Sources and Method
Where Every Number Comes From
Everything here is built from government publications offered for public reuse: federal, state and municipal. No multiple-listing feeds, no vendor data, no scraping, and no figure without a source and a date.
This page carries no advertising, by rule: the sources and the method are never sponsored.
Who Publishes What
By subject, the bodies whose publications these figures come from. Each page names the specific source beside the number it belongs to.
Property and Housing
Assessed values, tax rates, the housing stock, and what has sold.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education · Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection · Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities · Massachusetts Historical Commission · MassGIS, Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information · U.S. Census Bureau · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · U.S. Geological Survey
Newest figures cover through FY2027 (assessment years vary by town, FY2019–FY2027). 4 sources are living registers, current at our last check.
Last Checked : What This Date Means
The most recent date we pulled property and housing figures from their publishers and verified them before publishing. The figures themselves cover the period stated above, which is set by each agency's own release schedule. Full refresh log.
Work and Income
Employment, wages, commuting patterns and the local economy.
Internal Revenue Service · U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · U.S. Census Bureau
Newest figures cover through 2026.
Last Checked : What This Date Means
The most recent date we pulled work and income figures from their publishers and verified them before publishing. The figures themselves cover the period stated above, which is set by each agency's own release schedule. Full refresh log.
Hazards and Environment
Flood mapping, wetlands, contaminated sites, dams and reported releases.
Federal Emergency Management Agency · Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation · Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection · Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · U.S. Census Bureau · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · U.S. Geological Survey
Newest figures cover through December 2025 release. 9 sources are living registers, current at our last check.
Last Checked : What This Date Means
The most recent date we pulled hazards and environment figures from their publishers and verified them before publishing. The figures themselves cover the period stated above, which is set by each agency's own release schedule. Full refresh log.
Utilities and Infrastructure
Water and sewer service, gas, electricity, broadband, roads and transit.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection · Massachusetts Department of Transportation · MassGIS, Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information · The regional transit authorities · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · U.S. Geological Survey
Newest figures cover through 2024 inventory. 11 sources are living registers, current at our last check.
Last Checked : What This Date Means
The most recent date we pulled utilities and infrastructure figures from their publishers and verified them before publishing. The figures themselves cover the period stated above, which is set by each agency's own release schedule. Full refresh log.
Rates and Prices
Mortgage rates, fuel prices and the national series behind local costs.
Community Preservation Coalition · Federal Housing Finance Agency · Freddie Mac · Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities · MassGIS, Massachusetts Bureau of Geographic Information · U.S. Census Bureau · U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Newest figures cover through FY2027 estimates. 3 sources are living registers, current at our last check.
Last Checked : What This Date Means
The most recent date we pulled rates and prices figures from their publishers and verified them before publishing. The figures themselves cover the period stated above, which is set by each agency's own release schedule. Full refresh log.
How We Treat These Figures
Republished, not re-estimated. Where an agency publishes a number, we publish that number. Where we compute something from several, the page says so and states what went into it.
Missing stays missing. A figure an agency has not published renders as absent, never as zero and never as "none". A flood map that was never digitised means the risk is unmapped, which is not the same as no risk.
Nothing lands unless it passes. Each refresh rebuilds every derived figure and runs the full test suite against the new data. If something regressed or a source changed shape, the run fails and the previous data stays up.
No rankings. We publish spending, rates and counts. We do not score, grade or rank towns or schools, and tables sort because a reader sorted them.
We name the publishing body rather than the machine address behind each pull: the attribution is the credit these public sources ask for, and the assembly is our own work. Figures are provided without warranty, and nothing here is advice. See the terms of use.
From the Desk
RE413 News: the cost of living across the 101 towns. Built from the same public record as the figures on this page.