Best PlacesDracut, MA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Dracut, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Dracut ranks 654th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#654
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Dracut

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Dracut area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Dracut's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Tree cover
Top 5%Clean air
Top 10%Low crime
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Dracut with other cities.

Where Dracut ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 98% of cities
  • Air qualityBetter than 96% of cities
  • Crime safetyBetter than 91% of cities
  • QuietBetter than 83% of cities
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 80% of cities

Where Dracut ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$1,897 a month, better than only 4% of cities
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of cities
  • Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 12% of cities
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of cities
  • Internet speedBetter than only 20% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Dracut

A household needs to earn about $132,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dracut home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $120,031; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.

Income to buy the median home
$132,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,090
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $493,637 home
Median rent
$1,861
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,517
Property tax$408
Homeowners insurance$165

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 Dracut's effective rate of 0.99%, 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 Dracut

Dracut runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6421%
65 and older19%

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


Who works in Dracut, and how

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

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.8%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Manufacturing14%
Education12%
Retail trade11%
Professional & technical9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 84%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Dracut

Dracut has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. The coast is about 35 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Dracut and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
204
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 61.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 84% of cities
Coffee shops
17
about 5.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 80% of cities
Parkland
99 acres
about 3.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 81% of cities
To the coast
35 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Dracut, month by month

Dracut sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January40°30°21°
April61°48°37°
July88°75°64°
October67°55°45°

Flying in and out of Dracut

The nearest airport, Manchester Boston Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 27 miles away.

Nearest airport
MHT
Manchester Boston Regional, about 19 miles
Airport size
Small hub
125th-busiest in the US, 35 nonstop destinations
Average drive
27 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Dracut

Schools across Dracut average a B−, better than 53% of cities.

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 Dracut school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Dracut 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 Dracut against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Dracut suits

Families

Schools land around the 53rd percentile and crime safety beats 91%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

12% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 80% and it is quieter than 83%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Dracut

Is Dracut a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dracut ranks 654th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on tree cover, clean air, and low crime, and lowest on childcare costs and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Dracut expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $493,637. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $120,031 median income, cost of living beats 59% of cities.

Is Dracut safe?

Yes, Dracut is safer than 91% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $188 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Dracut?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 21. That works out to about 62 pleasant days a year, more than 12% of cities.

Is Dracut good for families?

Schools beat 53% of cities, crime safety beats 91%, and childcare runs $1,897 a month.


Compare Dracut with other cities


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dracut. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dracut 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.

Dracut detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Dracut 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.