Who's Moving In

The federal record of moves (tax returns filed from a new county) answers the question every porch conversation circles: is this place being discovered, or emptied? In 2022–2023, the four counties together came out behind by 1,716 people on paper. The county stories differ sharply, and the money moving with them differs more.

Berkshire County

2,241 households moved in and 2,429 moved out, net −36 people. The average arriving household reported $100,672 of income; the average departing one, $84,600, arrivals out-earn departures here.

Where arrivals come from (2018–2022 survey average)

Massachusettsabout 1,573 a year
New Yorkabout 1,298 a year
Californiaabout 532 a year
Floridaabout 327 a year
Vermontabout 274 a year
Europeabout 208 a year

Franklin County

1,775 households moved in and 1,857 moved out, net −74 people. The average arriving household reported $65,232 of income; the average departing one, $58,708, arrivals out-earn departures here.

Where arrivals come from (2018–2022 survey average)

Massachusettsabout 2,205 a year
New Yorkabout 235 a year
Asiaabout 113 a year
Iowaabout 93 a year
New Hampshireabout 72 a year
Maineabout 61 a year

Hampden County

6,895 households moved in and 7,933 moved out, net −1,112 people. The average arriving household reported $58,575 of income; the average departing one, $68,771, departures out-earn arrivals here.

Where arrivals come from (2018–2022 survey average)

Massachusettsabout 6,599 a year
New Yorkabout 1,047 a year
Puerto Ricoabout 1,035 a year
Europeabout 675 a year
Asiaabout 541 a year
Caribbeanabout 398 a year

Hampshire County

4,338 households moved in and 4,813 moved out, net −494 people. The average arriving household reported $67,573 of income; the average departing one, $67,509, arrivals out-earn departures here.

Where arrivals come from (2018–2022 survey average)

Massachusettsabout 11,617 a year
New Yorkabout 929 a year
Asiaabout 845 a year
Californiaabout 712 a year
New Jerseyabout 307 a year
New Hampshireabout 238 a year

Reading This Honestly

County level only. Neither federal source breaks moves down to towns, any town-level version of this story is someone's guess, including ours, so we don't tell one.
Households here means tax returns. People who need not file, some students, some seniors, the lowest incomes, are invisible, and "people" counts the dependents on those returns.
Income is the movers' adjusted gross income as reported the year after moving, what they brought, not what they found here.
The arrival origins are a 2018–2022 survey average and cover arrivals only, where this region's leavers go is not in the public county file.
The two sources run on different clocks and are never combined in one number here.

From the Desk

RE413 News on this subject: who is arriving, and what they earn. Every piece is built from the same public record as the figures above, and states the period each covers.

Sources

Federal tax-return migration counts (county to county). Figures through 2023.
The federal migration survey's origin flows. Figures through 2018–2022 survey window.

"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.