Best PlacesPittsfield, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Pittsfield metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Pittsfield ranks 190th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on an overheated housing market and cell coverage. It does better on tree cover, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Pittsfield metro
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.
The best areas in Pittsfield
The towns and districts of the Pittsfield metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Williamstown & Dalton
More adults hold degrees, fewer homes sit empty, and schools score higher.
Great Barrington & Sheffield
Incomes run higher, though homes cost more.
Downtown Pittsfield
More households have young kids, though tree cover is thinner.
Lenox
Local pay stretches further, though it is noisier.
North Adams & Adams
Streets are more walkable, though prices have run up more.
Pittsfield shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Pittsfield's strengths and weaknesses
Pittsfield lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Tree cover is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Health care access and clean air follow.
The one real hole is an overheated housing market, near the bottom of the country. Cell coverage and a weak job market also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Pittsfield to another than it does between Pittsfield and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Pittsfield ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where Pittsfield ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 11% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Pittsfield
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pittsfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $83,197; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Pittsfield's effective rate of 1.24%, 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 Pittsfield
Pittsfield 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 Pittsfield.
Who works in Pittsfield, and how
Work in Pittsfield centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Pittsfield
Pittsfield has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 97% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Pittsfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Pittsfield growing, and who is moving in?
Pittsfield has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boston, MA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Pittsfield go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Pittsfield, month by month
Pittsfield sees roughly 71 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 Pittsfield
The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 35 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pittsfield
Schools across Pittsfield average a C, better than 28% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Richmond ConsolidatedB+ · 52% proficient
- Lanesborough ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- MorrisB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Theodore Herberg MiddleD · 22% proficient
- John T Reid MiddleD− · 13% proficient
Top high schools
- New Lebanon Junior-senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Lenox Memorial HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Pittsfield HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pittsfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pittsfield 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 Pittsfield against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Pittsfield suits
Families
Schools land around the 28th percentile and crime safety beats 74%.
Common questions about living in Pittsfield
Is Pittsfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pittsfield ranks 190th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, health care access, and clean air, and lowest on an overheated housing market and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pittsfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $329,742. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $83,197 median income, cost of living beats 31% of metro areas.
Is Pittsfield safe?
Yes, Pittsfield is safer than 74% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pittsfield?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 16. That works out to about 71 pleasant days a year, more than 24% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Pittsfield?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Williamstown & Dalton, Great Barrington & Sheffield, and Downtown Pittsfield. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Pittsfield good for families?
Schools beat 28% of metro areas, crime safety beats 74%, and childcare runs $1,385 a month.
Is Pittsfield good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 31% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 11% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Pittsfield with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pittsfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pittsfield 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.
Pittsfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pittsfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pittsfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pittsfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pittsfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pittsfield 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.