Finding the most affordable places to live in Pennsylvania is challenging even if you're a native. State-wide, Pennsylvania has a median home value of $237,700. When you add in maintenance costs and property taxes, it can be difficult for many to buy and own a home. Because of that, we scoured the data to find the most affordable cities in Pennsylvania, looking at median home prices, cost of living, and other factors to find your best options.
Looking for the most affordable places in Pennsylvania is a start, but you'll save even more money by working with a great agent. The top Pennsylvania real estate agents know the local market and where to find pockets of more affordable homes. They can also help negotiate a better price when you do find your dream home.
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Ready to learn more about the most affordable places in Pennsylvania? These are our top picks.
1. West Mifflin
This Pittsburgh suburb of just over 20,000 is arguably the most affordable place to live in the state of Pennsylvania. Considering it’s just minutes from a major city, that translates to major value.
Located right on the picturesque Monongahela River, West Mifflin is also home to Kennywood Park, one of the country’s oldest traditional amusement parks. Kennywood features six roller coasters as well as dozens of other rides and amusements and is a major magnet for regional tourism.
With good schools, low crime, and a growing community of retirees, West Mifflin truly has something for everyone. The median income in West Mifflin comes in at $50,368 and the median home value is $93,800 for 2019, according to data from Niche. The average monthly rent is an affordable $581.
2. Oil City
As you might imagine from the name, Oil City was founded as an oil boomtown. Now Oil City is a modest town with amazing infrastructure, the original Carnegie Library, the J.D. Rockefeller Transit Building, and Victorian mansions that are scattered throughout the town.
The downtown area was recently designated historic and the city appointed the Oil City Arts Commission to cultivate a local arts scene. There are great schools here, and a low crime rate, to go along with the very affordable cost of living, making Oil City one of the best all-around packages in Pennsylvania.
The median income in Oil City comes in at $36,098 and the median home value is $48,800 for 2019.
Finding a home to buy here is easier with a local agent! With Clever, you'll find a great Pennsylvania realtor who can help with your home search.
3. Brentwood
This town of just over 9,500 is a handful of miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Beside its proximity to a major city, Brentwood boasts impressive amenities like the Brentwood Arboretum, an exhaustive network of biking trails, Brentwood Park, and the historic Windsor Hotel.
It’s located between the Great Lakes and the Allegheny Mountains, so the climate is temperate with much more precipitation than the rest of the state. If you plant a garden in Brentwood, it will soon grow into a jungle.
Curiously, Brentwood has one of the largest proportions of millennials of any town in Pennsylvania. The median income in Brentwood comes in at $55,192 and the median home value is $97,800 for 2019.
4. Pottsville
Pottsville is likely the only town on this list that was founded by a literal king; King Charles II granted the land to William Penn way back in the early 18th century. Not surprisingly, the city has fantastic colonial architecture. Pottsville has just under 14,000 residents, all of whom enjoy one of the lowest costs of living in the state.
To give you an idea of how much influence this modest town once had, consider that Pottsville once had an NFL team, the Maroons. Those boom years are past, but the town still has great bones.
These days, Pottsville is primarily a coal town, though the Yuengling brewery is also located here and is a major employer in Pottsville.
Today, the median income in Pottsville comes in at $39,886 and the median home value is $68,800 for 2019.
» FIND: Top Real Estate Agents in Pennsylvania
5. Vandergrift
Back in the 1890s, Vandergrift was a huge steel town. But labor unrest had the owner of the steel mill worried, so he decided to avoid strikes by keeping his workers happy. He hired the acclaimed architect Frederic Law Olmsted to build an entire utopian town where his steelworkers could live.
It’s no surprise, then, that Vandergrift is a gorgeous town with generous green spaces and picture-perfect houses. They’re so gorgeous that Hollywood came here in 2011 to shoot the sci-fi blockbuster I Am Number Four with Vandergrift standing in for the fictional town of Paradise.
The town is small, with a population of just over 5,000, but it offers a very high quality of life, at an amazing price point. The median income in Vandergrift comes in at $38,456 and the median home value is $66,900 for 2019.
How to find affordable homes in Pennsylvania
Whether you want to live in a bustling Pennsylvania metro area or a tranquil small town, there's plenty to love in Pennsylvania. Working with a local real estate agent is the best way to find the most affordable places to live in Pennsylvania.
Ready to start house hunting? Clever is a free service that can match you with the best realtors in Pennsylvania. And, when you buy with a Clever partner agent, you could get 0.5% of your purchase price back as a check after closing. On a $300,000 home, that's an extra $1,500 back in your pocket. That's real money!