Bay State Atlas
Massachusetts Living Index

Belmont

Greater Boston · pop. 27,175

A-rated schools, Belmont Center's vintage charm, and Cushing Square's quiet revival.

Family SuburbHistoric Village
Livability Index
68
/ 100
Ranks #50 of 194 MA towns

The numbers

Median home
$1.16M
6.5× household income
Household income
$178k
ACS median
Commute to Boston
22 min
peak driving
Population
27,175
5-yr trend 70/100

How Belmont scores

Schools
96
Safety
73
Walkability
54
Transit
46
Biking
50
Dining
60
Nightlife
35
Arts & Culture
55
Green Space
70
Diversity
73
Climate
74

Who lives in Belmont

U.S. Census ACS 2018–2022 estimates. Rounded.

Median age
42
Foreign-born
25.6%
Bachelor's or higher
79.6%
Population
27k
White70.6%
Hispanic / Latino4.6%
Asian18.1%
Black1.8%
Other / multi4.9%

Schools in Belmont

Belmont School District. Massachusetts DESE FY2024 (FY2025 graduation rates).

Overall vs MA
Top 10% in MA
93/100
ELA · 3-8
p95
68.7%
Math · 3-8
p97
75.4%
ELA · 10
p96
86.9%
Math · 10
p99
87.2%
Grad rate
97.5%
Top 25% in MA
Spend / pupil
$20.9k
Below average
Teachers / 100
6.7
Bottom 25%
Enrollment
4,424

Source: Massachusetts DESE Education-to-Career Research and Data Hub. Percentile ranks against 194 MA towns in our index.

The honest read

Best for
Academic families and Cambridge-adjacent buyers priced out of Cambridge.
The tradeoff
Limited dining and almost no nightlife — go to the neighbors for that.

Read what Belmont residents actually say ↓

Voices

What Belmont residents actually say

3 quotes · sourced from Reddit

Pulled from r/boston, r/massachusetts, and town subreddits. Lightly edited for grammar only. The tradeoff quote is on purpose. The honest stuff is what makes the rest believable.

The good
Belmont's school feeder patterns are very real. Winn Brook, Daniel Butler, the rest. People specifically target apartments based on which elementary they feed into.
r/boston · Mar 2021 view thread →
The tradeoff
Belmont is far more suburban and detached than Arlington next door. No walkable downtown to speak of. If you want a town center you can stroll to, Belmont is not that town.
r/boston · Mar 2021 view thread →
The feel
Look along Belmont St and Trapelo Rd for actual rentals, not just the big apartment complexes. Triple deckers and duplexes are cheaper and there are more of them than people realize.
r/boston · Mar 2021 view thread →

You've now seen the honest read. Here's what most sites don't give you.

Want more context on Belmont than a page can hold?

I can tell you which streets trade differently, what actually shows up under $1.2M, and whether the schools story matches what you'd want for your kid. I reply personally, within 1 business day, no auto-dialer.

Compare on your terms

These scores reflect a neutral weighting. Your priorities are not neutral. Open the full atlas to tune schools, walkability, affordability, commute, and seven more dimensions, and see where Belmont lands for you.

Nearby towns

Bordering and adjacent Massachusetts towns near Belmont.

Belmont appears in

Rankings where Belmont qualifies on the data. See where it lands vs the other 14 picks.

Popular comparisons

Common head‑to‑heads people search when looking at Belmont.

Want my honest read on Belmont?

I'm Gary Fikes, a licensed real estate agent at MP Signature Realty and the curator of this site. Tell me what you're looking for and I'll reply personally within 1 business day. No auto-dialer, no spam, no resale.