Published October 11, 2026 in Market Update

Owning and renting are still close in Pennsylvania, and local demand shows it

By Jeremy Tolley

Real estate, 100k-300k

Here's the number that caught my eye. CNBC reported on October 6, 2026 that Pennsylvania homeowners spend 24% of median income on their mortgage. Renters spend 22%. That's a 2-point gap. Tight, yes. But it also means owning isn't some distant idea for most people here.

So what does that mean here on the ground? It means people are making the math work. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 1,128 homes sold across this market in the three months ending August 31, 2026. Another 1,112 are pending. That's not a market sitting still.

Rates went up. Buyers stayed.

Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. That's real. It adds to the monthly cost of owning. And yet, 1,128 sales still closed here in those three months. People are weighing the 2-point gap between owning and renting and still choosing to buy.

Nationally, Realtor.com also noted that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. That's a useful reminder. Not every home is selling at full price everywhere. But here, the Real Estate Data Aggregator shows most ZIP codes still closing at or above list price.

How ZIP codes compare on speed

Speed varies a lot by location. The Real Estate Data Aggregator tracked median days on market across ZIP codes for the three months ending August 31, 2026. Some areas move in under a week. Others take longer. Here's how they line up.

ZIP 17347 led the pack at 5 median days, and that was 5 days shorter than the same period in 2025. ZIP 17402 matched it at 6 days, unchanged from last year. On the other end, ZIP 17366 sat at 36 days, 27 days longer than a year ago. One number does not tell the whole story.

Where sellers are getting above asking

The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows ZIP 17402 had 56.5% of homes sell above list price in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That's up 10.1 points from a year earlier. ZIP 17402 also averaged 102.7% of list price at sale. That's the highest sale-to-list ratio in the data.

A closer look at two busy ZIP codes

ZIP 17404 had the most sales of any single ZIP code in the data. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 178 homes sold there in the three months ending August 31, 2026, up 18.7% from the same period in 2025. The median sale price was $256,500, up 6.9% year over year. Homes took a median of 8 days to sell.

ZIP 17406 was close behind with 108 homes sold, up 47.9% from a year earlier. The median sale price there was $272,000, though that was down 8.7% from 2025. More homes sold, at a lower price point. That's worth knowing if you're comparing the two.

York City ZIP code reads differently

ZIP 17401, which covers part of downtown York, tells a different story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 49 homes sold there in the three months ending August 31, 2026. The median sale price was $159,900, the lowest of any ZIP code in this data. Homes averaged 96.9% of list price, and only 22.5% sold above asking. Inventory grew 17.6% year over year. This part of the market has more room to negotiate.

The national picture adds context

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026, and were up 0.3% month over month in July on a seasonally adjusted basis. Prices are still moving up nationally, just more slowly. That tracks with what we see here: prices up in most ZIP codes, but not at the pace of a year or two ago.

On the jobs side, Redfin reported that the U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, with a three-month average of 51,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.2%. Slower job growth can weigh on buyer confidence. But here, pending sales of 1,112 suggest people are still making decisions.