Best Places01106, MA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 01106, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

01106 ranks 976th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.

#976
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in 01106

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 01106 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

01106's strengths and weaknesses

#976Best US zip overall
Top 3%Health care access
Top 3%An educated workforce
Top 5%High incomes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 01106 with other zip codes.

Where 01106 ranks high

  • Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Household income$155,481 median, better than 96% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 94% of zip codes

Where 01106 ranks low

  • Low property taxBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 10% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 14% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 01106

A household needs to earn about $140,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 01106 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $155,481, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$140,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,266
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $459,744 home
Median rent
$1,883
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,344
Property tax$769
Homeowners insurance$153

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 01106's effective rate of 2.01%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 01106

01106 runs older than the country.

Median age
45
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3415%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6420%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 01106.


Who works in 01106, and how

Work in 01106 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
24%
above the national average
Unemployment
5.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+3.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social23%
Education12%
Finance & insurance11%
Professional & technical10%
Manufacturing8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 73%
  • Work from home 24%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 01106

01106 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of zip codes and more parkland per resident than 95% of zip codes. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 01106 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
1,333
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 824.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 98% of zip codes
Coffee shops
151
about 93.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 98% of zip codes
Parkland
270 acres
about 16.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 95% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 01106, month by month

01106 sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January41°30°20°
April64°50°38°
July89°76°64°
October69°55°44°

Flying in and out of 01106

Bradley International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BDL
Bradley International, about 10 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
55th-busiest in the US, 92 nonstop destinations
Average drive
14 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 01106

Schools across 01106 average an A−, better than 88% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 01106 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


01106 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 01106 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 01106

Is 01106 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 01106 ranks 976th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and high incomes, and lowest on property taxes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 01106 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $459,744. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $155,481 median income, cost of living beats 96% of zip codes.

Is 01106 safe?

Yes, 01106 is safer than 94% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $163 per resident a year.


Compare 01106 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 01106. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 01106 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

01106 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 01106: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 01106: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 01106: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 01106: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

01106 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.