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RE413

Berkshire County · 28.85 square miles

Lanesborough

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

Lanesborough's residential property tax rate is $17.29 per $1,000 of assessed value for fiscal 2026, a municipal-tax illustration of $5,357 a year on the town's median single-family assessment, assessed at $309,850. Rates are set by the town and reported to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

The median recorded single-family sale in Lanesborough was $320,500 in 2024, across 38 recorded arm's-length deeds, from the Massachusetts standardized assessors' parcel layer published by MassGIS.

Lanesborough had a population of 3,038 at the 2020 decennial census, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, down 1.7% on 2010.

Lanesborough has no current digital flood map. The older Federal Emergency Management Agency paper map was digitised and it does show special flood hazard areas here, which is a reason to check an address rather than a boundary to rely on.

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?

$5,357/year in estimated municipal tax on the median assessment

At $17.29 per $1,000 of assessed value (fiscal 2026). 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.

Lanesborough $5,357
Region middle $4,650
$769 Hancock$9,966 Longmeadow
Each dot is a town. Lanesborough sits at $5,357, 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

$86,2195-year estimate ending 2024 · overlapping windows, not annual readings

to 2009to 2024

The average single-family tax bill, FY1988 to FY2026

$6,135FY2026 average · the figure above is the median home, this line is the DLS average

FY1988FY2026

What Does It Cost to Heat?

Heating oil is the most common heating fuel here, used by 44.2% of homes. 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?

2,075 parcels; the median single-family home here was built in 1958, surviving stock, not construction history.1,489 housing units at the 2020 count (1,382 in 2000). 85.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

87% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 16.1% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 4.6% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2024), not counts.

12.6% of Homes Vacant at the Last Count

About 1 in 8 homes here stood empty at the April 2020 count, but 62.8% of those are seasonal or vacation homes. That is a second-home market, not an abandoned one.

≈40 sales a year

About 1 qualifying dwelling deed per 33 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 33 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: $320,500 (2024).

New homes permitted, year by year, since 1980

1units permitted in 2025 · permission to build, not completions

19802025

Estimated construction value in 2025: $290K (Census total including imputation, nominal dollars).

1 new home was permitted in 2025 (the latest fully-reported 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 Mount Greylock (PK–12).

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

The district spends $21,729 per student. That is total spending per pupil, an input the state publishes, not a rating or a ranking of the schools.

Vocational option: Northern Berkshire RVT (grades 9–12), admission has its own application, and member towns differ on transport.

Charter schools whose region includes this town: Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School. Eligibility to apply, not a placement, admission is by lottery.

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

  • Berkshire Hills SDA School · 04, 06 · private
  • Lanesborough Elementary School · PK, K, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 · public elementary

How's the Internet?

Cable Internet: Spectrum

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

90% 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: LANESBOROUGH FIRE AND WATER DISTRICT, GREYLOCK ESTATES HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, service areas have edges, so a specific address may still be on a well. No municipal sewer treatment is registered here, homes are on septic systems, which state law has inspected at sale. One privately run treatment works serves a site here (Berkshire Mall Wwtf), which is neither town sewer nor a septic tank. Bedrock well yield potential in town is rated "average specific yield".

Will It Flood? Anything Nasty Nearby?

Mapped Flood Zones on the Older Map

This town has no current digital flood map, but the older FEMA paper map was digitised and it does show special flood hazard areas here. Treat it as a warning to check, not as a boundary: the paper map is less precise, carries no base flood elevations, and may be decades old. The town's floodplain administrator and the FEMA Map Service Center hold the answer for a specific address.

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

2 dams in town, 1 classed high hazard, a statement about what a failure would harm, not about condition or likelihood. 3 reported release sites appear in the state's cleanup registry. Address-level detail, this parcel, this street, is on the address check.

Solar in the State's Record. 107 solar installations here have been through the Commonwealth's incentive programmes, rated 23.1 MW between them. 92% are on houses. The register runs to 2023: 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. 1 more is approved but not yet generating. Capacity is what an array is rated at, never what it produced.

Radon Potential: Zone 2. The rock under this town is rated zone 2, the middle of the three the survey uses. The rock underneath is the Taconic Mountains-Stockbridge Valley. 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.

What's the Commute Like?

7.5% of the recorded Massachusetts jobs held by town residents are in this town. Other leading Massachusetts job destinations are Pittsfield, Williamstown, North adams. The record includes 632 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 Cheshire (12 Massachusetts job records (2022), 11 min), living near New Ashford (1 Massachusetts job records (2022), 11 min), living near Pittsfield (615 Massachusetts job records (2022), 13 min), living near Dalton (25 Massachusetts job records (2022), 15 min), living near Adams (26 Massachusetts job records (2022), 20 min), living near Hancock (36 Massachusetts job records (2022), 20 min), living near Williamstown (60 Massachusetts job records (2022), 26 min), living near North Adams (41 Massachusetts job records (2022), 29 min).

The average commute from here runs 21.8 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2024 5-year estimate). Walkability, where people live, scores 5.9 out of 20 on the EPA's index (below the national average).

BRTA runs fixed-route buses here: 5 stops in town, on 3 routes. 1 · Pittsfield, North Adams; 5A · Pittsfield, Lanesborough; 5B · Pittsfield, Lanesborough.

What Do Rentals Go For?

$1,704/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard

HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $1,704 a month, the figure housing vouchers are built on for the Pittsfield, MA 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

$1,349/monthmedian gross rent, 5-year estimate ending 2024 · rent plus utilities, what sitting tenants pay, not asking rents

to 2009to 2024

35% of households here fall below 80% of the area's median family income, the federal housing-programme measure of need, not a poverty rate. 1.97% of the town's year-round homes count toward the state's subsidized-housing inventory (the state threshold where override rules change is 10%).

50.7% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (29.9% spend half or more); for owners it is 20.1%. 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 24.7°F, summers 66.5°F, and about 77″ of snow a year

Thirty-year normals (1991–2020), not this year's weather. The year averages 46°F with 44.23″ 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: PITTSFIELD MUNI AP, MA US (7 mi). Snow: WORTHINGTON, MA US (18.1 mi).

Growing or Shrinking?

Between the 1960 and 2020 censuses, population grew 3.6%. Between 1971 and 1999, about 570 acres were developed. About 42.4% 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 Lanesborough, every published figure

2,9992025 estimate · hover the line for any year

19602025 est.

Everything taxable in town, at full value, since 1970

$604M2024 equalized valuation, the Commissioner's biennial full-value figure

19702024

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

$1Mcertified 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

$619,810net 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 $680,615 in aid against $60,805 in assessments, of which $7,201 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 Lanesborough beside any of the other 100 towns.

Compare Side by Side →

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

From the Desk

Reporting on Lanesborough and the wider region.

Nearby Towns

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

Or put two side by side in the Lanesborough 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.