Can Allentown Survive in it's present form (Philadelphia, Bethlehem: homes, living in)

[PacoMartin]

While I recognize that many cities have wealthy districts and less wealthy wards, it seems to me that Allentown is relatively unique for a city it's size. You have about 1/3 of the city as upper middle class on the West End coupled with some other districts that are among the poorest outside in PA outside of Philadelphia are and Harrisburg.
While East Allentown is on land taken from the township of Hanover (Lehigh County) in the 1920's, what is left of the township (pop 1,571) is more like a small borough attached to the Airport. Hanover could take back East Allentown. The West End was probably on annexed land, presumably from South Whitehall. Southern Allentown was probably once part of Salisbury Township.
Central Allentown (roughly 18101 & 18102) would be about 2100 acres (slightly smaller geographically than Easton's 2750 acres) and with a population about 51,000 (midway between Easton and Bethlehem).
I don't know if there is any possibility of breaking up a city back into it's component boroughs.

Of course, the other possibility is to go the other way and reduce the 62 municipalities (half of which have a population under 5500) in Northampton and Lehigh County to a more manageable number (like 10 ). Still with more than 1 out of 6 people in the two counties living in Allentown, the city would still be large.

[PacoMartin]

You can see from this ranking of 62 municipalities by median value of homes (2005-2009) that Allentown is near the bottom. If the center city (zip 18101 & 18102) were pulled out separately, it would be at the bottom of the list by a good amount.

Generally townships have higher home prices than boroughs and cities. Exceptions are boroughs with great locations. Hanover township (Lehigh county) only has 1571 residents, since most of it's residential land has been taken over by the cities Allentown & Bethlehem and the borough of Catasaqua. Most of the remaining land now belongs to the airport.

Municipality ; Type ; House ; Pop
Weisenberg ; township ; $324,700 ; 4,923
Hanover - N'hampton ; township ; $316,300 ; 10,866
Lower Nazareth ; township ; $314,900 ; 5,674
Upper Saucon ; township ; $303,400 ; 14,808
Lower Saucon ; township ; $292,700 ; 10,772
Lower Milford ; township ; $291,900 ; 3,775
Forks ; township ; $286,100 ; 14,721
Williams ; township ; $284,300 ; 5,884
Bushkill ; township ; $282,800 ; 8,178
Upper Macungie ; township ; $282,800 ; 20,063
Lowhill ; township ; $276,400 ; 2,173
Upper Milford ; township ; $273,100 ; 7,292
Lower Macungie ; township ; $267,400 ; 30,633
Upper Nazareth ; township ; $264,200 ; 6,231
Bethlehem TWP ; township ; $261,400 ; 23,730
North Whitehall ; township ; $254,800 ; 15,703
Lower Mount Bethel ; township ; $242,300 ; 3,101
Lynn ; township ; $241,400 ; 4,229
Portland ; borough ; $236,300 ; 519
South Whitehall ; township ; $233,800 ; 19,180
Palmer ; township ; $233,000 ; 20,691
Plainfield ; township ; $231,100 ; 6,138
Moore ; township ; $230,400 ; 9,198
Allen ; township ; $224,500 ; 4,269
Washington ; township ; $221,800 ; 5,122
Salisbury ; township ; $221,500 ; 13,505
Upper Mount Bethel ; township ; $219,500 ; 6,706
Coopersburg ; borough ; $217,400 ; 2,386
Stockertown ; borough ; $215,900 ; 927
East Allen ; township ; $208,400 ; 4,903
Lehigh TWP ; township ; $206,100 ; 10,526
Heidelberg ; township ; $203,100 ; 3,416
Tatamy ; borough ; $195,700 ; 1,203
Washington ; township ; $195,600 ; 6,624
Whitehall ; township ; $188,700 ; 26,738
Nazareth ; borough ; $188,200 ; 5,746
Bath ; borough ; $187,700 ; 2,693
Hellertown ; borough ; $182,300 ; 5,898
Macungie ; borough ; $182,000 ; 3,074
Alburtis ; borough ; $180,500 ; 2,361
Emmaus ; borough ; $179,100 ; 11,211
North Catasauqua ; borough ; $176,800 ; 2,849
Glendon ; borough ; $176,300 ; 440
Bethlehem ; city ; $169,000 ; 74,982
East Bangor ; borough ; $168,000 ; 1,172
Roseto ; borough ; $166,200 ; 1,567
Coplay ; borough ; $162,500 ; 3,192
Pen Argyl ; borough ; $161,900 ; 3,595
Walnutport ; borough ; $161,900 ; 2,070
Northampton Bor ; borough ; $160,700 ; 9,926
Wind Gap ; borough ; $159,200 ; 2,720
Freemansburg ; borough ; $158,700 ; 2,636
Bangor ; borough ; $153,200 ; 5,273
West Easton ; borough ; $148,500 ; 1,257
Chapman ; borough ; $142,500 ; 199
Hanover - Airport ; township ; $140,300 ; 1,571
Fountain Hill ; borough ; $137,700 ; 4,597
Allentown ; city ; $137,500 ; 118,032
Easton ; city ; $132,800 ; 26,800
Catasaqua ; borough ; $132,100 ; 6,436
Wilson ; borough ; $130,800 ; 7,896
Slatington ; borough ; $127,300 ; 4,232

[PacoMartin]

The data above came from several sources. The government data (borough, township, city) is available in many places. The home prices came from Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. The population data is from the 2010 census.