Best PlacesEast Otis, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Otis, 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.
East Otis ranks 15,495th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in East Otis
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.
East Otis' strengths and weaknesses
Where East Otis ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
Where East Otis ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Short commute37.4 minutes each way, better than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East Otis
A household needs to earn about $102,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Otis home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $108,762, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 East Otis' effective rate of 0.58%, 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 East Otis
East Otis 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 East Otis.
Who works in East Otis, and how
Work in East Otis centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in East Otis
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across East Otis.
What the weather is like in East Otis, month by month
East Otis sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 63° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 88° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of East Otis
Bradley International sits about 25 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 East Otis
Schools across East Otis average a C+, better than 51% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Calf Pen Meadow SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Farmington River ElementaryC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Harborside Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Gateway Regional Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Gateway Regional HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Jonathan Law High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Otis school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East Otis 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 East Otis against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East Otis
Is East Otis a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Otis ranks 15,495th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, tree cover, and civic engagement, and lowest on the weather and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is East Otis expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $403,139. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $108,762 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is East Otis safe?
Yes, East Otis is safer than 93% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $163 per resident a year.
Compare East Otis with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Otis. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East Otis 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.
East Otis detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Otis: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Otis: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Otis: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Otis: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East Otis 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.