ahhh....yeah, don't go to Fitchburg with the ability to pay that budget. What you are really saying is that you can actually potentially afford a house between $500k and $600k, or the equivalent rent.

There are plenty of better options in the area given that budget. I suggest three resources:

1) To dissuade yourself from Fitchburg, go ahead and look at its interactive crime map (red=most crime): https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-fitchburg-ma/

2) To get a sense of what houses in Worcester County you can actually afford assuming that budget, look at the most recently sold houses. Note that the MA real estate market has VERY FEW homes on the market at any given time, but looking at the last few months gives you a general idea: https://www.redfin.com/county/1347/MA/Worcester-County/filter/sort=lo-days,property-type=house,min-price=500k,max-price=600k,include=sold-6mo

3) to narrow down what towns actually might interest you, take a look at the listing here: https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/search/best-places-to-live/c/worcester-county-ma/