The Best And Worst MA Towns For Young Families: Study

HINGHAM, MA — Figuring out where to move your young family is a tough decision. You want the most house you can get for your buck, but you also want want good schools. You want a short commute to work or, better yet, the ability to work in the town where you live. You also probably want open spaces, short walks to parks and high rates of home ownership.

The online mortgage broker Lending Tree has tried to take some of the guess work out of that decision by ranking every community in Massachusetts with 5,000 or more residents based on their appeal to families with school-age children. From Hingham at the top of the list to Webster at the very bottom, each community was given a score of 0 to 100 based on the following factors:

• Median family income.
• Median monthly housing costs for all households.
• Homeownership rate of families with children.
• Unemployment rate of 25-44 year olds.
• 16-19 year olds not enrolled or graduated from high school.
• Average commute time.

Hingham, under Lending Tree's methodology, received a score of 72.5. Last-place Webster's score was 31.9. Other towns in the top 10 included Winchester, Needham, Milton, Longmeadow, Wellesley, Cochituate, Pinehurst, Lexington and Nantucket.

Find out where your town ranked and read more about Lending Tree's study.