Rosalind Fay
Writes on prices, sales, turnover and who is moving where.
A pen name for the RE413 desk. What that means.
Condos and Multi-Family Homes in Western Mass: Which Towns Have Them
The single-family share of housing runs from a third in one town to everything in another. In much of this region what you are looking for does not exist.
Hospitals in Western Mass: How Far Is the Nearest One From Your Town
Ten acute care hospitals serve 101 towns. From some of them the drive is long enough that it belongs in a buying decision rather than an afterthought.
What Do Jobs Pay in Western Mass? Wages by County and Industry
Average weekly pay differs by hundreds of dollars across four adjoining counties. That gap is the reason the housing markets diverged the way they did.
Amherst or Northampton? What the Numbers Say About Living in Each
Two college towns eight miles apart that people treat as interchangeable. On tax, house size, housing age and what a bill comes to, they are not close.
Why Is Western Mass Losing Population? Sixty Years, Town by Town
The short answer is that it is not. The region has more people than in 1960. What moved is where they live, and the mill cities took the whole of the loss.
The Towns Where Most Houses Are Empty on a Tuesday
In a handful of towns here, the majority of housing counted as vacant is somebody's weekend place. It moves prices, tax rates and what is left to buy.
What Rent Should Cost in Western Mass, According to the Federal Government
HUD publishes a rent figure for all 101 towns, but sets it across only five areas. Your town's number is shared with dozens of others, which matters.
Who Is Actually Stretched: Owners and Renters Compared, Town by Town
In the median town here, half of renting households spend 30% or more of income on housing. For owners the figure is a quarter, and the gap is the story.
Towns Near Northampton: What Every Option Within an Hour Costs
Drive time, median home, annual tax, schools and broadband for every town inside a real commute of Northampton, with the price spread laid out in one table.
Which Western Mass Towns Are Growing, and Which Are Not
Ninety of the 101 towns are bigger than they were in 1960. The decline story everyone repeats is really about five cities, and one hill town grew 548%.
Moving to the Berkshires: What the Numbers Say Before You Fall for It
The county everyone calls cheap and rural has the highest median home value of the four here, and in some towns most of the housing is empty on a Tuesday.
Buying an Old House in Western Mass: What to Check Before You Fall in Love
The median home in one town here was built in 1925. Antique houses are the regional norm, not a novelty, and they fail in predictable and expensive ways.
Moving to Western Mass in 2026: Where People Come From and What They Earn
One county lost people and gained $30.8 million doing it. Another lost people and $138.6 million with them. Which market you enter changes everything.
Should You Buy Now? What 50 Years of Western Mass Prices Say About Timing
Prices are up 57 to 67% since 2019. Before calling that a bubble, look at what the bust nobody talks about actually did to this region for a decade.
Average Home Prices in Western Mass by Town, 2026
From $146,400 in Monroe to $1,066,450 in Alford. And the county everyone calls the cheap rural one turns out to have the highest median of the four.