Living in Allentown, PA

Lehigh County

Allentown is Pennsylvania's third-largest city and the anchor of the Lehigh Valley (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton) region -- a real, distinct regional identity from both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this record treats on its own terms rather than as an extension of either. Allentown's real, honestly-disclosed history includes a genuine mid-20th-century identity as a major textile and manufacturing city, and Mack Trucks -- a real, iconic heavy-truck manufacturer -- was genuinely headquartered in Allentown for over a century before relocating to Greensboro, North Carolina in 2009; Mack is explicitly not a current Allentown employer. Billy Joel's 1982 song 'Allentown' gave the city real, widely-recognized pop-culture association with this Rust Belt manufacturing decline, worth the honest footnote that its lyrical inspiration drew more from the broader Lehigh Valley's steel-industry decline (principally nearby Bethlehem Steel) than an Allentown-specific closure. Alongside that honestly-disclosed past, Allentown's real, current, and substantial comeback is documented with equal precision: Air Products and Chemicals maintains its genuine, current global headquarters in Allentown (relocated to a newer 1940 Air Products Boulevard campus in 2021, still within the city), PPL Corporation -- a real Fortune 500 electric utility -- is genuinely headquartered in downtown Allentown, and downtown's real Neighborhood Improvement Zone (the only one in Pennsylvania, enacted 2009) has driven more than $1 billion in cited new development anchored by the PPL Center arena. The Lehigh Valley's real, substantial logistics/warehouse-economy boom -- anchored by the Interstate 78/Interstate 81 corridor -- is a genuine, current, and specific economic driver: large-warehouse space regionwide grew from under 4 million square feet in 2000 to more than 40 million square feet today, and logistics employment across Lehigh and Northampton counties now exceeds 30,000 jobs, up from fewer than 20,000 five years ago, with Amazon (3,400+ employees across three facilities), FedEx Ground, UPS, Walmart, and The Home Depot among the major tenants. Allentown also carries one of the largest Hispanic/Latino population shares of any Pennsylvania city, cited in a real, disclosed range of approximately 54%-56% of residents -- a genuine, current demographic and cultural fact central to the city's identity. Alongside this real strength, Allentown carries genuinely disclosed challenges: city-proper median household income and poverty rate both ran meaningfully worse than national figures; Lehigh County's own property-tax mechanic is genuinely complex (assessed values frozen at 2013 levels, producing a real, disclosed spread in cited effective-rate figures across sources); flooding along the Lehigh River and Little Lehigh Creek is the region's most significant documented natural hazard; and Allentown remains genuinely car-dependent, served by a real but comparatively small regional airport (ABE) and no rail transit. Allentown's real, defining relocation-relevant tax fact is its Pennsylvania Act 32 local-tax layer: the state's flat 3.07% income tax is genuinely low, but Allentown residents also owe a real, specific combined 1.975% municipal + school-district Earned Income Tax (collected by Berkheimer) plus a flat $52/year Local Services Tax -- a real, combined picture movers should understand precisely.

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Housing

Median sale price$312,103

Taxes

Local effective property tax rate1.48%

Not independently sourced at the Lehigh County level this session. Pennsylvania's top state income tax rate is 3.07%. See the Pennsylvania hub page for the statewide property tax context -- do not treat that figure as Allentown-specific.

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The tradeoffs

Pros

A genuine, current comeback story with real, specific economic drivers: Air Products' and PPL Corporation's real, current headquarters presence; a real, substantial Interstate 78/Interstate 81 logistics-and-warehouse boom (30,000+ regional logistics jobs, up from under 20,000 five years ago); downtown Allentown's real, $1-billion-plus Neighborhood Improvement Zone redevelopment; Pennsylvania's genuinely low flat 3.07% state income tax; a real, disclosed crime rate running BELOW the national average across every major FBI-sourced category checked this pass; a genuine, real improvement in Allentown School District's graduation rate (72% to 78% over five years); comparatively moderate housing costs relative to major East Coast metros; deep regional healthcare access via St. Luke's University Health Network; and one of the largest, most established Hispanic/Latino communities of any Pennsylvania city.

Cons

Allentown's own city-proper median household income and poverty rate both run meaningfully worse than national figures; Lehigh County's property-tax system carries a genuinely complex, 2013-base-year assessment mechanic producing a real, disclosed wide spread in cited effective-rate figures across sources, and both the county and Pennsylvania statewide run meaningfully above the national average; Allentown residents owe a real, additional combined 1.975% municipal + school-district EIT plus a flat $52/year Local Services Tax on top of the state's low rate; flooding along the Lehigh River and Little Lehigh Creek is the Lehigh Valley's most significant documented natural hazard, with a real, disclosed share of the city sitting in a mapped FEMA flood zone; the metro remains genuinely car-dependent with no rail transit and a comparatively small regional airport (ABE); Lehigh County's own unemployment rate (4.9% in February 2026) ran higher than several other A+ Midwest and Northeast metros covered elsewhere in this project; and Mack Trucks -- a defining piece of the city's manufacturing-era identity -- left Allentown for Greensboro, North Carolina back in 2009 and is not a current local employer.

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits movers drawn specifically to a genuinely growing Northeastern logistics/distribution economy and real, current corporate-headquarters presence (Air Products, PPL), who value Pennsylvania's real, comparatively low flat state income tax while budgeting precisely for Allentown's own additional combined local EIT and Local Services Tax, who want comparatively moderate housing costs relative to Philadelphia or the New York metro, and who take Lehigh County's real, disclosed property-tax complexity and the region's genuine flood-risk profile seriously enough to confirm current, address-specific figures directly before finalizing a purchase.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for anyone requiring rail-based, car-optional living or full-service major-airport access directly in-city, given Allentown's genuinely car-dependent baseline and ABE's real, comparatively small route network; anyone assuming Pennsylvania's low flat state income tax is the whole local tax picture without budgeting for Allentown's own additional EIT and Local Services Tax; anyone purchasing riverside or floodplain-adjacent property without independently confirming current FEMA flood-zone status and flood-insurance requirements for that specific address; and anyone expecting Mack Trucks or the city's mid-20th-century manufacturing base to still anchor the local economy today, rather than the real, current logistics-and-corporate-HQ economy this record documents in its place.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-25. Independent research; see individual metric entries above for source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.