Pittsfield Tax Rate Drops, But Bills May Rise

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:01PM / Wednesday, November 12, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The administration has presented a split rate that would increase the average single-family home's annual bill by about $220.

On the agenda for Thursday's City Council meeting is a hearing for the fiscal 2026 tax rate: $17.50 per $1,000 of valuation for residential property and $36.90 for commercial, industrial, and personal property. This rate uses a residential factor of 0.8299 at a shift of 1.75.

While the rate is 44 cents cheaper than the year before for residential properties and more than a dollar cheaper for commercial properties, bills will rise.

The FY26 levy limit of $119.5 million includes more than $2 million in new growth, and there is about $389,000 in excess level capacity. Pittsfield's real and personal property valuation is $5,650,879,534, more than $380 million higher than the previous year.

The average single-family home has increased by more than $20,000 from $295,291 last fiscal year to $315,335 in FY26, and with the proposed tax rate, would pay $5,518.36 in taxes per year. This represents a $220.84 increase.

The median home price increased at a similar rate, from $256,500 in FY25 to $275,150 in FY26. Commercial property increased by more than $15,000, the median property valued at $224,250 in FY25 and $239,500 in FY26. The median commercial property would see a $327.42 annual increase in its tax bill.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, there are 11,330 single-family homes in Pittsfield this fiscal year, four new parcels added from the previous year, and the assessed value of this property type rose by $226,274,900, totaling $3,572,750,000. There are 1,733 two-family homes, four fewer than the previous fiscal year, and that property type is assessed at $387,638,100.

There are 712 commercial properties with a total value of $428,856,000, 242 industrial properties with a total value of $139,218,000, and 15 industrial power plants.

In FY26, 16,374 of the city's properties are residential, 818 are commercial, 260 are industrial, and 1,820 are personal property.

Tags: fiscal 2026, pittsfield_budget, property taxes, tax classification,

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Pittsfield Schools See Better Building Utilization, Continued Choice Outs

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
01:24PM / Wednesday, August 19, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students return to school in two weeks; Pittsfield will have one less elementary school and around 100 fewer students.

The School Committee was updated on enrollment for the 2026-2027 academic year during last week's regular meeting.

At this time, the Pittsfield Public Schools had 4,586 students, compared to 4,682 at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Superintendent Latifah Phillips said this has been the district's trend for years and is not surprising.

"Across all of these grade levels, we have a decrease. I believe of about 80-90 students. I think it's at eighth grade that we're going to look into and make sure that our data is accurate," she said to the School Committee last week.

"But otherwise, the enrollment is following the trends that we have expected in probably the last decade."

With this school year comes the closure of Morningside Community School and the middle school restructuring that sends Grades 5-6 to Herberg Middle School and Grades 7-8 to Reid Middle School.

Fifth grade enrollment was subtracted from last year's elementary enrollment, and these reflect the reassignment of Morningside students to Allendale, Capeless, Egremont, and Williams.

Phillips pointed out that this process has increased the use of school buildings, as underutilized buildings were one of the concerns that led to institutional changes.

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