What salary do you need to live in Pittsfield, MA?

Rent, home values and prices in Pittsfield

Renters in Pittsfield pay a median $1,150 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $838, three bedrooms $1,443, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $7,260 a year.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $305,400. With median household income at $76,013, a typical home costs 4.0× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Pittsfield's overall prices at 95.1 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $105,146 would elsewhere.

How much you need to earn in Pittsfield

For two bedrooms, $148,000 is where Pittsfield turns Comfortable. Below that, $73,000 marks the start of Okay and $37,000 the start of Tight; under $37,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 9% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $406,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.8× income.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Pittsfield

At $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 51 (Okay), a two-bedroom 46 (Okay) and a three-bedroom 42 (Tight). The $7,260 a year between the smallest and largest home is what moves the grade.

Of the four salaries, $150,000 is the first where a two-bedroom reads Comfortable or better; $100,000 still lands at Okay.

How Pittsfield ranks among 387 metros

On price level Pittsfield is 165th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 175th, and on median home value 147th. The two rankings agree, both falling in the middle half.

Next to Pittsfield on the national rent ranking: Waco, TX ($1,151) and Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN ($1,148).

Pittsfield in a Massachusetts context

Statewide, Massachusetts's median two-bedroom rent is $1,876 and its median home value $562,100. Pittsfield's rent is −39% against that, and its home value −46%; the price parity is 95.1 versus 105.8 for the state.

Run Massachusetts's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $325,000; Pittsfield's line is −54% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving Massachusetts? Springfield, MA, Providence-Warwick, RI-MA, and Amherst Town-Northampton, MA have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Pittsfield's median income on the scale

The median household in the metro earns $76,013 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 46, Okay. Put differently, Pittsfield's typical household is $71,987 below the $148,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. Statewide, the Massachusetts median household ($103,960) grades Tight on the state's own medians. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

All figures are pre-tax estimates from public data, not financial advice.