Analytics built by: Location, Inc.
Raw data sources: American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Methodology: NeighborhoodScout uses over 600 characteristics to build a neighborhood profile… Read more about Scout's Real Estate Data
With 77,617 people, 8,560 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $305,922, Bethlehem real estate and house prices are near the national average for all cities and towns.
Single-family detached homes are the single most common housing type in Bethlehem, accounting for 40.24% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Bethlehem include large apartment complexes or high rise apartments ( 25.89%), row houses and other attached homes ( 22.58%), and a few duplexes, homes converted to apartments or other small apartment buildings ( 10.98%).
The most prevalent building size and type in Bethlehem are three and four bedroom dwellings, chiefly found in single-family detached homes. The city has a mixture of owners and renters, with 52.89% owning and 47.11% renting.
At the end of World War II, American soldiers returned home triumphant and, with the help of the GI Bill, built homes by the millions on the edges of America's cities. These homes were predominantly capes and ranches, modest in size, but built to house a growing middle-class as the 20th century became the American century. Bethlehem's housing was primarily built during this period, from the '40s through the '60s. A full 42.72% of the city's housing hails from this era. Other housing ages represented in Bethlehem include homes built before 1939 ( 27.32%) and housing constructed between 1970-1999 ( 26.15%). There's also some housing in Bethlehem built between 2000 and later ( 3.81%).
Appreciation rates for homes in Bethlehem have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 94.41%, which ranks in the top 50% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Bethlehem house appreciation rate of 6.87%.
Appreciation rates are so strong in Bethlehem that despite a nationwide downturn in the housing market, Bethlehem real estate has continued to appreciate in value faster than most communities. Looking at just the latest twelve months, Bethlehem appreciation rates continue to be some of the highest in America, at 9.12%, which is higher than appreciation rates in 81.62% of the cities and towns in the nation. Based on the last twelve months, short-term real estate investors have found good fortune in Bethlehem. Bethlehem appreciation rates in the latest quarter were at 4.93%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of 21.23%.
Importantly, NeighborhoodScout’s exclusive research found that Bethlehem's housing market shows one of the <a href="/blog/highest-appreciating-cities">top real estate appreciation rates in the U.S.A.</a> in the latest quarter, which may signal the city’s near-future real estate investment strength.
Relative to Pennsylvania, our data show that Bethlehem's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 80% of the other cities and towns in Pennsylvania.
One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Bethlehem differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Bethlehem - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 2000, to assist you in making the best Bethlehem real estate investment or home purchase decisions.
$305,922
for Pennsylvania
for nation
8,560
$1,998 / per month