Colrain, Massachusetts.
Typical home $320,016 (+1.7% in a year). Springfield, MA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$921 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,438 +2%
- $314,578$320,016 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,811 +23%
- $260,204$320,016 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Colrain$1,680
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Colrain, MA rose 1.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Colrain, Franklin County, Massachusetts
Colrain is a town of 1,606 people in Franklin County. Half its households earn more than $80,673 a year and half less, against $74,907 across Franklin County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 86% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 14% are rented. Unemployment in Franklin County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Colrain is a small hill town in Franklin County, and nearly everyone who lives there owns their home. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and a smaller share of people live in poverty than you might expect for a rural town. Winters are cold, with January days that stay below freezing and nights colder still, while July is pleasantly warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and other services also employing a good number. Across Franklin County, Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Pelican Products and Greenfield Schools are among the largest workplaces. Commutes are on the long side, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. Berkshire East Ski Resort is a short drive away, and so are the Deerfield River and the North River, which suit anyone who likes time by the water. For a day out of a different kind, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum a longer drive away.
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- 717households
- 37%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 34 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Franklin County had 25,008 jobs in 2025, 1.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 75° and lows near 57°. About 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rowe 3NE weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Franklin County
- Baystate Franklin Medical CenterGeneral hospital490FTE
- Pelican ProductsAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing365
- Greenfield SchoolsSchool district284FTE
- Nourse Farms AcquisitionBerry farming282
- Greenfield Community CollegeTwo-year college279
- Judd WireRod, copper and copper alloy, made from purchased copper or in integrated secondary smelting and rolling, drawing or extruding plants266
- Mohawk Trail SchoolsSchool district202FTE
- Gill-Montague SchoolsSchool district196FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 56 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,475 people in all across the county; Colrain has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Franklin County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Franklin County and the Springfield, MA metro.
Colrain home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Colrain$320,016
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Zip codes with a Colrain address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Colrain — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.