Everybody arrives at the Berkshires with the same picture: cheap, rural, a little faded, beautiful, an escape from somewhere expensive. Four of those five are defensible. The one that is not is the one people plan around.
Take each town's median single-family assessment and then take the median of those, county by county. Berkshire comes out at $396,250. The other three:
- Hampden County: $332,300
- Hampshire County: $366,500
- Franklin County: $302,100
The rural county with the shrinking population and the shuttered mills has the highest median home value of the four. That is not a data error. It is a second-home market, and understanding it is the difference between a good move and an expensive surprise.
The weekend market, and where it is
The southern Berkshires have been within weekend reach of New York for more than a century, and remote work extended that reach to full time. Those buyers are not comparing a house here with a house in Springfield. They are comparing it with Brooklyn, and the assessment rolls record what happens when they do.
The clearest signal is the seasonal share of vacant housing. In Hancock (95.5%), Becket (92.6%), Otis (91.6%), Alford (90.9%), the overwhelming majority of homes recorded as vacant on census night are second homes rather than empty ones.
That has consequences a listing will not mention. A town where a large share of houses are occupied on weekends has a different year-round population than its housing stock suggests, which shows up in school enrolment, in what stays open in February, and in how many neighbours you actually have in the middle of the week.
The dearest towns here are Alford ($1,066,450), Stockbridge ($702,200), Monterey ($620,850). The county also contains some of the cheapest housing in Massachusetts, in the northern mill towns, forty minutes up the road. Both facts are Berkshire County.
Three things the brochure leaves out
The winters are real
Snowfall in the Berkshire hilltowns runs to 85.3 inches a year in North Adams, against under forty in the warmest valley towns. Elevation does it. That is plowing contracts, roof loads, longer heating seasons and roads that are not always passable, and it is the single most common thing weekenders underestimate when they become residents.
Most of it is on a well
11 of the 32 Berkshire towns have no community water system at all. If you are buying here, the probability is that you are buying a well and a septic system, both of which are yours to maintain and both of which have rules and costs worth knowing before you close.
The population has been falling since 1960
Berkshire County is the one western county that is smaller than it was in 1960, down about nine percent while Hampshire grew fifty-seven. But the money moves the other way: the county lost people and gained $30.8 million in a single tax year, because the households arriving earn substantially more than the ones leaving. Fewer residents, more purchasing power, rising prices. That is the machine.
Every Berkshire town
Sortable and filterable. Read the seasonal column beside the price column: they explain each other.
Berkshire County Towns: Price, Tax, Seasonality and Winter
Download CSV, same columns, same definitions
For every Berkshire County town: median single-family assessment, the annual tax that produces at the town's own rate, the seasonal share of vacant housing, average annual snowfall and whether community water serves any part of the town.
| Town | Median Home | Annual Tax | Seasonal Share of Vacant | Annual Snowfall | Community Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | $246,850 | $3,858 | 7.2% | 85.3 in | Yes, in part |
| Alford | $1,066,450 | $4,340 | 90.9% | 49.6 in | No, private wells |
| Becket | $328,200 | $3,170 | 92.6% | 77.1 in | No, private wells |
| Cheshire | $305,000 | $3,227 | 42% | 85.3 in | Yes, in part |
| Clarksburg | $211,100 | $2,594 | 22.4% | 85.3 in | Yes, in part |
| Dalton | $315,300 | $5,319 | 39.7% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Egremont | $601,400 | $3,957 | 79.5% | 49.6 in | Yes, in part |
| Florida | $213,000 | $1,764 | 45.5% | 85.3 in | No, private wells |
| Great Barrington | $518,000 | $7,024 | 57.9% | 49.6 in | Yes, in part |
| Hancock | $352,600 | $769 | 95.5% | 52.7 in | Yes, in part |
| Hinsdale | $355,700 | $3,781 | 78% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Lanesborough | $309,850 | $5,357 | 62.8% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Lee | $371,350 | $4,208 | 74.7% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Lenox | $543,800 | $5,488 | 71.9% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Monterey | $620,850 | $4,483 | 89.6% | 74.9 in | Yes, in part |
| Mount Washington | $436,000 | $2,603 | 54.8% | 49.6 in | No, private wells |
| New Ashford | $442,500 | $2,505 | 62.5% | 52.7 in | No, private wells |
| New Marlborough | $534,100 | $3,851 | 83.6% | 74.9 in | Yes, in part |
| North Adams | $191,450 | $3,057 | 11.9% | 85.3 in | Yes, in part |
| Otis | $449,300 | $2,678 | 91.6% | 77.1 in | No, private wells |
| Peru | $267,800 | $4,309 | 73.6% | 77.1 in | No, private wells |
| Pittsfield | $256,500 | $4,516 | 25.2% | 77.1 in | Yes, in part |
| Richmond | $531,400 | $5,447 | 88% | 52.7 in | Yes, in part |
| Sandisfield | $407,100 | $3,212 | 82.8% | 74.9 in | Yes, in part |
| Savoy | $207,950 | $3,019 | 58.9% | 85.3 in | No, private wells |
| Sheffield | $396,250 | $4,719 | 65.4% | 49.6 in | Yes, in part |
| Stockbridge | $702,200 | $4,891 | 82.3% | 49.6 in | Yes, in part |
| Tyringham | $563,500 | $3,736 | 79.8% | 77.1 in | No, private wells |
| Washington | $336,450 | $4,650 | 66.1% | 77.1 in | No, private wells |
| West Stockbridge | $535,700 | $5,629 | 79.9% | 49.6 in | Yes, in part |
| Williamstown | $466,450 | $6,728 | 52.3% | 52.7 in | Yes, in part |
| Windsor | $289,650 | $2,731 | 84.3% | 85.3 in | No, private wells |
What These Columns Mean
- Town
- The Berkshire County municipality. Links to its full record.
- Median Home
- The town's median single-family assessed value.
- Annual Tax
- The town's own residential rate applied to that median assessment.
- Seasonal Share of Vacant
- Share of the town's vacant housing counted as seasonal or occasional use rather than genuinely empty.
- Annual Snowfall
- Average inches a year, from the 1991 to 2020 climate normals.
- Community Water
- Whether a community water system serves any part of the town.
Cite: RE413. “Berkshire County Towns: Price, Tax, Seasonality and Winter.” Updated August 5, 2026. https://www.re413.com/news/moving-to-the-berkshires/, underlying sources at https://www.re413.com/sources/.
How to shop this county
- Decide first whether you are buying into the weekend market or the year-round one. They are different products at different prices in towns twenty minutes apart.
- Check the snowfall figure for the specific town, not the county. The range within Berkshire is larger than the range between most counties.
- Assume a well and a septic system, and budget the inspections accordingly.
- Look at the tax bill rather than the rate. Some of the lowest rates in Massachusetts are here, attached to some of its highest assessments.
Every town's full record, and a side-by-side comparison of any two, will settle most of this before you book a viewing.
Sources
- MassGIS standardized assessors' parcels. Median single-family assessed values from each town's own roll.
- U.S. Census Bureau. Seasonal and vacant housing from the decennial census, and population back to 1960.
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Annual snowfall from the 1991 to 2020 climate normals.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. Certified residential tax rates by town.
"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.