Amherst's housing questions depend heavily on the kind of household and agreement involved. A student lease, a year-round rental and a purchased house have different timing, cash and maintenance obligations. The town record helps describe housing costs, but it cannot tell you what is available for your move date or whether a particular dwelling fits your intended occupancy.
How should you read rent and income statistics here?
Treat them as descriptions of the survey's households and period. A town containing households at different stages of education and employment can produce averages that do not resemble a working household's own finances. The rent-burden estimate below describes measured pressure, not a recommended rent limit for every reader. Build your budget from your documented income, obligations and the actual lease. The federal two-bedroom standard is an administrative area benchmark and does not establish current Amherst asking rents.
Which lease details matter before choosing a move date?
Confirm the beginning and end dates, who signs, who pays each utility and what happens if one occupant leaves. Ask whether the agreement covers the full year and whether any summer arrangement requires permission. Those details affect total cost and responsibility even when the advertised monthly rent looks straightforward. Review the actual contract and current official guidance instead of assuming that another tenant's experience or a familiar academic calendar determines the terms offered to you.
How does a home purchase change the comparison?
A buyer needs the property's current bill, insurance quote, maintenance record and financing terms. The town assessment and annual tax illustration can frame the scale of ownership, but they do not identify a suitable asking price. Hadley and Belchertown provide useful comparisons if they fit the household's destinations. Keep building size, condition and service arrangements comparable. A difference in town averages cannot tell you whether a particular house has deferred work or whether its daily travel demands suit your schedule.
Massachusetts Department of Revenue: determining property values.
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 | Two-bedroom Rent Standard | Rent-burdened Households |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amherst | $537,100 | $9,304 | $2,004 | 65.9% |
| Belchertown | $418,200 | $6,400 | $2,004 | 47.2% |
| Hadley | $458,800 | $5,381 | $2,004 | 34.2% |
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.
- Two-bedroom Rent Standard
- HUD's monthly two-bedroom fair market rent for the relevant area, including its treatment of tenant-paid utilities. It is an administrative benchmark, not a town asking-rent median, available apartment or individual voucher payment standard.
- Rent-burdened Households
- Published survey estimate of renter households spending more than 30 percent of income on housing. This describes the survey's households and period, not what a new applicant can borrow or pay.
Cite: RE413. “Local Figures for This Decision.” Updated September 19, 2026. https://www.re413.com/news/living-in-amherst-ma/, underlying sources at https://www.re413.com/sources/.
Amherst's town record. Single-family assessment: $537,100. Annual tax illustration: $9,304. Two-bedroom rent standard: $2,004. Rent-burdened households: 65.9%.
Belchertown's town record. Single-family assessment: $418,200. Annual tax illustration: $6,400. Two-bedroom rent standard: $2,004. Rent-burdened households: 47.2%.
Hadley's town record. Single-family assessment: $458,800. Annual tax illustration: $5,381. Two-bedroom rent standard: $2,004. Rent-burdened households: 34.2%.
Shared rent figures can reflect a shared federal rent area. They do not establish that apartments in those towns ask the same rent. Compare actual leases with the same bedroom count and utility responsibilities; the administrative standard is only a reference point.
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
$9,957Fiscal 2026; Amherst
What should you check next?
- Match the lease or purchase to the actual move date and intended occupancy, including any periods away.
- Calculate the whole housing package from your own income and bills rather than using town income statistics as personal advice.
- Compare Amherst, Hadley and Belchertown using actual dwellings, documented utility responsibilities and tested routes.
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. Figures through Amherst: FY2026; Belchertown: FY2026; Hadley: FY2026. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. annual tax illustration. Figures through Amherst: FY2026; Belchertown: FY2026; Hadley: FY2026. Checked 2026-08-05.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, community preservation records. annual tax illustration. Checked 2026-08-05.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. two-bedroom rent standard. Figures through FY2026. Checked 2026-08-05.
- U.S. Census Bureau, housing-cost survey. rent-burdened households. Figures through 2023. Checked 2026-08-05.
- 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.