Berkshire County — On October 1, the organization Way Finders, in partnership with the University of Massachusetts’s Donahue Institute, released “Building Homes. Building Futures.,” a regional housing study covering Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
Springfield-based Way Finders is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt community housing development corporation founded in 1972. Per its website, the organization aims to “build and advocate for thriving communities by strengthening housing options, supportive programs, and economic opportunities.” The organization offers programs including first-time home-buying classes, resident leadership training, and employment support services.
The organization published multiple key findings from the study:
- Between January 2021 and October 2024, rents in Berkshire County increased by 35 percent.
- The population of Berkshire County is expected to decline six percent from 2020 to 2035.
- According to 2023 data from short-term rental data analytics website AirDNA, over 2,700 short-term rental units were active in western Massachusetts, with two-thirds of the rental listings located in Berkshire County. The report states that this may be limiting the number of long-term housing units available to residents and may be putting pressure on the year-round housing supply in Berkshire County.
- According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, homeowner vacancy in Berkshire County has dropped from 1.6 percent in 2018 to 0.7 percent in 2023, which indicates that housing supply has not kept up with demand.
- According to data from Peabody-based real estate data company The Warren Group, the median sale price of single-family homes and condominiums in Berkshire County, when adjusted to 2024 dollars, has gone up from $225,260 in 2014 to $318,000 in 2024;
- According to state trial court data, the number of evictions executed in Berkshire County grew from 88 in 2021 to 185 in 2023. In western Massachusetts, the number of evictions executed grew from 438 in 2021 to 1,370 in 2023;
- According to the report, the western region of Massachusetts needs at least 23,000 new housing units to keep up with the current demand for housing, but even more may be needed in order to stem population loss in the area.
Way Finders President and CEO Keith Fairey told The Berkshire Edge that this is organization’s first study specific to western Massachusetts and that a previous study focused only on the Pioneer Valley.
“Each county and each part of this region has its own unique dynamics,” Fairey said. “Berkshire County, of course, has a lot of seasonal households who are not all year round. That has a big impact on the housing dynamics here in the area, and that has been the case for many years. But this really came to light during the pandemic as people moved out of big cities and into places like Berkshire County.”
Fairey said that another demographic that came to light through the study is the percentage of residents 65 years and older in western Massachusetts. “In the next decade, one in four residents in western Massachusetts will be over 65 years old,” he said. “That in itself is a call to really think about how we provide housing for people who are aging, as well as how we think about how to attract and retain families in the area.”
Part of the report republishes data from a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 2025 study of housing permitting that shows the state currently building at a slower pace than the rest of the country. “Massachusetts is not producing enough housing at all right now to meet the demand at any reasonable scenario,” Fairey said. “We really need to pick things up, and we have a long way to go in terms of really getting the speed on housing production that our region requires to kind of grow and thrive.”
Fairey said that while he thinks Gov. Maura Healey’s Affordable Homes Act legislation introduced almost two years ago “is a tremendous start,” “there’s no light switch” when it comes to solving the state’s housing crisis. “Developers have to find sites, and when they do, they usually have to go through local processes that are often arduous to get permits from local authorities,” he said. “Some communities don’t have a lot of capacity to build housing. In western Massachusetts, there’s 101 cities and towns, and while there are some cities like Pittsfield, some of the towns in the area are really small. If you have an area that has a need and housing opportunities, you have got to create the right conditions; that means you have to change or improve your zoning.”
Fairey added “what we do today in the housing world is not going to cut it for any part of the state, including Berkshire County.”
“We need to come up with new programs, and innovation is going to be needed,” he said. “We also have to fine-tune our existing programs to make sure that they work for our existing communities. I think there’s a lot of work to do at the state level.”
For the complete report, visit Way Finders’ website.
Back in March, The Berkshire Edge held a webinar with community leaders in order to seek solutions for the housing crisis. That webinar is available here.