarten915
Head Start programs Federally funded, income-eligible1

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 558 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
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#87 of 135 · Woburn Memorial High School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement31st percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)45th percentile
4-year graduation rate91.1%
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.

Available Private School Options

18 private schools in Woburn and within 12 miles
In WoburnPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 173 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
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
Adjacent town · Burlington5–13 · Middle / high · 54 students · ~$38k–$50k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · StonehamPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 254 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Austin PrepNiche #77 · A
Adjacent town · ReadingNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 775 students · ~$18k–$28k/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 · LexingtonNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · 333 students · 8.1:1 student-teacher · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · Arlington9–12 · High school · 447 students · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · ArlingtonPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 370 students · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LexingtonAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 222 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LexingtonNEASC accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 181 students · ~$18k–$30k/yr (est.)
Lesley EllisNiche A-
Adjacent town · ArlingtonAISNE accreditedPK–8 · Elementary / middle · 167 students · 7.1:1 student-teacher · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · LexingtonPK–12 + SP · Specialized / placement · 113 students · 3.5:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Adjacent town · LexingtonPK–5 · Elementary · 86 students · ~$10k–$20k/yr (est.)
Adjacent town · ArlingtonPK · Early childhood · 61 students · ~$32k–$45k/yr (est.)
The Tremont SchoolNiche #63 · A
Adjacent town · LexingtonNEASC accredited5–12 · Middle / high · 52 students · ~$38k–$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 Woburn, 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 Woburn

Regional citiesCompact centreRail-servedmedium confidence

Active, 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 visible cultural identity, some visitor activity, and strong gathering-place network.

Energy7
Compact town center7
Family amenities7
Culture7
Visitor presence5
Public gathering places8

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$825k 4BR · ≈$7,500 tax
To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$825k
3BR / 2BA townhouse$650k
2BR condo$480k
Property taxes (FY2026)$9.15 per $1,000 (0.92%)

These are modeled estimates, not listings. Each row opens the real Redfin market in ZIP 01801, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$4,290/mo
3 bedrooms$3,887/mo
2 bedrooms$3,240/mo
1 bedroom$2,727/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 Woburn’s ZIP codes

Home values over the last decade

Woburn home values, 2016–2026Zillow Home Value Index for Woburn, 2016 to 2026: $459k to $778k, up 70 per cent.$421k$618k$816k20162026
Woburn, 2016 to 2026: $459k to $778k, up 70% in 10 years — 5.4% a year compounded.
If a $825k house grew at…5 yrs10 yrs15 yrs30 yrs
5.4% — Woburn’s own last decade$1.07M$1.40M$1.82M$4.00M
3% — inflation, holding its real value$956k$1.11M$1.29M$2.00M

These are not forecasts. They are what $825k 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 Woburn

dense suburb3,231 people per square mile across 12.7 sq mi a packed suburb — 2,000–5,000 per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list
6
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 libraryWoburn 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 households58%
White (non-Hispanic)74%
Asian (non-Hispanic)8.2%
Latino / Hispanic5.9%
African American (non-Hispanic)5.9%
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

WoburnFigure
Residents40,876
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$193.7M
School district spending$113.8M
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$24,148
School spending per resident$2,784
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)1,794

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 Woburn

WakefieldTier 3
Also Tier 3, higher tax at $11.74 per $1,000
StonehamTier 3
Also Tier 3, $825k for a 4BR and 31 min to Boston
WalthamTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $175k more expensive
BurlingtonTier 3
Also Tier 3, $900k for a 4BR and 41 min to Boston
SaugusTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $100k cheaper
WatertownTier 3
Also Tier 3, about $125k more expensive

Surprisingly similar in character

ChicopeeTier 4
Both social and lively · $405k cheaper, 80 min further out
GardnerTier 4
Both social and well-equipped for recreation · $425k cheaper, 52 min further out
NewtonTier 1
Both social and well-equipped for recreation · $1.07M dearer, Tier 1 schools

Read next

A school rating is an average. Of how many schools?
That one school rating averages 9 elementary and middle schools, and they are not the same place.
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
The district spending the most per pupil is not the best one
Spends $24,148 per pupil — 77th percentile for money, 31st for results. The two barely track each other statewide.
7 min read
Four of Boston’s job centers are the same commute. Longwood is not.
The commute figure everyone quotes for this town, 30 minutes, is to downtown. To Longwood it is 56 — 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.

Find your town →