Best PlacesSilver Lake, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Silver Lake, 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.
Silver Lake ranks 2,845th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Silver Lake
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.
Silver Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Silver Lake ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Silver Lake ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,514 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 15% of towns
- Short commute32.4 minutes each way, better than only 22% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Silver Lake
A household needs to earn about $179,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Silver Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $124,231, 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 Silver Lake's effective rate of 1.11%, 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 Silver Lake
Silver Lake runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Silver Lake.
Who works in Silver Lake, and how
Work in Silver Lake 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 78%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Silver Lake
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Silver Lake, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Silver Lake, month by month
Silver Lake sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 56° | 48° | 41° |
| July | 82° | 74° | 66° |
| October | 64° | 56° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Silver Lake
General Edward Lawrence Logan International sits about 26 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 Silver Lake
Schools across Silver Lake average an A−, better than 82% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hobomock ElementaryA− · 55% proficient
- Dennett ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
- Bryantville ElementaryB · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pembroke Community Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Silver Lake Regional Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Pembroke High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Silver Lake Regional HighA · 69% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Silver Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Silver Lake
Is Silver Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Silver Lake ranks 2,845th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, civic engagement, and biking, 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 Silver Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $657,607. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $124,231 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Silver Lake safe?
Yes, Silver Lake is safer than 100% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $99 per resident a year.
Compare Silver Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Silver Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Silver Lake 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.
Silver Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Silver Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Silver Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Silver Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Silver Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Silver Lake 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.