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RE413

Hampden County · 23.32 square miles

Agawam

The town record: taxes, homes, schools, water, flood, commute and the market, every figure from a named public source.

LATESTSources checked 2026-11-02 · 21 named public bodies · each figure above states its own period

The Record in Brief

Agawam's residential property tax rate is $14.10 per $1,000 of assessed value for fiscal 2026, a municipal-tax illustration of $4,875 a year on the town's median single-family assessment, assessed at $342,300. Rates are set by the town and reported to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

The median recorded single-family sale in Agawam was $315,000 in 2024, across 341 recorded arm's-length deeds, from the Massachusetts standardized assessors' parcel layer published by MassGIS.

Agawam had a population of 28,692 at the 2020 decennial census, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, up 0.9% on 2010.

Parts of Agawam lie inside mapped special flood hazard areas, where most mortgages require flood insurance. Whether a given property is inside one is a parcel-level question. Mapping is published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Every figure below states the period it covers and the body that publishes it. Full sourcing: sources and method.

What Does It Cost to Live Here?

$4,875/year in estimated municipal tax on the median assessment

At $14.10 per $1,000 of assessed value (fiscal 2026), including the 1% community-preservation surcharge. This applies that rate to the median single-family assessment from FY2026; it is a comparison scenario, not a current bill. Separate fire, water or other district levies, special assessments and individual exemptions are excluded. Confirm the property's full bill with the assessor. The tax rate year by year, with the bill history and every town in the county, is on its own page. The full worked figure, mortgage at this week's rate, heating, the lot, is on the cost page, and the calculator takes any price.

Agawam $4,875
Region middle $4,650
$769 Hancock$9,966 Longmeadow
Each dot is a town. Agawam sits at $4,875, above the region's middle of $4,650. Across the 101 towns that report a bill on their median home, the figure runs from $769 in Hancock to $9,966 in Longmeadow.

Median household income, survey by survey

$85,4215-year estimate ending 2024 · overlapping windows, not annual readings

to 2009to 2024

The average single-family tax bill, FY1989 to FY2026

$5,190FY2026 average · the figure above is the median home, this line is the DLS average

FY1989FY2026

What Does It Cost to Heat?

Most homes here heat with utility gas (56.5%). A gas main serves at least part of the town. This week's prices and the season maths are on the heating page.

What Kind of Homes Are Here?

11,605 parcels; the median single-family home here was built in 1965, surviving stock, not construction history.12,361 housing units at the 2020 count (11,659 in 2000). 73.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

65% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 11% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 2.7% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2024), not counts.

3.7% of Homes Vacant at the Last Count

About 1 in 27 homes here stood empty at the April 2020 count, and 10.5% of those are seasonal or vacation homes.

≈326 sales a year

About 1 qualifying dwelling deed per 30 dwelling parcels is recorded in a year (2022–2024 average of recorded arm's-length deeds), at that pace, a property comes up roughly every 31 years. Steady-state arithmetic, not a measured wait, both counts cover dwelling property, and a deed can cover several parcels. The latest complete year's median sale: $315,000 (2024).

New homes permitted, year by year, since 1980

2units permitted in 2025 · permission to build, not completions

19802025

Estimated construction value in 2025: $800K (Census total including imputation, nominal dollars).

Median recorded sale, quarter by quarter

$350,0002025 Q4, on 99 sales · small quarters swing hard

2024 Q12025 Q4

2 new homes were permitted in 2025 (the latest fully-reported year). County-wide, house prices moved up 5.27% in 2025 (Hampden County index, a county figure, not this town's).

What homes actually sold for in Agawam, quarter by quarter, with the sale count behind every median.

Where Do Kids Go to School?

Schools Through Grade 12

Students here are covered from the early grades through high school by Agawam (PK–12).

The schools page carries every district serving Agawam, where the buildings are, and what each district spends per pupil.

The district spends $21,897 per student. That is total spending per pupil, an input the state publishes, not a rating or a ranking of the schools.

Charter schools whose region includes this town: Hampden Charter School of Science - West, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School. Eligibility to apply, not a placement, admission is by lottery.

9 school buildings stand in town. Which building a child attends is set by the district, not by the address alone.

  • Agawam Early Childhood Center · PK · public elementary
  • Agawam High School · 09, 10, 11, 12 · public secondary
  • Agawam Junior High School · 07, 08 · public middle
  • Benjamin J Phelps School · K, 01, 02, 03, 04 · public elementary
  • Clifford M Granger School · K, 01, 02, 03, 04 · public elementary
  • James Clark School · K, 01, 02, 03, 04 · public elementary
  • Perry Lane Pre-School · PK · private
  • Roberta G. Doering School · 05, 06, 07, 08 · public middle
  • William P. Sapelli Elementary School · K, 01, 02, 03, 04 · public elementary

How's the Internet?

Cable Internet: Comcast

Cable internet serves this town. Franchise areas can stop at village edges, so confirm service at the specific address, not the town line.

92.5% of households here subscribe to broadband, per the Census Bureau's rolling five-year survey, the ground truth against any coverage map.

Water, Sewer, or Septic?

Public water exists here: AGAWAM WATER DEPARTMENT, service areas have edges, so a specific address may still be on a well. Municipal sewer exists (AGAWAM SEWER DIVISION); beyond its edge, homes are on septic. Bedrock well yield potential in town is rated "average specific yield".

Will It Flood? Anything Nasty Nearby?

Mapped Flood Zones Present

Parts of this town are inside mapped special flood hazard areas, where flood insurance is required for most mortgages and building is regulated. Whether a specific property is inside one is a parcel-level question, check the address, not the town.

The flood page carries the mapping status, wetlands, dams and cleanup sites for Agawam, with every town in the county.

11 dams in town, 1 classed high hazard, a statement about what a failure would harm, not about condition or likelihood. 7 reported release sites appear in the state's cleanup registry. 8 facilities report to the EPA Toxics Release Inventory, industrial sites above federal reporting thresholds, absence of which is not proof of none. Address-level detail, this parcel, this street, is on the address check.

Solar in the State's Record. 745 solar installations here have been through the Commonwealth's incentive programmes, and the 741 of them with a published rating come to at least 7.2 MW. 93% are on houses. The register runs to 2025: the older programmes closed to new applications and their successor only opened in 2025, so a gap after that is the incentive record ending, not the installing. 12 more are approved but not yet generating. Capacity is what an array is rated at, never what it produced.

Radon Potential: Zone 3. The rock under this town is rated zone 3, the lowest of the three the survey uses. The rock underneath is the Mesozoic Basins. That is a rating of geology, not a reading from any building: houses above the action level turn up in every zone, and houses in zone 1 routinely test clean. Radon is invisible, a test kit is the only thing that answers the question for a particular house, and it is worth doing whatever this map says.

Facilities here reported 238 lbs of TRI-listed chemicals released to air, water and land in 2024, down from a peak of 185,515 lbs in 2004. The most-released over the years has been methyl ethyl ketone. Self-reported by facilities above federal thresholds, a disclosure record, not a measure of anyone's exposure or risk.

TRI-listed chemical releases here, year by year

238 lbsreported released in 2024 · on- and off-site, self-reported, not an exposure measure

19872024

What's the Commute Like?

18% of the recorded Massachusetts jobs held by town residents are in this town. Other leading Massachusetts job destinations are Springfield, West springfield, Westfield. The record includes 9,740 jobs in this town held by Massachusetts residents. These are 2022 job records, not a count of distinct workers. Interstate jobs are excluded, including commutes to or from Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

Recorded job destinations and nearby work centres: living near Springfield (2,969 Massachusetts job records (2022), 8 min), living near Longmeadow (169 Massachusetts job records (2022), 10 min), living near West Springfield (1,009 Massachusetts job records (2022), 10 min), living near Chicopee (572 Massachusetts job records (2022), 15 min), living near East Longmeadow (291 Massachusetts job records (2022), 15 min), living near Westfield (778 Massachusetts job records (2022), 22 min), living near Hartford, CT (31 min).

The average commute from here runs 22.4 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2024 5-year estimate). Walkability, where people live, scores 9 out of 20 on the EPA's index (below the national average).

PVTA runs fixed-route buses here: 56 stops in town, on one route. R14 · Feeding Hills-Springfield.

What Do Rentals Go For?

$1,800/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard

HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $1,800 a month, the figure housing vouchers are built on for the Springfield, MA MSA, not what landlords ask. It assumes rent plus most utilities, so it is not comparable to an advertised rent that excludes heat.

What tenants here actually pay, survey by survey

$1,256/monthmedian gross rent, 5-year estimate ending 2024 · rent plus utilities, what sitting tenants pay, not asking rents

to 2009to 2024

38% of households here fall below 80% of the area's median family income, the federal housing-programme measure of need, not a poverty rate. 5.17% of the town's year-round homes count toward the state's subsidized-housing inventory (the state threshold where override rules change is 10%).

39.8% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (16% spend half or more); for owners it is 24.4%. The federal "cost-burdened" line is 30% of income; these are 5-year survey estimates (2024), not a headcount.

What Are the Winters Like?

Winters average 27.9°F, summers 70.4°F, and about 52″ of snow a year

Thirty-year normals (1991–2020), not this year's weather. The year averages 49.4°F with 50.18″ of precipitation. Readings come from the nearest long-record weather station to each measure, so a hilltown reading a valley station will see less snow here than falls on its own ridges.

Temperature: WESTFIELD BARNES MUNI AP, MA US (8 mi). Snow: HARTFORD BRADLEY INTL AP, CT US (9.7 mi).

Growing or Shrinking?

Between the 1960 and 2020 censuses, population grew 82.5%. Between 1971 and 1999, about 2,160 acres were developed. About 34% of adults here hold a bachelor's degree or higher (2024 survey). The deep story, the town's oldest surviving houses and what they're built in, is in the Old House Atlas.

People in Agawam, every published figure

28,7832025 estimate · hover the line for any year

19602025 est.

Everything taxable in town, at full value, since 1970

$4.39B2024 equalized valuation, the Commissioner's biennial full-value figure

19702024

The town's certified reserves, year by year, since 2003

$14Mcertified free cash as of 1 July 2023 · audited spendable reserves, not a budget

20032023

Free cash is what the state certifies a town may actually spend from its reserves once receivables and deficits are taken out. It is the closest public measure of municipal cushion, and it is why one town absorbs a bad winter or a failed roof without an override while its neighbour cannot.

State aid, net of what the state charges back, since 2010

$31Mnet cherry sheet aid, fiscal 2027, the Commonwealth's published estimate for a year not yet settled

20102027

The cherry sheet is the Commonwealth's annual notice of what it will send the town and what it will charge back. In fiscal 2027 that is $34M in aid against $3M in assessments, of which $28M of the aid is school aid. It is the half of a town's budget the property tax does not explain, which is why two towns with the same rate can be in very different shape.

Next door different? Put Agawam beside any of the other 100 towns.

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Cite this page: RE413, “Agawam Town Record,” https://www.re413.com/towns/agawam-ma/.

From the Desk

Reporting on Agawam and the wider region.

Nearby Towns

The same record for each, with its own residential rate.

Or put two side by side in the Agawam comparison tool, see what the tax bill would be in every town, or read the state of housing across all 101.

Sources

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

Page Last Updated : What This Date Means

The date the content of this page last changed. It moves only when the figures or text on the page actually change, not on every rebuild. Each figure also names its own source and the period it covers, which can be older: agencies publish on their own schedules. See when each source was last checked.