WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The board of the town’s Affordable Housing Trust Tuesday took a look at some of the data that will form the basis of a Housing Production Plan being developed for the body by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.

 

"This is the most recent and updated U.S. Census data as well as [Massachusetts] Department of Revenue data related to housing," BRPC’s Brett Roberts told the board. "I’m not going to ask you to digest it all in the next 15 minutes. I want you to take it home, mark it up with your red pencils. There are going to be format changes. There are going to be language changes. All of that.

 

"But what I want you to look at is really the data itself. What strikes you as something important to pull you? What are some things you want to highlight?"

 

Roberts told the trustees that the most interesting part to him was the data detailing Williamstown’s affordability gap.

 

He pointed out that the median household income in town is $108,500, at which the household could afford a home that costs about $348,000.

 

"Then we looked at what is actually on the market," Roberts said. "In May 2026, the average sales price of a single-family home [in Williamstown] was $494,704. The gap between what is in the world and what your median household income can afford, we call the affordability gap.

 

"We talk about how expensive homes are. This gives you a number to point to as, ‘This is what the gap is.’ "