Best PlacesWareham Center, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wareham Center, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Wareham Center ranks 19,399th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wareham Center
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.
Wareham Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wareham Center ranks high
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Wareham Center ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,514 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 22% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wareham Center
A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wareham Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,696, 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 Wareham Center's effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Wareham Center
Wareham Center 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 Wareham Center.
Who works in Wareham Center, and how
Work in Wareham Center centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Wareham Center
Wareham Center has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of towns. The coast is about 6 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Wareham Center and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wareham Center, month by month
Wareham Center sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 22° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 37° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Wareham Center
The nearest airport, Cape Cod Gateway, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wareham Center
Schools across Wareham Center average a C−, better than 22% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bourne Intermediate SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Wareham Elementary SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bourne Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
- Wareham MiddleD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Bourne High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Wareham Senior HighC− · 29% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wareham Center school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wareham Center 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 Wareham Center against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wareham Center
Is Wareham Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wareham Center ranks 19,399th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and big-city 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 Wareham Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $443,911. The overall cost of living runs about 21% above the national average. Set against a $88,696 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Wareham Center safe?
Yes, Wareham Center is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $219 per resident a year.
Compare Wareham Center with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wareham Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wareham Center 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.
Wareham Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wareham Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wareham Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wareham Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wareham Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wareham Center 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.