Information on living in/around Allentown (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: for sale, renter, condos)

[mrmaxie]

Hi all! I am hoping to gather some information on living in/around Allentown. I am originally from Ohio, but have most recently lived in Florida and North Carolina. Jobs are a non-issue. I am not very familiar with PA (especially eastern PA). I have been to Pittsburgh a few times and Lancaster once. I am looking for some general cost of living information---medium sized single family homes or townhouses (rental prices), and also average utility costs? What attracted you to the area, or why do you like living there? Is there anything you feel is unique or stands out about living in the area? How feasible is it to take weekend trips to Philly or NYC? I would appreciate any information you could share. Thanks!

[PacoMartin]

Because Center City Allentown is pretty slummy, where there are dozens of 4 bedroom homes for sale from $20K to $50K the preferred term for the area is Lehigh Valley.

Allentown City is 118K people, but Allentown Urban Area is 644K people according to census bureau 2010 stats.

As there are a huge range of prices you will have to be a little more specific. Do you want a home that you can walk to pubs and theater? With rentals a second bathroom usually comes at a premium?

Weekend trips to NYC are very common, there are many buses that go there on weekends. If you go every 5 times a month, prices drop about 30%-40% per trip over a one time trip. But a one time trip is about $45 on the bus. For a person driving alone, it will cost far more to drive and pay tolls, gas, and parking. Bus time is about 2 hours. There are no trains.

For Philadelphia it is usually easier to drive, but the bus is still an option.

Homes heated by gasoline are considerably cheaper than homes heated by electricity or oil. Unfortunately PA is one of those parts of the country where many homes are heated by oil.

[mrmaxie]

PacoMartin...Thank you so much for the info. Not sure how much knowledge you have on the rental market in the Lehigh Valley? I would be looking for a 2-3 bedroom and 1.5 -2 bathroom townhouse or single family home. I do not have children, so schools are not an issue. That being said, I would like a reasonably safe neighborhood. It would be a nice perk to be in a walkable neighborhood, but it's not essential. For this kind of a rental in my area of Florida, the cost is around $1400-$1500. I am hoping the Lehigh Valley would be a little cheaper, but not sure if that's true? Also, I am curious about the average price of the oil heating you mention? I currently deal with high electric ($200-$250 for 1700 square feet) for A/C costs, and I am hoping I wouldn't be exchanging that for high costs of oil heating...but perhaps I would be? Although you mention parts of Allentown being "pretty slummy", I am assuming there are other areas within the Lehigh Valley that are nicer and not plagued with crime issues? Thanks again for the information.

[toobusytoday]

There are links at the top of this page with rental information. You should be able to find a reasonable house or townhouse in your price range. I would suggest Bethlehem as opposed to Allentown, or if you would prefer a non-city location, there are many nice small town surrounding the city's.

It's very easy to take a day trip to NYC or Philly. I often drive to Lansdale and take a train into Philly and usually take a bus into NYC. Philly is an hour away from me in Southern Lehigh County while NYC is just less then an hour and a half.

We moved here 16 years ago and love it! I like the small town friendliness of where I live. Love the rolling, wooded hills and the juxtaposition of being near a city but also close to farms.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by mrmaxie

Although you mention parts of Allentown being "pretty slummy", I am assuming there are other areas within the Lehigh Valley that are nicer and not plagued with crime issues? Thanks again for the information.

Of the three cities, Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton by far the lowest crime rate is in Bethlehem.

A 2 Beds: 2 Baths 992 sq ft townhouse near Saucon Park in Bethlehem is $1000/month, while a larger 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home is $1349. This is a nice place since you can walk through the park easily, or walk the 3/4 mile to the Park and Ride and catch the bus to NYC. That way you don't have to leave your car in a public parking place.
The casino is nearby.

Averages with heating oil are almost meaningless. It is so dependent on the efficiency of the boiler and the design of the house that I would say in general you should rent a home with an electric heat pump instead of an oil boiler. Ideally you should get natural gas, as it is by far the cheapest option. Some people are afraid to cook with it, but it saves you a bundle. Ideally you want your water heated with natural gas as well (even your clothes dryer).

Rental homes with oil boilers almost always have an old model with a terrible design. Since oil prices have zoomed in the last three years, you are taking a huge risk.

Riverport has the nicest rentals for less than $1400 in Bethlehem. But you will get a lot less space. They are within walking distance of a number of ethnic restaurants and bars. You can walk across the bridge into Historic Bethlehem and Moravian College south campus. Riverport is usually marketed towards professionals, and people who like to go out at night. The units are individually owned condos, so there is no single website that you can go to. You must search the web for units available.

Woodmont Mews has some of the nicest resort style rentals in Bethlehem. Once again, they are not cheap.

[PacoMartin]

Oil, unlike natural gas is delivered to your home and a tank is filled up. A standard oil tank is 275 gallons which contains 2000 pounds (1 ton) of heating oil.

Now boilers have an efficiency rating. Some of the oil is used to run the boiler, instead of heating the house. So a good boiler has a 15% efficiency rating so 41.25 gallons of the oil is used to run the boiler while it burns through the 275 gallons, leaving the remainder of 233.75 gallons for heating.

The appropriate factor to multiply the gallons is .04185 so that you get 9.782 mega watt hr of energy from the tank. Under the assumption that oil costs $3.557 per gallon the price per tank is $978.24 and you are paying a price per mega watt hour of $100.

Now electricity in January cost me 10 cents per kilowatt hour, or $100 per megawatt hour. So under these conditions the energy was the same price if I used electricity or oil.

But oil energy is wasted by heating up obscure corners of the house that are rarely used. Even turning off radiators is only partially effective because a lot of heat escapes through the pipes.

Because of these inefficiencies, I could save about $1500 per year by running space heaters and only heating the rooms that are being occupied. The oil heat just keeps the house tolerable and the pipes from freezing.
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As a renter you are probably going to find mostly very inefficient oil boilers since many of them were converted from coal units in the 1960's and 1970's. So they use possibly as much as 80 gallons of fuel oil to burn through a 275 gallon tank. In this case an electric heat pump will cost less. But electric heat pumps don't work very well when the outside temperature is freezing. So the house is going to be cold.

Gas is order of magnitude cheaper than oil or electricity. But it does scare some people, because when there is an accident the house tends to blow up. Now it is obviously statistically very low probability, but I know very educated people who won't live in a house with gas.

This house which is a large 7 bedroom with big common rooms used 28.7 megawatt hours of oil (807.8 gallons) and 27.9 mega watt hours of electricity last year.
So it cost $2852 for oil, and $3050 for electricity.


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In 2010 Lehigh and Northampton counties, 78,536 homes had natural gas as the primary heat source , making it the No. 1 heat source in the Valley, according to U.S. Census estimates. Oil was a close second as the primary fuel used to heat 77,668 homes, and electric was third with 74,405 homes.

Now many homes have switched to natural gas, as the cost savings are so high it pays for the cost of a loan for a new boiler, The only problems are fear and lack of gas mains in older areas and more rural parts of the valley. But rental homes tend not to be upgraded as often as owner occupied.