Best PlacesWilbraham, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wilbraham, 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.
Wilbraham ranks 1,905th 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 Wilbraham
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.
Wilbraham's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wilbraham ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- Household income$126,966 median, better than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
Where Wilbraham ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 16% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wilbraham
A household needs to earn about $119,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wilbraham home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $126,966, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Wilbraham's effective rate of 1.41%, 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 Wilbraham
Wilbraham runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wilbraham.
Who works in Wilbraham, and how
Work in Wilbraham centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wilbraham
Wilbraham has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns and more parkland per resident than 85% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wilbraham and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wilbraham, month by month
Wilbraham sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 35° |
| July | 88° | 74° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Wilbraham
Bradley International sits about 18 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 Wilbraham
Schools across Wilbraham average a B, better than 72% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Stony Hill SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Soule RoadB · 48% proficient
- Green Meadows ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilbraham MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Paul R Baird MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
- Kiley AcademyF · 9% proficient
Top high schools
- Minnechaug Regional HighA · 69% proficient
- Ludlow Senior HighA− · 64% proficient
- Monson High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wilbraham school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wilbraham 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 Wilbraham against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wilbraham
Is Wilbraham a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wilbraham ranks 1,905th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wilbraham expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $418,955. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $126,966 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Wilbraham safe?
Yes, Wilbraham is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $127 per resident a year.
Compare Wilbraham with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wilbraham. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wilbraham 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.
Wilbraham detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wilbraham: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wilbraham: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wilbraham: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wilbraham: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wilbraham 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.