Housing in Dover, MA 02030

Local Schools & Restaurants -- Featured Listings

Dover Overview

How did Dover become a charming, affluent little town nestled among some of the country's most beautiful acreage, featuring a lovely mixture of estates, farmland, open fields, forests and neighborhoods? In the early 1900's, wealthy Boston families chose to build their country estates in Dover, resulting in staggering 300-400 acres of parks, gardens, walking paths and pastures that gave Dover a charming, almost European-inspired feeling of wealth and fine living, which virtually ensured it remained a residential community known as the friendly, beautiful, little town made for ideal living such as it is today. Indeed, the friendly community feeling and warmth that you'll find in Dover sets this town apart from any other! Even though some of the old estate lands have since been sold and made into subdivisions, Dover maintains its sprawling, vast feeling of living by requiring houses to be built on 1+-acre lots. You will find historic homes, colonials, and new construction here.

Dover's heritage lies in agriculture - still evident in active farms, orchards, and horse farms with its winding, tree-lined roads. Its rural character is assured with much of the town still comprised of open space and woodlands. This heritage and country atmosphere is highly valued by the citizens of Dover and is why, when you look at Dover real estate, you see open fields and pastures, horses, miles of shady trails and woods for walking, cross-country skiing, birding, and horseback riding - over 200 miles of bridle trails - old stone walls, as well as access to the Charles River. Away from the noise, the hustle and bustle of city life, here, in Dover, you can truly relax every night after work, almost as if you are on a perpetual vacation.

Where is Dover?

Dover, situated about 15 miles southwest of Boston and nestled on the south banks of the Charles River, has a great, isolated, bucolic location, and yet, thanks to I-95/SR-128, SR-9, SR-27, SR-16, and SR-109, many of its citizenry - mainly academic, legal, business and medical - are able to commute to work in Boston - about 40 minutes depending upon your location and traffic. That said, none but a mile or so of State roads lie within its city limits, resulting in a huge line item (75% of its budget) for snow removal! Dover is bordered by: Natick, Wellesley and Needham to the North, Westwood to the East, Walpole and Medfield to the South, Sherborn to the West.

Education in Dover

If you have school-age children, the Dover-Sherborn Public School District is highly regarded and respected and will take excellent care of them. Dover offers some of the best public education families are likely to find anywhere in all of Massachusetts. U.S. News & World Report named Dover-Sherborn High School a Gold Medal School, ranking it 8th in MA in 2018. Dover is independently financially responsible for Chickering Elementary School. Dover-Sherborn Middle School and Dover-Sherborn High School costs are "regional" schools and expenses are shared with Sherborn. Chickering School is located near Caryl Park and the entrance to Noanet Woodlands. The Regional schools share a campus on Farm Street in Dover, near the borders with Sherborn and Medfield. Overall, Dover Sherborn High School has impressive results with regards to graduation rates, college admission rates and standardized and Advanced Placement exam scores. DSPS's transportation policies, bus routes, etc., are outlined here. Alternatively, you can enroll your child(ren) in a private elementary school, The Charles River School, located in the center of Dover.

Activities in Dover

Dover has exceptional recreational opportunities if you like to stay close to home on the weekend -- boating on the Charles River, tennis at Caryl Park, hiking or biking through Noanet Woodlands, fishing at Channing Pond, horseback riding at one of the many stables, or participating in or watching the Norfolk Hunt Club carry out one of its events. For a small, quiet, country town, there is always a lot going on. There is a high degree of volunteerism and an active senior community. For more details, check this site.

Additional Info

If you have decided upon a property and are wondering what the taxes for it will be, you can go here to see what the current (and past) tax rate is and then look up the address to find its current assessed value. Multiplying the two numbers together and dividing by 1,000 will give you the current tax bill amount. For example, 1 Main St might be assessed at $1,191,400 and the current tax rate $12.84. The tax bill would be $1,191,400 x $12.84 / 1000 = $15,298

The Dover-Sherborn Press, The Hometown Weekly, The Dover Sherborn Cable TV, and The Patch, are purveyors of local news; and, of course, there are also the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald.

Housing has been running from $450,000 to $650,000 for tear downs and foreclosures, but typically runs run from $675,000 to $15,000,000, if you are looking for a 21-acre estate. Prices vary depending upon size, location, and amenities. The following chart is a visual representation of the cyclical nature of real estate and compares the ups and downs of Dover to those of Boston. The taller the column the better it is for buyers. The shorter the column the better it is for sellers. Dover has been a real roller coaster ride for sellers!

Search Dover Real Estate

This is Dover's best real estate site to search for: homes, land and foreclosure properties. It is seriously the only site you will ever need to find your next home or investment property! Bookmark this page and check back anytime to see what is currently available in Dover. Unlike other search sites which includes properties already under contract, this site only shows properties that are truly available. This site is updated by the official REALTOR®’s database every 15 minutes.

Here, you can save searches, and get daily email alerts of new listings, price changes, sold data, and market reports for Dover. Our map search feature allows you to search and view properties on a map which you can manipulate simply by clicking on the map and moving it around. To save a map search, zoom in or out over your preferred area and then,

1. Click on the hexagonal symbol to the top far right of the map,
2. Click on the map where you'd like to mark your outer limit search, then
3. Click where you'd like to end that line segment; and then,
4. Continue clicking to end and begin each subsequent line segment until you have created a search box.

Not really confining your search to Dover? Click on Refine Your Search at the top of the page and enter the town/neighborhood you wish to focus on.

Click here to open the Interactive Map Search.

Are you already a homeowner and considering selling/refinancing your home or just curious about its current value?

Get an ACCURATE property valuation now!

Curious about what’s happening in your neighborhood? You can create a custom market report to see what’s active, under contract, and sold in your neighborhood! Not tech savvy? Contact us and we'll set it up for you or assist you in any other way to make your next move painless and perhaps enjoyable!

Area Schools

Great Schools provides ratings for most schools in the United States. Below, you can see what schools are near the address you are thinking of buying and then compare it to other neighboring schools.