Sell Your Commercial Property In Allentown, PA

Who rents in Allentown

Allentown has 125,976 residents and 46,374 occupied homes, of which 26,339 are rented, a 56.8% renter share in the ACS 2020–2024 estimates. The median household income is $55,494. Rent takes a large share of that income: 15,278 renter households, or 58.0%, spend 30% or more on rent, and 8,213 (31.2%) spend at least half. Those burden levels are well above Philadelphia's and Pittsburgh's.

Demand comes from three directions: the Lehigh Valley's warehouse and logistics corridor, regional health systems such as Lehigh Valley Health Network, and renters moving in from the New York and Philadelphia metros. All three draw on the city's older, lower-cost rental stock.

Rents and affordability

The Census median gross rent of $1,317 averages leases from 2020 through 2024 and includes utilities. HUD's Fair Market Rents for the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro, which set voucher payment standards in Lehigh and Northampton counties, show how fast the market has moved:

HUD's own calculation shows why. Its FY2026 worksheet compares what recent movers in the metro paid with the five-year ACS rent for the same percentile and finds a gap of about 15% ($1,405 versus $1,223), and HUD built that adjustment into the new figures. For owners, that gap between in-place rents and what new tenants pay is the main source of upside in an older building.

The apartment stock

Allentown's housing is old and tightly built. The median year built is 1952. Of 49,502 housing units, 17,831 (36.0%) are attached homes such as rowhouses and twins, 12,820 are detached, and 7,410 (15.0%) sit in two- to four-unit buildings. Buildings with five or more units hold 11,292 units, 22.8% of the stock, including 3,712 in complexes of 50 or more.

The areas named on our Allentown page are outside the city and have their own tax rates. Bethlehem and Easton are separate cities; Whitehall is a township on Allentown's northern edge, and Emmaus is a borough to the south whose 2026 municipal rate is 10.646 mills, up from 7.448 in 2021. Easton and part of Bethlehem are in Northampton County, which last reassessed in 1995; the same Morning Call analysis puts a $100,000 property there at an assessment of about $17,007, so millage rates on the two sides of the county line cannot be compared directly.

Property taxes on apartment buildings

Lehigh County assesses property, and its last countywide reassessment was in 2013, according to a 2026 Morning Call review. Using state common-level ratios, the paper estimated that a property worth $100,000 on the market carries a Lehigh County assessment of about $49,505, roughly half its market value.

Allentown is the only municipality in the Valley with a split rate. The city taxes land at 24.47 mills and improvements at 4.63 mills, both up 4% last year, with the building rate set low to encourage development. County and school district millage are added on top; more than 98% of city parcels are in the Allentown School District. For a mid-size apartment building, where most of the value sits in the structure rather than the lot, the split rate keeps the city share of the bill lower than a single blended rate would.

At sale, Pennsylvania charges a 1% state realty transfer tax plus a local tax collected by the recorder, and holds buyer and seller jointly liable. Confirm the combined Allentown rate before pricing a deal.

Landlord rules and local compliance

• Licensing: under the city's Rental Unit Registration & Inspection Program, every rental unit must be registered and inspected by Residential Property Inspections before a license is issued. Licenses run for the calendar year and renew at $75 per unit, with a $50 per-unit late fee.
• Posting: owners must display the Owner and Occupant Duties document in every unit.
• Disruptive tenants: police or other officers issue Disruptive Conduct Reports, and three in a year may lead to the tenant's eviction.
• State rules: the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 caps deposits at two months' rent in the first year and one month after, with an itemized damage list due within 30 days of move-out.
• Rent control: Pennsylvania has none, and no Pennsylvania city caps rent increases on market-rate apartments.

What this means if you own a building here

Rising HUD standards and a high renter share support income, while the split tax rate rewards buildings over land. A buyer will still check every unit's license and inspection history, and will discount for deferred work in a stock with a 1952 median build year. Skyline buys 5+ unit buildings in Allentown and across the Lehigh Valley, stabilized or in need of work. Use the apartment building value calculator to test how rent changes move value, or start at sell my apartment building.