Berkshire County · 11.51 square miles
Alford
The town record: taxes, homes, schools, water, flood, commute and the market, every figure from a named public source.
LATESTSources checked 2026-08-05 · 60+ named public bodies · each figure above states its own period
The Record in Brief
Alford's residential property tax rate is $4.07 per $1,000 of assessed value for fiscal 2026, about $4,340 a year on the town's median single-family home, assessed at $1,066,450. Rates are set by the town and reported to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Alford had a population of 486 at the 2020 decennial census, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, down 1.6% on 2010.
The federal flood map for Alford has not been digitised, so flood risk here is unmapped rather than absent. 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?
$4,340/year in property tax on the median home
At $4.07 per $1,000 of assessed value (fiscal 2026). 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.
Median household income, survey by survey
$122,2925-year estimate ending 2023 · overlapping windows, not annual readings
The average single-family tax bill, FY1988 to FY2026
$5,191FY2026 average · the figure above is the median home, this line is the DLS average
What Does It Cost to Heat?
Most homes here heat with heating oil. No Gas Main serves the town, heating follows the delivered-fuel market. This week's prices and the season maths are on the heating page.
What Kind of Homes Are Here?
541 parcels; the median single-family home here was built in 1976, surviving stock, not construction history.337 housing units at the 2020 count (280 in 2000). 57.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.
96% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 24.9% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 7.7% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2023), not counts.
32.6% of Homes Vacant at the Last Count
About 1 in 3 homes here stood empty at the April 2020 count, but 90.9% of those are seasonal or vacation homes. That is a second-home market, not an abandoned one.
≈4 sales a year
About 1 in 143 properties here changes hands in a year (2022–2024 average of recorded arm's-length deeds), at that pace, a property comes up roughly every 143 years. Steady-state arithmetic, not a measured wait, and the count includes land and commercial parcels.
New homes permitted, year by year, since 1980
1units permitted in 2025, 0 months reported · permission to build, not completions
Reported construction value in 2025: $1,435K (permit filings, nominal dollars).
3 new homes were permitted in 2025 (the Bureau's estimate; the town filed no monthly reports that year). County-wide, house prices moved up 1.06% in 2025 (Berkshire County index, a county figure, not this town's).
Where Do Kids Go to School?
Schools Through Grade 12
Students here are covered from the early grades through high school by Southern Berkshire (PK–12).
The schools page carries every district serving Alford, where the buildings are, and what each district spends per pupil.
The district spends $28,410 per student. That is total spending per pupil, an input the state publishes, not a rating or a ranking of the schools.
No school building stands in this town; children travel to one of the district's schools elsewhere.
How's the Internet?
Town-Built Fibre Internet
This town built its own fibre network, typically faster than cable, and run by the town or its light plant. The statewide cable map shows nothing here, which misleads: the town's own connection is the better one. Confirm service at the specific address before closing.
86.2% 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?
No community water system is registered in this town, homes are on private wells. No municipal sewer treatment is registered here, homes are on septic systems, which state law has inspected at sale. Bedrock well yield potential in town is rated "average specific yield".
Will It Flood? Anything Nasty Nearby?
Flood Map Unavailable
The federal flood map for this town has not been digitised, so flood risk here is unmapped; that is not the same as absent. Ask the town's building department before relying on any flood answer.
The flood page carries the mapping status, wetlands, dams and cleanup sites for Alford, with every town in the county.
2 dams in town. No sites appear in the state's cleanup registry for this town, a registry fact, not a clean bill of health. Address-level detail, this parcel, this street, is on the address check.
What's the Commute Like?
1.4% of working residents work right here in town. The rest most often head to Great barrington, Pittsfield, Egremont. The town itself hosts 79 jobs.
Where people here work: living near Great Barrington (30 already commute, 15 min), living near West Stockbridge (22 min), living near Egremont (12 already commute, 22 min), living near Stockbridge (5 already commute, 24 min), living near Sheffield (9 already commute, 25 min).
The average commute from here runs 26.4 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2023 5-year estimate). Walkability, where people live, scores 4 out of 20 on the EPA's index (least walkable).
No fixed-route bus stops in town. All three regional transit authorities' schedules were checked; dial-a-ride and paratransit services do not appear in them.
What Do Rentals Go For?
$1,709/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard
HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $1,709 a month, the figure housing vouchers are built on for the Berkshire County, MA (part) HUD Metro FMR Area, 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
$1,063/monthmedian gross rent, 5-year estimate ending 2017 · rent plus utilities, what sitting tenants pay, not asking rents
37.1% of households here fall below 80% of the area's median family income, the federal housing-programme measure of need, not a poverty rate. 0% of the town's year-round homes count toward the state's subsidized-housing inventory (the state threshold where override rules change is 10%).
0% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (0% spend half or more); for owners it is 30.4%. The federal "cost-burdened" line is 30% of income; these are 5-year survey estimates (2023), not a headcount.
What Are the Winters Like?
Winters average 24.8°F, summers 67.3°F, and about 50″ of snow a year
Thirty-year normals (1991–2020), not this year's weather. The year averages 46.1°F with 49.13″ 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: LENOX DALE, MA US (10.7 mi). Snow: COPAKE, NY US (11.3 mi).
Growing or Shrinking?
Population is up 89.8% since 1960. Between 1971 and 1999, about 330 acres were developed. About 68.7% of adults here hold a bachelor's degree or higher (2023 survey). The deep story, the town's oldest surviving houses and what they're built in, is in the Old House Atlas.
People in Alford, every published figure
4832024 estimate · hover the line for any year
Everything taxable in town, at full value, since 1970
$388M2024 equalized valuation, the Commissioner's biennial full-value figure
The town's certified reserves, year by year, since 2003
$449,345certified free cash as of 1 July 2023 · audited spendable reserves, not a budget
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
$34,136net cherry sheet aid, fiscal 2027, the Commonwealth's published estimate for a year not yet settled
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 $34,981 in aid against $845 in assessments. 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 Alford beside any of the other 100 towns.
Compare Side by Side →Cite this page: RE413, “Alford Town Record,” https://www.re413.com/towns/alford-ma/.
From the Desk
RE413 News, on the questions this page answers for Alford.
Nearby Towns
The same record for each, with its own residential rate.
Or put two side by side in the Alford comparison tool, see what the tax bill would be in every town, or read the state of housing across all 101.
Sources
- Massachusetts DLS Municipal Databank. Tax rates and the bill on the median home (fiscal 2026), the average single-family bill back to FY1988, and the equalized valuation back to 1970, plus certified free cash (the town's audited spendable reserves) back to 2003.
- Massachusetts DLS Cherry Sheets. State aid received and state and county assessments charged, per year from 2010; the newest year is the Commonwealth's published estimate for a fiscal year not yet settled.
- MassGIS standardized parcels. Parcel counts, building ages, lot sizes, and the recorded sales behind the turnover figure and the quarter-by-quarter median.
- U.S. Census Bureau. Population (decennial counts 1960–2020, annual estimates to 2024), housing units, vacancy with its seasonal share, tenure, heating fuels, commute flows, and permitted units per year back to 1980 from the Building Permits Survey.
- PVTA, BRTA and FRTA schedules. Fixed-route bus stops and routes in town; zero means checked against all three and none found.
- EPA National Walkability Index. The population-weighted walkability score, block groups rolled up to the town.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration. This week's heating-oil and propane prices and the state electricity average. Figures through 2026-03-30.
- FHFA house-price index. The county-level annual price change, a county figure, never this town's. Figures through 2025.
- Massachusetts DESE registries. Which districts operate here, their grade spans and tuition arrangements.
- DESE Per Pupil Expenditures report. Total per-pupil spending for the town's operating district(s), a published input, not a rating.
- MassGIS utility registry and municipal fibre programmes. Cable franchise, town fibre and the electric utility.
- MassDEP and USGS. Water systems, sewer service and well-yield mapping.
- FEMA flood layer, the Office of Dam Safety and the MassDEP release registry. Flood mapping status, dam hazard classes and cleanup-registry counts.
- HUD and the state subsidized housing inventory. The fair-market rent standard and the Chapter 40B share.
- American Community Survey 5-year estimates. The income and rent lines, one point per survey vintage since 2009; each point pools five years ending in its label.
- American Community Survey, tables B25091 & B25070. The share of owners and renters spending 30%+ and 50%+ of income on housing.
- American Community Survey, tables B08013/B08303, B25034, B15003, B25024. Mean commute time, housing-age and structure-type shares, and the bachelor's-degree share.
- MassGIS land use. Acres developed between the 1971 and 1999 surveys.
- NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. Winter, summer and annual temperature, snowfall and precipitation, from the nearest reporting station to each measure.
"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.