MA Towns Graded, From A+ To C: How Did Holliston And Hopkinton Do?

HOLLISTON-HOPKINTON, MA—This is one heck of a report card, and one that both Holliston and Hopkinton residents can feel mighty proud about hanging on the fridge.

Niche has come out with its new 2017 rankings of the "Best Places to Live" in Massachusetts, but it took a bit of a unique approach: The consumer rankings service assigned a grade, on an A+-to-D- scale, to almost every city and town and many neighborhoods around the state.

Sixty-three towns received A+ grades, including both Hopkinton and Holliston. None received a grade less then a C, though several did receive an "incomplete" of sorts.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche.com took several factors into consideration, such as the quality of local schools, crime rates, housing trends, employment statistics and access to amenities.

Niche created a standardized score for each factor, and after weighting each factor, an overall score was calculated, which was again given a new standardized score.

Finally, Niche.com created a numerical ranking and assigned grades for each place. Click here to read more about the methodology.

Here are the Massachusetts towns graded A+, A, or A-. If you want the full list, click here.

And remember, if you want to keep up on local news in your A+ town (or any other!) subscribe to your local Patch here.

A+

• Lexington
• Sharon
• Sudbury
• Newton
• Wayland
• Belmont
• Boxborough
• Wellesley
• Brookline
• Weston
• Winchester
• Cambridge
• Cochituate
• Hopkinton
• Medfield
• Natick
• Carlisle
• Needham
• Longmeadow
• Andover
• Westford
• Cordaville
• Southborough
• Milton
• Lincoln
• West Newton
• Leverett
• Arlington
• Pelham
• Westwood
• Westborough
• Shutesbury
• Marblehead
• Amherst
• South Amherst
• Dover
• Shrewsbury
• Groton
• Oak Hill
• Wenham
• North Amherst
• Bedford
• Hamilton
• Stow
• Concord
• Waban
• Newton Centre
• Medway
• Holliston
• South Duxbury
• Hingham
• Williamstown
• Northampton
• Harvard
• Amherst Center
• Oak Hill Park
• Bolton
• West End
• Sherborn
• Ashland
• Cohasset
• Littleton

A

• Watertown
• Woods Hole
• Reading
• West Concord
• Norfolk
• Duxbury
• Holden
• Paxton
• Boxford
• Newton Upper Falls
• Dunstable
• Chelmsford
• Northborough
• North Andover
• Somerville
• Franklin
• Newton Corner
• Newton Lower Falls
• Auburndale
• Canton
• Manchester-by-the-Sea
• Grafton
• Swampscott
• South Boston Waterfront
• Nonantum
• Walpole
• Essex
• Melrose
• Princeton
• Mansfield
• Topsfield
• Leather District
• Sunderland
• Chestnut Hill
• Norwood
• Norwell
• South Lancaster
• Chilmark
• Easton
• North Cambridge
• Lynnfield
• Peabody
• Dedham
• Wrentham
• Burlington
• Cambridgeport
• North Reading
• Wellfleet
• Thompsonville
• Scituate
• East Cambridge
• West Cambridge
• Riverside (Coast)
• Waltham
• Back Bay
• Bay Village
• Foxborough
• Fenway
• West Newbury
• North End
• Newton Highlands
• Newtonville
• Deerfield
• Wellington-Harrington
• MIT
• Braintree
• Area 4 (Port)
• West Falmouth
• South End
• Agassiz
• Orleans
• Eastham
• Wilbraham
• Ipswich
• Boylston
• East Longmeadow
• Middleton
• Framingham
• Maynard
• Lenox
• Upton
• Beverly
• Sterling
• Richmond

A-

• Mendon
• Lancaster
• Jamaica Plain
• Vineyard Haven
• Mattapoisett
• Cambridge Highlands
• Beacon Hill
• Newbury
• Williamsburg
• Conway
• Allston
• Millis
• West Stockbridge
• Mid-Cambridge
• Brewster
• Charlestown
• Littleton Common
• Great Barrington
• Sutton
• Brighton
• Housatonic
• Berlin
• Sturbridge
• Hadley
• Hampden
• Downtown
• Plainville
• Quincy
• Hanover
• Medford
• Rutland
• Hopedale
• Longwood Medical Area
• Amesbury
• Lanesborough
• North Attleborough
• Eashampton
• Brimfield
• Georgetown
• Marshfield Hills
• Westhampton
• Tyngsborough
• Marlborough
• North Scituate
• Ashfeild
• South Hadley
• Tisbury
• New Seabury
• Lee
• Nantucket
• Belchertown
• Ashburnham
• Woburn
• West Boylston
• North Falmouth
• Auburn
• Hatfield
• Oak Bluffs
• Devens
• Falmouth
• Stoneham
• Wakefield
• South Boston
• Hudson
• West Roxbury
• Truro
• Nahant
• Strawberry Hill
• Marshfield
• Aquinnah
• West Tisbury
• Milford
• New Ashford
• Monument Beach
• Goshen
• Granby

Click here for the complete list starting with the B+'s.

Story by Tom Davis, Patch staff

Photo by guilherme jofili via Flickr