Best PlacesFactory Hollow, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Factory Hollow, 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.
Factory Hollow ranks 3,208th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Factory Hollow
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.
Factory Hollow's strengths and weaknesses
Where Factory Hollow ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Factory Hollow ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Factory Hollow
A household needs to earn about $142,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Factory Hollow home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $124,850, 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 Factory Hollow's effective rate of 1.23%, 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 Factory Hollow
Factory Hollow 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 Factory Hollow.
Who works in Factory Hollow, and how
Work in Factory Hollow centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Factory Hollow
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Factory Hollow.
What the weather is like in Factory Hollow, month by month
Factory Hollow sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 27° | 17° |
| April | 61° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 87° | 73° | 60° |
| October | 66° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Factory Hollow
Bradley International sits about 35 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 Factory Hollow
Schools across Factory Hollow average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hadley ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Leverett ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
- Wildwood ElementaryB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Amherst Regional Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Amherst Regional HighA+ · 80% proficient
- Frontier RegionalB+ · 53% proficient
- Hopkins AcademyB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Factory Hollow school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Factory Hollow 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 Factory Hollow against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Factory Hollow
Is Factory Hollow a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Factory Hollow ranks 3,208th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, biking, and health care access, and lowest on childcare costs 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 Factory Hollow expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $512,000. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $124,850 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Factory Hollow safe?
Yes, Factory Hollow is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $226 per resident a year.
Compare Factory Hollow with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Factory Hollow. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Factory Hollow 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.
Factory Hollow detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Factory Hollow: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Factory Hollow: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Factory Hollow: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Factory Hollow: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Factory Hollow 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.