What changed, and when
Every change to the figures behind this site and every study published, newest first — 73 entries, of which 43 moved data rather than adding writing. The current figures were last reviewed .
This page exists because a number is worth more when you can see whether it has moved. If you are citing a figure from here, this is where to check whether the version you quoted is the version now on the site. The list is generated from the repository history rather than kept by hand, so it cannot quietly omit anything.
What is due next
The edition of each upstream source this site currently carries, and when the publisher usually issues the next one. Those dates are estimates of someone else’s schedule — “due” means it is worth going to look, not that a newer edition certainly exists.
| Source | Carrying | Cadence | Next expected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niche school district rankings | 2026 | Annual | 2026-08-31 Due |
| DESE school results | 2025–26 reports | Annual | 2026-10-31 |
| Census ACS 5-year | 2020–2024 | Annual | 2026-12-31 |
| IPEDS college directory | 2024 directory, 2023 enrolment | Annual | 2026-12-31 |
| SchoolDigger city rankings | 2025 | Annual | 2026-12-31 |
| Property tax rates | FY2026 | Annual | 2027-01-31 |
| Zillow ZHVI calibration | mid-2026 | Monthly | 2027-01-31 |
| Licensed child care providers | August 2026 pull | Monthly | 2027-02-28 |
| Municipal budgets (Schedule A) | FY2025 | Annual | 2027-03-31 |
| U.S. News Best High Schools | 2026–27 | Annual | 2027-08-31 |
| HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents | FY2027 | Annual | 2027-09-30 |
| Boston Magazine high schools | 2026 | Annual | 2027-09-30 |
What has changed
September 2026
- Data Load the 2026 school rankings from U.S. News and Boston MagazineUpdated: school rankings and MCAS
- Data Update the college directory to IPEDS 2024, and drop two colleges that have closedUpdated: colleges and enrolment
- Data Load HUD's FY2027 fair market rents, in effect from 1 OctoberUpdated: affordability model, HUD fair market rents
- Data Show Zillow's measured 3BR and 5+ BR prices beside the site's estimatesUpdated: affordability model, bedroomPrices
- Data Count Manchester-by-the-Sea's child care, which is licensed under the name ManchesterUpdated: childcare
- Data Remove four venue links whose domains now serve gambling spam, and repair four garbled namesUpdated: cafés, culture and recreation, outbound link checks
- Data Replace estimated census shares with the 2020-2024 American Community SurveyUpdated: the good, bad and ugly, town prices, tax rates and commutes
- Data Measure the later towns' distance to Boston instead of typing it inUpdated: affordability model, the good, bad and ugly, town prices, tax rates and commutes
- Data Replace 123 placeholder tax rates with the state's certified FY2026 figuresUpdated: affordability model, the good, bad and ugly, town prices, tax rates and commutes
- Data Replace a made-up affordable-housing count with the real 40B inventoryUpdated: town budgets, school spending and subsidized housing
August 2026
- Data The homepage points at the writing, a refresh calendar, and the years before schoolUpdated: childcare
- Data Ten years of home values on every town page, and what a growth rate compounds toUpdated: ten-year price history
July 2026
- Data Link each public school to its official DESE profileUpdated: public school lists
- Data List each town's public elementary and middle schoolsUpdated: public school lists
- Data Correct grade spans for AISNE schools that also file with the stateUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Niche ranks and grades from the supplied directory extractUpdated: private and charter schools, private school supply
- Data Add the private schools the state's report leaves out, and match the ones AISNE names differentlyUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Add AISNE and NEASC accreditation, and fix enrolments crossing between same-named schoolsUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Add student-teacher ratios for private schools, gated on cross-source agreementUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Show what the state actually publishes about private and charter schoolsUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Bring the compass back, in four columns west to eastUpdated: stateMap
- Data Replace the compass rose with the map of MassachusettsUpdated: stateMap
- Data QA pass: fix Easthampton's ZIP pointing at Holyoke, and clamp out-of-range calculator paramsUpdated: affordability model, town ZIP codes
- Data Give school_sites.json a job, and start filling the missing school websitesUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Point the listings link at Redfin, scoped to a ZIP rather than a townUpdated: affordability model, listingLinks, town ZIP codes
- Data Add "see homes in your range", pointed at a listings search that was verifiedUpdated: affordability model, listingLinks
- Data Add the affordability calculator: start from income, not from a priceUpdated: affordability model
- Data Stop crediting the MBTA timetable for times it did not supply, and four smaller fixesUpdated: the good, bad and ugly
- Data Check the café and bookshop websites, and publish the ones that answerUpdated: cafés, culture and recreation, outbound link checks
- Data Name the cafés and bookshops, publish the college and coastal tablesUpdated: cafés, culture and recreation, coastal towns
- Data List the colleges behind the count, and thumbnail the blog excerptsUpdated: colleges and enrolment
- Data Derive Coastal and College traits from real data instead of the archetype labelUpdated: coastal towns, colleges and enrolment
- Data Fold multi-building historic sites into one venue, drop links that go nowhereUpdated: cultural venues, the good, bad and ugly, outbound link checks, town character
- Data List the museums, theatres and galleries behind the countUpdated: cultural venues
- Data Split similar towns into alternatives and character, and retire "walkable"Updated: town character
- Data QA pass: fix stale prose, Article schema, future dates and meta lengthsUpdated: the good, bad and ugly, town photos and links
- Data Recalibrate commute times against the MBTA timetableUpdated: town prices, tax rates and commutes
- Data Source real per-destination transit times from the MBTA GTFS feedUpdated: MBTA journey times
- Data Add two North Shore articles, and fix a charter data-matching bugUpdated: private and charter schools
- Data Initial commit: MA Town FinderUpdated: comparison facts, the good, bad and ugly, libraries, private and charter schools, HUD fair market rents, school rankings and MCAS, town photos and links, town budgets, school spending and subsidized housing, townThumbs, town prices, tax rates and commutes, town character, town character scores
Generated from the project’s own commit history with npm run changelog. Entries covering refactors, styling and copy edits are left out — this records what happened to the data and the analysis, not to the code. Sources for every figure are in the methodology.
