Best PlacesIpswich, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ipswich, 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.
Ipswich ranks 1,261st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ipswich
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.
Ipswich's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ipswich ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$134,227 median, better than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where Ipswich ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,897 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 25% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ipswich
A household needs to earn about $203,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ipswich home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $134,227, 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 Ipswich's effective rate of 1.02%, 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 Ipswich
Ipswich runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ipswich.
Who works in Ipswich, and how
Work in Ipswich centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Ipswich
Ipswich has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of towns and more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Ipswich and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ipswich, month by month
Ipswich sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 37° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Ipswich
General Edward Lawrence Logan International sits about 23 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 21.1 million passengers in 2025, with 199 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ipswich
Schools across Ipswich average a B+, better than 83% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Essex ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- Cutler SchoolB · 50% proficient
- WinthropB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Miles River MiddleA+ · 68% proficient
- Proctor ElementaryA− · 55% proficient
- Ipswich Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Masconomet Regional High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Hamilton-wenham Regional HighA+ · 80% proficient
- Ipswich HighA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ipswich school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ipswich 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 Ipswich against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ipswich
Is Ipswich a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ipswich ranks 1,261st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low crime, and an educated workforce, 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 Ipswich expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $753,879. The overall cost of living runs about 27% above the national average. Set against a $134,227 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Ipswich safe?
Yes, Ipswich is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $126 per resident a year.
Compare Ipswich with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ipswich. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ipswich 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.
Ipswich detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ipswich: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ipswich: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ipswich: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ipswich: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ipswich 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.