These Are The 10 Best Suburbs In Massachusetts For 2018


We used science and data to determine the best suburbs in Massachusetts for you to live.

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Are you sick of being a city slicker?

Do you long for life in suburban Massachusetts? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?

We do too.

Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.

So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Boston, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Massachusetts suburb was best?

No worries. We got it all figured out here.

These are the 10 best suburbs in the Bay State:

  1. Newton (Photos)
  2. Melrose (Photos)
  3. Woburn (Photos)
  4. Waltham (Photos)
  5. Cambridge (Photos)
  6. Beverly (Photos)
  7. Medford (Photos)
  8. Somerville (Photos)
  9. Gloucester (Photos)
  10. Peabody (Photos)

Newton is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Massachusetts.

So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Massachusetts, we’ve got you covered.

Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Massachusetts and the best places to raise a family in Massachusetts.

How do you determine which suburb is the best in Massachusetts anyways?

To give you the best suburbs in Massachusetts, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.

So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.

How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Bay State

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Massachusetts, we looked at every town between 27,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).

We paid particular attention to:

  • Median Home Values
  • Median Income
  • Population Density (Higher is Better)
  • Unemployment Rates
  • Commute Time
  • Education Levels
  • Health Insurance Coverage
  • Poverty Rates

We ranked each suburb in Massachusetts across a number of criteria from one to 22, with one being the best.

We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Massachusetts”.

The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Massachusetts

Read on to see why Newton is the ‘burb with the most, while Brockton is probably not the best place to live in Massachusetts.

1. Newton

Newton, Ma

Population: 88,317
Median Income: $127,402
Median Home Price: $788,500
Newton is located 9 miles west of Boston.

2. Melrose

Melrose, Ma

Population: 27,787
Median Income: $87,712
Median Home Price: $437,100
Melrose is located 8 miles north of Boston.

3. Woburn

Woburn, Ma

Population: 39,220
Median Income: $83,872
Median Home Price: $374,300
Woburn is located 12 miles north of Boston.

4. Waltham

Waltham, Ma

Population: 62,699
Median Income: $82,188
Median Home Price: $434,500
Waltham is located 11 miles west of Boston.

5. Cambridge

Cambridge, Ma

Population: 108,757
Median Income: $83,122
Median Home Price: $629,700
Cambridge is located 5 miles west of Boston.

6. Beverly

Beverly, Ma

Population: 40,967
Median Income: $73,839
Median Home Price: $378,100
Beverly is located 17 miles north of Boston.

7. Medford

Medford, Ma

Population: 57,180
Median Income: $79,607
Median Home Price: $421,200
Medford is located 7 miles north of Boston.

8. Somerville

Somerville, Ma

Source: Public domain

Population: 79,507
Median Income: $78,673
Median Home Price: $512,500
Somerville is located 5 miles west of Boston.

9. Gloucester

Gloucester, Ma

Population: 29,546
Median Income: $63,917
Median Home Price: $370,900
Gloucester is located 26 miles east of Boston.

10. Peabody

Peabody, Ma

Source: Public domain

Population: 52,235
Median Income: $64,071
Median Home Price: $345,500
Peabody is located 14 miles north of Boston.

There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Massachusetts

Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Massachusetts according to the data:

  1. Brockton
  2. Chelsea
  3. Lynn

For more Massachusetts reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Massachusetts

City Rank Population Median Income Median Home Price
Newton 1 88,317 $127,402 $788,500
Melrose 2 27,787 $87,712 $437,100
Woburn 3 39,220 $83,872 $374,300
Waltham 4 62,699 $82,188 $434,500
Cambridge 5 108,757 $83,122 $629,700
Beverly 6 40,967 $73,839 $378,100
Medford 7 57,180 $79,607 $421,200
Somerville 8 79,507 $78,673 $512,500
Gloucester 9 29,546 $63,917 $370,900
Peabody 10 52,235 $64,071 $345,500
Marlborough 11 39,545 $72,222 $316,500
Quincy 12 93,349 $64,890 $366,500
Salem 13 42,804 $61,093 $317,400
Malden 14 60,732 $60,085 $339,000
Taunton 15 56,504 $54,785 $236,700
Everett 16 44,636 $52,457 $337,800
Revere 17 53,165 $51,482 $320,400
Lowell 18 109,871 $46,972 $234,100
Lawrence 19 79,337 $36,754 $229,500
Lynn 20 92,074 $50,774 $263,700
Chelsea 21 38,244 $49,614 $280,900
Brockton 22 94,813 $49,956 $226,800

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.