PA metros
Cost of living across major PA metropolitan areas.
What living in PA costs
Across the 9 PA metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 96.8 against a national metro median of 95.7 — about 1% pricier than the typical US metro. That ranks PA 29 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Erie, PA is the cheapest metro at 91.9, while Philadelphia, PA runs 102.4 — a spread of 11% between them.
A typical PA home costs $312,126, or about 4.1× median household income, and typical rent is $1,505/mo.
Taxes in PA
PA levies a state income tax on top of the federal one. Effective property tax runs about 1.6% of home value in a typical PA metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 6.3%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia, PA | 102.4 | $390,463 | $1,914 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 94.7 | $231,356 | $1,527 |
| Allentown, PA | 98.9 | $363,989 | $1,857 |
| Harrisburg, PA | 97.0 | $312,126 | $1,487 |
| Scranton, PA | 93.4 | $227,793 | $1,358 |
| Lancaster, PA | 96.8 | $388,207 | $1,526 |
| York, PA | 97.1 | $309,967 | $1,384 |
| Reading, PA | 96.5 | $312,348 | $1,505 |
| Erie, PA | 91.9 | $224,109 | $1,138 |
Cities & towns in PA (71)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.