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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 2026-08-05 · 60+ 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, about $5,357 a year on the town's median single-family home, 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.

The federal flood map for Lanesborough 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?

$5,357/year in property tax on the median home

At $17.29 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

$84,4195-year estimate ending 2023 · overlapping windows, not annual readings

to 2009range $64,054–$87,159to 2023

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

FY1988range $1,124–$6,135FY2026

What Does It Cost to Heat?

Most homes here heat with heating oil. 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). 69% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

86.4% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 17.3% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 4.2% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2023), 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 in 53 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 53 years. Steady-state arithmetic, not a measured wait, and the count includes land and commercial 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

1980range 0–382025

Reported construction value in 2025: $290K (permit filings, nominal dollars).

Median recorded sale, quarter by quarter

$317,5002025 Q4, on 22 sales · small quarters swing hard

2024 Q2range $307,500–$407,7502025 Q4

4 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).

What homes actually sold for in Lanesborough, 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 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?

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 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.

What's the Commute Like?

7.5% of working residents work right here in town. The rest most often head to Pittsfield, Williamstown, North adams. The town itself hosts 632 jobs.

Where people here work: living near Cheshire (12 already commute, 11 min), living near New Ashford (1 already commute, 11 min), living near Pittsfield (615 already commute, 13 min), living near Dalton (25 already commute, 15 min), living near Adams (26 already commute, 20 min), living near Hancock (36 already commute, 20 min), living near Williamstown (60 already commute, 26 min), living near North Adams (41 already commute, 29 min).

The average commute from here runs 19.9 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2023 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?

$1,626/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard

HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $1,626 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

$1,368/monthmedian gross rent, 5-year estimate ending 2023 · rent plus utilities, what sitting tenants pay, not asking rents

to 2009range $497–$1,534to 2023

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%).

40% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (18.3% spend half or more); for owners it is 23.6%. 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 24.7°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?

Population is up 3.6% since 1960. Between 1971 and 1999, about 570 acres were developed. About 38% 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 Lanesborough, every published figure

3,0042024 estimate · hover the line for any year

1960range 2,933–3,1312024 est.

Everything taxable in town, at full value, since 1970

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

1970range $16M–$604M2024

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

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

2003range $113,337–$1M2023

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

2010range $408,835–$1M2027

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

RE413 News, on the questions this page answers for Lanesborough.

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.