Best PlacesSuffolk County, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Suffolk County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Suffolk County ranks 530th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 9 minutes away. Its strengths are transit and biking. The cost shows up in childcare costs, noise, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Suffolk County
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.
The best areas in Suffolk County
The parts of Suffolk County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Charlestown
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and streets are more walkable.
Hyde Park, Roslindale & West Roxbury
Tree cover is thicker and local pay stretches further.
Brighton, Jamaica Plain & Allston
Health outcomes score higher, though fewer households have young kids.
Boston
Transit reaches more jobs, though more homes sit empty.
Revere, Chelsea & Winthrop Town
Crime runs lower.
Mattapan
Homes cost less, though schools score lower.
Suffolk County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Suffolk County's strengths and weaknesses
Suffolk County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Transit is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Biking and walkability follow.
The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. Noise and civic engagement also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Suffolk County ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of counties
- BikingBetter than 99% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of counties
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of counties
Where Suffolk County ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,304 a month, better than only 1% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 1% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of counties
- Short commute30.9 minutes each way, better than only 12% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Suffolk County
A household needs to earn about $196,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Suffolk County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,989, 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 Suffolk County's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Suffolk County
Suffolk County runs younger 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 Suffolk County.
Who works in Suffolk County, and how
Work in Suffolk County centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 42%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 39%
Life in Suffolk County
Suffolk County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of counties and more late-night spots per resident than 89% of counties. The coast is about 9 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Suffolk County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Suffolk County growing, and who is moving in?
Suffolk County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Boston, MA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Suffolk County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Suffolk County, month by month
Suffolk County sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 25° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 67° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Suffolk County
General Edward Lawrence Logan International sits about 4 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 Suffolk County
Schools across Suffolk County average a D+, better than 14% of counties.
Top middle schools
- Bigelow MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Charles S Pierce MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Vassal Lane Upper SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Needham HighA+ · 90% proficient
- Newton South HighA+ · 88% proficient
- Brookline HighA+ · 81% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Suffolk County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Suffolk County 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 Suffolk County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Suffolk County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Suffolk County
Is Suffolk County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Suffolk County ranks 530th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on transit, biking, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Suffolk County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $765,986. The overall cost of living runs about 49% above the national average. Set against a $101,989 median income, cost of living beats 24% of counties.
Is Suffolk County safe?
Suffolk County is safer than 40% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $361 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Suffolk County?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 25. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 19% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Suffolk County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Charlestown, Hyde Park, Roslindale & West Roxbury, and Brighton, Jamaica Plain & Allston. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Suffolk County good for families?
Schools beat 14% of counties, crime safety beats 40%, and childcare runs $2,304 a month.
Is Suffolk County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 24% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 62% of counties. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Suffolk County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Suffolk County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Suffolk County 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.
Suffolk County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Suffolk County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Suffolk County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Suffolk County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Suffolk County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Suffolk County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.