Lenox and Lee housing comparisons should begin with the intended occupancy period. A year-round home, occasional-use property and short-term rental arrangement involve different costs and responsibilities. The public records help describe the stock, but current availability and the terms of an actual property must be investigated separately.
How do the assessed housing costs compare?
The median single-family assessment is $543,800 in Lenox and $371,350 in Lee. The annual tax illustrations are $5,488 and $4,208. These combine each town's housing stock and recorded tax assumptions; they do not price equivalent houses. Use actual tax bills and compare similar building size, condition and service arrangements once candidates are identified. Keep the cost of planned improvements separate from the price of acquiring the property in its present form.
Massachusetts Department of Revenue: determining property values.
What does the seasonal vacancy comparison establish?
The vacancy figures below describe the census housing stock and the portion of vacant units used seasonally, recreationally or occasionally. They are not current listings or a measure of apartments available for a year-round lease. Read both percentages together because they use different denominators. A dwelling can be recorded as vacant without being offered to a buyer or tenant. Use this context to ask better availability questions, not to infer the size of today's market.
What should the year-round budget include?
Heating, insurance, ordinary utilities, maintenance and access need to be planned across the full year. If the property will be empty at times, clarify monitoring and insurance conditions. The median construction age below can prompt a request for work history, but condition must be checked directly. Obtain estimates for needed repairs and verify approvals for projects important to the decision. The comparison should explain how each home will be operated, not simply what it costs during the season when it is used most.
What does the local record show?
These towns provide local context for the decision in this article. The figures describe the published records and survey periods identified below. Compare the same measures across places, then confirm the details of any actual home before using them in a budget or offer.
Local Figures for This Decision
Download CSV, same columns, same definitions
Selected municipalities, shown alphabetically. Definitions below distinguish assessments, administrative benchmarks and survey estimates from current market quotes.
| Town | Single-family Assessment | Annual Tax Illustration | Vacant / Seasonal Share | Median Year Built |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee | $371,350 | $4,208 | 23.7% vacant; 74.7% of vacancies seasonal | 1960 |
| Lenox | $543,800 | $5,488 | 23.7% vacant; 71.9% of vacancies seasonal | 1959 |
What These Columns Mean
- Town
- Municipality; follow its record below for the full data and address check.
- Single-family Assessment
- Median assessed value of single-family parcels. This is a tax-roll statistic, not an asking price, appraisal or median sale price. Assessment years are identified in the sources.
- Annual Tax Illustration
- The published residential rate applied to the town's median single-family assessment, including the recorded community preservation surcharge and its general first-value exemption where adopted. Individual exemptions, special assessments and a future reassessment can change an actual bill.
- Vacant / Seasonal Share
- First: vacant units as a share of all housing units in the 2020 census. Second: seasonal, recreational or occasional-use units as a share of vacant units. Neither number is a current rental availability rate.
- Median Year Built
- Middle recorded construction year of single-family homes in the assessment data. It describes building age, not renovation date, condition, lead status or energy performance.
Cite: RE413. “Local Figures for This Decision.” Updated September 19, 2026. https://www.re413.com/news/lenox-vs-lee-ma/, underlying sources at https://www.re413.com/sources/.
Lee's town record. Single-family assessment: $371,350. Annual tax illustration: $4,208. Vacant / seasonal share: 23.7% vacant; 74.7% of vacancies seasonal. Median year built: 1960.
Lenox's town record. Single-family assessment: $543,800. Annual tax illustration: $5,488. Vacant / seasonal share: 23.7% vacant; 71.9% of vacancies seasonal. Median year built: 1959.
Vacant housing includes seasonal and other unavailable units. The seasonal share uses vacant homes as its denominator, while the vacancy rate uses all housing units. A larger vacancy percentage therefore does not establish that more homes can be rented or bought today.
How has the published average tax bill changed?
This is the Department of Revenue's published average single-family tax-bill series in nominal dollars. It is a different measure from the current median-assessment illustration above. Changes can reflect the tax levy, assessed values and the housing stock; this is not a forecast of the bill for a home you buy.
Published Average Single-Family Tax Bill
LenoxLee
Lenox$6,621Lee$4,813Fiscal 2026; common reporting years
What should you check next?
- Compare properties that support the same occupancy period and intended use.
- Keep historical vacancy and seasonal-use figures separate from verified current availability.
- Build year-round budgets from current bills, system condition and arrangements for any periods away.
Keep the address, document date and source alongside each answer. If records disagree, identify which period and property each describes before treating the difference as a change. A missing result leaves a question open; it does not establish that a property has no problem or no cost.
Where can you continue the comparison?
Browse all housing guides by subject.
Open the linked town records for the wider context, including sources and dates. Use the property-specific records to narrow a decision, and keep current quotes separate from the historical figures used to explain it here.
Which official guidance supports this article?
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue: determining property values. Guidance checked 2026-09-05; confirm current requirements for your transaction.
Sources
- MassGIS and municipal assessors. single-family assessment, annual tax illustration, median year built. Figures through Lee: FY2026; Lenox: FY2026. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. annual tax illustration. Figures through Lee: FY2026; Lenox: FY2026. Checked 2026-08-05.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, community preservation records. annual tax illustration. Checked 2026-08-05.
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial housing counts. vacant / seasonal share. Figures through 2020 census. Checked 2026-08-03.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, historical average single-family tax bills. Published annual mean bills in the chart; nominal dollars, with only common reporting years in a two-town comparison. Figures through FY2010–FY2026. Checked 2026-08-05.
"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.