South Hadley

$4,955/year in estimated municipal tax on the median assessment

At $13.52 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-district taxes are excluded. For FY2026, South Hadley adds $1.89 per $1,000 in Fire District 1 or $2.22 in Fire District 2. Confirm the property's district and 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.

Most homes here heat with utility gas (51.2%). A gas main serves at least part of the town. Electricity is the town's own light plant. This week's prices and the season maths are on the heating page.

7,613 parcels; the median single-family home here was built in 1956, surviving stock, not construction history.7,439 housing units at the 2020 count (6,784 in 2000). 73.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

67.1% of homes here are single-family detached houses, and 17.6% of the housing stock predates 1940 while 5.2% went up in 2010 or later. Survey shares (2024), not counts.

4.9% of Homes Vacant at the Last Count

About 1 in 20 homes here stood empty at the April 2020 count, and 17.7% of those are seasonal or vacation homes.

≈195 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 30 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: $362,000 (2024).

Estimated construction value in 2025: $1,388K (Census total including imputation, nominal dollars).

7 new homes were permitted in 2025 (the latest fully-reported year). County-wide, house prices moved up 6.04% in 2025 (Hampshire 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 South Hadley (PK–12).

The district spends $20,200 per student. That is total spending per pupil, an input the state publishes, not a rating or a ranking of the schools.

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

• Berkshire Hills Music Academy · 12 · special education (unapproved)
• Michael E. Smith Middle School · 05, 06, 07, 08 · public middle
• Mosier School · 02, 03, 04 · public elementary
• Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School · 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12 · charter
• Plains Elementary School · PK, K, 01 · public elementary
• South Hadley High School · 09, 10, 11, 12 · public secondary
• The Gorse Children's Center · PK · private

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.

Public water exists here: SOUTH HADLEY FD #1 (MWRA), SOUTH HADLEY FIRE DISTRICT #2 WATER DEPT, service areas have edges, so a specific address may still be on a well. Municipal sewer exists (SOUTH HADLEY WATER POLLUTION CONTROL DIVISION); beyond its edge, homes are on septic. Bedrock well yield potential in town is rated "average specific yield".

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.

14 dams in town, 5 classed high hazard, a statement about what a failure would harm, not about condition or likelihood. 2 reported release sites appear in the state's cleanup registry. 5 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. 32 solar installations here have been through the Commonwealth's incentive programmes, rated 731 kW between them. 94% are on houses. The register runs to 2022: 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. 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 1,035 lbs of TRI-listed chemicals released to air, water and land in 2024, down from a peak of 2,222,250 lbs in 1987. 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.

13.3% of the recorded Massachusetts jobs held by town residents are in this town. Other leading Massachusetts job destinations are Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee. The record includes 4,744 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 Granby (94 Massachusetts job records (2022), 8 min), living near Holyoke (695 Massachusetts job records (2022), 11 min), living near Hadley (154 Massachusetts job records (2022), 15 min), living near Chicopee (525 Massachusetts job records (2022), 19 min), living near Amherst (420 Massachusetts job records (2022), 19 min), living near Springfield (1,167 Massachusetts job records (2022), 25 min).

The average commute from here runs 23.5 minutes one way (working residents who leave home for work, 2024 5-year estimate). Walkability, where people live, scores 9.2 out of 20 on the EPA's index (below the national average).

PVTA runs fixed-route buses here: 32 stops in town, on 6 routes.

$2,034/Month: HUD's Two-Bedroom Standard

HUD's fair-rent standard for a two-bedroom here is $2,034 a month, the figure housing vouchers are built on for the Amherst Town-Northampton, MA MSA, not what landlords ask. It assumes rent plus most utilities, so it is not comparable to an advertised rent that excludes heat.

32.3% of households here fall below 80% of the area's median family income, the federal housing-programme measure of need, not a poverty rate. 5.86% of the town's year-round homes count toward the state's subsidized-housing inventory (the state threshold where override rules change is 10%).

48.7% of renters here spend a third or more of their income on housing (18.4% spend half or more); for owners it is 19.9%. The federal "cost-burdened" line is 30% of income; these are 5-year survey estimates (2024), not a headcount.

Winters average 26.7°F, summers 69.3°F, and about 37″ of snow a year

Thirty-year normals (1991–2020), not this year's weather. The year averages 48.2°F with 50.27″ 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.

Between the 1960 and 2020 censuses, population grew 21.4%. Between 1971 and 1999, about 819 acres were developed. About 50.2% 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.