Best PlacesBelcher Square, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Belcher Square, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Belcher Square ranks 14,957th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Belcher Square
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.
Belcher Square's strengths and weaknesses
Where Belcher Square ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Belcher Square ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Belcher Square
A household needs to earn about $150,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Belcher Square home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,598, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Belcher Square's effective rate of 1.06%, 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.
Who lives in Belcher Square
Belcher Square runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Belcher Square.
Who works in Belcher Square, and how
Work in Belcher Square centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Belcher Square
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Belcher Square.
What the weather is like in Belcher Square, month by month
Belcher Square sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Belcher Square
Bradley International sits about 38 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Belcher Square
Schools across Belcher Square average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Muddy Brook Regional Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- W.e.b. Du Bois Regional Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Monument Mt Regional HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Belcher Square school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Belcher Square 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 Belcher Square against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Belcher Square
Is Belcher Square a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Belcher Square ranks 14,957th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, an educated workforce, and health care access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Belcher Square expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $553,532. The overall cost of living runs about 21% above the national average. Set against a $88,598 median income, cost of living beats 50% of towns.
Is Belcher Square safe?
Belcher Square is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $308 per resident a year.
Compare Belcher Square with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Belcher Square. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Belcher Square 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.
Belcher Square detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Belcher Square: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Belcher Square: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Belcher Square: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Belcher Square: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Belcher Square detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.