Best PlacesBerkshire Heights, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Berkshire Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Berkshire Heights ranks 15,894th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Berkshire Heights
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Berkshire Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Berkshire Heights ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Berkshire Heights ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Berkshire Heights
A household needs to earn about $152,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Berkshire Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,841, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Berkshire Heights' effective rate of 1.10%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Berkshire Heights
Berkshire Heights runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Berkshire Heights.
Who works in Berkshire Heights, and how
Work in Berkshire Heights centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 59%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Berkshire Heights
Berkshire Heights has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Berkshire Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Berkshire Heights, month by month
Berkshire Heights sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Berkshire Heights
Bradley International sits about 37 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Berkshire Heights
Schools across Berkshire Heights average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- New Marlborough CentralC · 31% proficient
Top middle schools
- W.e.b. Du Bois Regional Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Monument Mt Regional HighA− · 65% proficient
- Mt Everett RegionalC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Berkshire Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Berkshire Heights measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Berkshire Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Berkshire Heights
Is Berkshire Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Berkshire Heights ranks 15,894th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, an educated workforce, and tree cover, and lowest on an overheated housing market and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Berkshire Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $556,944. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $84,841 median income, cost of living beats 44% of towns.
Is Berkshire Heights safe?
Berkshire Heights is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $304 per resident a year.
Compare Berkshire Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Berkshire Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Berkshire Heights represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Berkshire Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Berkshire Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Berkshire Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Berkshire Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Berkshire Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Berkshire Heights detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.