Peak Luxury? The Berkshire Mountains Are America’s Top High-End Housing Market.

Luxury housing around the Berkshire Mountains is soaring to new heights. 

A high quality of life, a slew of amenities and favorable commuting times all pushed the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, metro area—which encompasses the wider Berkshires region—to No. 1 in the latest Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Housing Market Ranking covering the second quarter, released Monday. Less than a year ago, it was at 52nd place, making its trajectory especially noteworthy.

“We’re hearing from buyers that priorities have changed,” explained Nick Geranios of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. “Buyers now are looking for value and quality of life. They’re looking for some authenticity.” 

Luxury is different now, he said. “It doesn’t have to be a price tag, it can be time, access, quality of life and community.” And Pittsfield has it all. 

“It’s fantastic here,” Geranios said. The city offers “a great quality of life, a welcoming community [and] we’re at the center of everything.”

Pittsfield is the hub of the Berkshires. It’s the seat of Berkshire County, the largest city in the region, and accessible from New York City and Boston in less than 3 hours.

But uniquely, residents don’t need to hit up the big cities for a taste of culture. Major arts venues sprinkle the region: Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art [MASS MoCA] and the Clark Art Institute, to name a few. There’s also plenty of outdoor activities, including hiking and skiing. 

The quarterly Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Housing Market Ranking analyzes key housing market data, as well as economic and lifestyle metrics to identify the highest-performing and most attractive metro areas for high-end home purchases.  

The Pittsfield metro area posted the highest amenities score of any market, and at just over 20 minutes, the average commute time is the shortest in the ranking, Realtor.com said.

Pittsfield is the first metro area with a population below 150,000 to lead the ranking, and its size worked in its favor, according to Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com.

“Not to say small towns can’t get traffic, but it helped that commute score,” Smith said. “Some of these smaller areas might have that competitive advantage, but usually the trade off [is] not as many amenities.” 

But in Pittsfield, you “still get a taste of some of the amenities you would get in a larger metro,” he said. 

The cost of living in Pittsfield ranked the most favorable in the field relative to the broader Northeast, the report said. The real estate market is also competitively priced. 

“We offer opportunities for a lot of buyers,” Geranios said. “They can buy a historic house, a contemporary house, a lake house—and it’s significantly more attainable, even compared to other [areas in the Berkshires].” 

Luxury prices, defined as the top 10% of the market, in Pittsfield grew 5.9% year over year in the second quarter to $1.9 million, making it one of the lower priced luxury markets in the index’s top 10.

In Boulder, Colorado, which placed second, luxury prices stood at $3 million in the second quarter. In San Jose, California, No. 3 on the list, they were $3.2 million.  

Top 10 luxury markets

Pittsfield delivers “access to the entire Berkshire experience,” while remaining “one of the region’s most compelling value opportunities,” said Selina Lamb, founder Birch Properties. 

The market has been on a “very steady march,” Lamb said. “I’m bringing clients there and telling them ‘I can protect your investment here, and you’ll see upside quickly.’” 

The pool of inventory on offer spans lakefront homes, historic properties, classic New England architecture and modernist properties. Waterfront homes on the region’s many bodies of water are particularly competitive, Lamb said.

Demand is just as varied as the housing stock.

“Buyers are coming from all over the place,” explained Lamb, who said they hail from across the country, from California and Texas to Chicago and Washington, D.C. Though much of her business comprises buyers from New York and Boston. 

Regardless of where they’re coming from, they’re often seeking somewhere to act as a base, somewhere “easy to get to and memorable,” and “where their family can gather,” she said.

Others want convenient, lock-and-leave residences. “People want to fly in, be at an event at MASS MoCA, have a place that looks out at the mountains,” and fly right back out again, she added. 

People “really build community here, they make friends, they’re relaxed, it’s not about work, they’re involved with the things they want to be involved in.”

Though many of her clients are buying second, third or fourth homes, what they buy in Pittsfield often “becomes the favorite of their homes,” Lamb said. As a result, “many people end up living here full time.”

Mansion Global is owned by Dow Jones. Both Dow Jones and Realtor.com are owned by News Corp. The Wall Street Journal is also owned by Dow Jones.

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