New Salem

$4,774/year in property tax on the median home

At $13.62 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.

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.

838 parcels; the median single-family home here was built in 1979, surviving stock, not construction history.460 housing units at the 2020 count (422 in 2000). 61.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

93.9% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 37.9% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 4.4% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2023), not counts.

7.2% of Homes Vacant at the Last Count

About 1 in 14 homes here stood empty at the April 2020 count, and 36.4% of those are seasonal or vacation homes.

≈8 sales a year

About 1 in 100 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 100 years. Steady-state arithmetic, not a measured wait, and the count includes land and commercial parcels.

Reported construction value in 2025: $2,070K (permit filings, nominal dollars).

9 new homes were permitted in 2025 (the Bureau's estimate; the town filed no monthly reports that year). County-wide, house prices moved up 9.61% in 2025 (Franklin County index, a county figure, not this town's).

Schools Through Grade 12

Students here are covered from the early grades through high school by New Salem-Wendell (PK–06), Ralph C Mahar (07–12).

New Salem-Wendell (PK–06) spends $26,209 per student; Ralph C Mahar (07–12) spends $28,036 per student. That is total spending per pupil, an input the state publishes, not a rating or a ranking of the schools.

1 school building stands in town. Which building a child attends is set by the district, not by the address alone.

• Swift River School · PK, K, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 · public elementary

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.

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".

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.

3 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.

The USGS runs 1 stream gauge in town with live river levels: WEST BRANCH SWIFT RIVER NEAR SHUTESBURY.

2.2% of working residents work right here in town. The rest most often head to Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton. The town itself hosts 110 jobs.

Where people here work: living near Shutesbury (14 already commute, 10 min), living near Wendell (1 already commute, 11 min), living near Orange (12 min), living near Erving (20 min), living near Belchertown (26 min), living near Leverett (18 already commute, 26 min).

The average commute from here runs 23.5 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2023 5-year estimate). Walkability, where people live, scores 3.5 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.

$1,866/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard

HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $1,866 a month, the figure housing vouchers are built on for the Franklin County, MA, not what landlords ask. It assumes rent plus most utilities, so it is not comparable to an advertised rent that excludes heat.

42.9% 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%).

78.8% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (40.4% spend half or more); for owners it is 37.7%. The federal "cost-burdened" line is 30% of income; these are 5-year survey estimates (2023), not a headcount.

Winters average 26.5°F, summers 69.7°F, and about 52″ of snow a year

Thirty-year normals (1991–2020), not this year's weather. The year averages 48.3°F with 42.16″ 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.

Population is up 147.6% since 1960. Between 1971 and 1999, about 171 acres were developed. About 36.1% 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.