Boston Ranks Near Middle of 'Worst Places to Live in MA' List

By PATRICK LUCE (Patch Staff)

Most Boston residents think the city is a great place to live, but one recent survey puts it in the middle of the pack in Massachusetts.

A recent list published by RoadSnacks ranked the worst places to live in Massachusetts, and Boston came in at No. 125, just behind Grafton and just ahead of Danvers. Put another way, that means Boston just barely squeaked into the top half among the best cities and towns to live in Massachusetts.

According to RoadSnacks, it assumed people wanted “low crime, solid education, great weather, things to do and a stable economy,” in their towns and then looked for statistics that showed the opposite of those things in order to come up with a “worst places” list from among the state’s 224 most populous cities.

So who topped this not-so-illustrious list? That would be New Bedford, which is, according to RoadSnacks’ data, “by far the worst place to live in the state of Massachusetts,” with its high crime rate (fourth highest in the state), high unemployment (10.4 percent) and the sixth lowest salaries in the state.

Wondering who made the top 10 among the worst? Check out the list.

Weston ranked at the bottom of the list, making it the best place to live in Massachusetts, at least according to a website that goes by the name RoadSnacks.

Brooklyn Lowery contributed to this report.