Allentown, Pennsylvania Real Estate Market 2026: Score 96, Pending Ratio Near 1.0

Allentown, Pennsylvania scores 96 out of 100 on the PropertyIQ index as of February 2026.

That puts the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro above every other major Pennsylvania market in the dataset. Philadelphia scores 70. Pittsburgh scores 46. The market most Pennsylvania investors overlook is the one scoring highest.

PropertyIQ scores Allentown a 96 out of 100 as of February 28, 2026. Scores are updated monthly using Zillow, Census, and Realtor.com data.

What a 96 Score Looks Like on the Ground

A PropertyIQ score of 96 is not a momentum spike. Allentown has held between 95 and 97 for every month in the trailing twelve months through February 2026. That kind of consistency signals structural market strength rather than a temporary surge driven by a single data quarter.

The number that stands out most in the Allentown data is the pending ratio: 0.99 as of February 1, 2026.

A pending ratio measures active contracts relative to active listings. A ratio of 0.99 means that for every 100 homes currently listed in the Allentown metro, 99 are already under contract. That is near parity between available supply and buyer demand, and it is one of the highest readings in the PropertyIQ national dataset. In most markets, a pending ratio above 0.70 indicates a competitive environment. Allentown at 0.99 is a different category entirely.

The hotness score is 81.3. The supply score is 85.3. The demand score is 77.3. All three components score above 75, which means no single weak leg is dragging down the composite. The score reflects broad market health across supply, demand, and pricing signals simultaneously.

Allentown Pennsylvania Housing Market: Price and Appreciation Data

The median listing price in Allentown is $400,000 as of February 1, 2026. The Zillow home value for the metro is $348,992 as of January 31, 2026. The gap between listing price and Zillow value reflects the upper end of listing inventory pulling the median higher, while the Zillow figure tracks all transacted homes.

Year-over-year appreciation is 6.31% as of February 2026. Month-over-month appreciation is 3.91%. The five-year appreciation rate is 35.62% as of February 2026.

The Zillow one-year price forecast is 3.6% as of December 2025.

The sale-to-list ratio is 100% as of November 2025. Sellers in Allentown are receiving exactly their asking price on average. No discount pressure. Buyers are not extracting concessions from sellers who price correctly.

The price per square foot is $216 as of February 2026. For a metro of 866,000 people within 70 miles of New York City, $216 per square foot is a low entry cost compared to northern New Jersey markets in the same commute radius that routinely price at $400 or above.

Allentown Real Estate Market: Inventory and Demand

Active inventory is 920 homes as of February 1, 2026, down 6.17% year over year. New listings are 560, down 8.2% year over year. Supply is tightening on both the existing and new-entry fronts simultaneously.

The pending count of 910 homes means demand is absorbing inventory as fast as it appears. With 920 active listings and 910 pending contracts, the market carries less than a two-week buffer of uncommitted supply at current absorption rates.

Homes spend an average of 46 days on market as of February 2026. In a month when winter seasonality suppresses buyer activity across the Northeast, a 46-day average suggests listings priced near market are moving steadily.

Price reductions affect 7.77% of active listings. That is one of the lower price-cut rates in the dataset and reflects an environment where list prices are calibrated accurately from the start.

Home sales volume year over year is up 131.26% as of February 2026. This figure likely reflects year-over-year comparisons against an unusually slow prior-year month, but the directional signal confirms strong transaction velocity.

Allentown Pennsylvania Affordability Analysis

The income required to buy at the median listing price is $106,318 per year as of February 2026. The Allentown metro median household income is $82,602 as of 2023 Census data.

The income-to-buy ratio is 1.29. A household earning the metro median would need to earn 29% more to comfortably qualify for the median-priced listing. That gap is notably smaller than markets like Bend, Oregon where the ratio exceeds 2.0, or coastal California markets where the gap often reaches 1.8 or higher.

The calculated affordable home price for the Allentown metro is $310,772 as of February 2026. The Zillow home value of $348,992 sits above that threshold by $38,220, which quantifies the affordability stretch. The market is not cheap, but the overvaluation reading of 20.7% is moderate rather than extreme by the standards of many high-score metros.

The unemployment rate is 4.0% as of November 2025. The homeownership rate is 69.52% as of 2023 Census data. The median age is 41.4 years, reflecting an established working-age population base.

Rent Data and Cash Flow Metrics for Allentown

The Zillow rent index for Allentown is $1,755 per month as of December 2025. At a Zillow home value of $348,992, the gross rent multiplier is approximately 16.6.

A GRM in the mid-teens reflects a market where cash flow requires attention to purchase price and financing terms. It is not a low-GRM bargain market like some Midwest metros scoring in the 80s. The trade-off is price appreciation: 35.62% over five years with a 3.6% forward forecast indicates this is an appreciation-oriented market where equity accumulation drives returns more than immediate cash flow.

The Zillow rent for houses metric shows 60 data points, indicating a deep and liquid rental market in the metro. New construction sales were 49 units per month as of November 2025, a limited pipeline given the metro's population of 866,000.

Why Allentown Scores Higher Than Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

The Philadelphia real estate market scores 70. Philadelphia carries higher affordability pressure, more concentrated distressed inventory at the low end, and a larger footprint that includes high-vacancy zip codes pulling down the composite reading.

Pittsburgh at 46 reflects a market with strong individual neighborhoods but structural supply and pricing challenges at the metro level.

Allentown's advantage is its profile: mid-sized metro, consistent employment base from healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing, and a location that provides access to both Philadelphia and New York markets without their pricing premiums. The Lehigh Valley has absorbed population and investment from higher-cost metros throughout the post-2020 period, and that migration momentum is visible in the sustained score above 95.

The Consistency Signal at 96

The score has not spiked to 96 recently. It was 95 in March 2025, climbed to 97 in the summer months, pulled back slightly to 95-96 through fall and winter, and returned to 96 in February 2026.

A score that holds in a narrow band across twelve months, through seasonal variation, through a period of elevated mortgage rates, and across shifting national sentiment is a market with durable underlying demand. The volatility in national housing markets has largely passed through Allentown without disrupting the core fundamentals that generate the score.

For buyers and investors evaluating the Lehigh Valley, the 46-day DOM in February is the forward-looking signal. Spring will accelerate absorption. Waiting for a seasonal pullback in an already supply-constrained market with a 0.99 pending ratio carries real opportunity cost.

PropertyIQ score as of February 28, 2026. Listing and inventory data as of February 1, 2026. Zillow home value data as of January 31, 2026. Sale-to-list data as of November 30, 2025. Forecast data as of December 2025. Census data as of 2023. Economic data as of November 2025. All data for informational purposes only.