BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The Lehigh Valley not only made a significant jump in November’s Realtor.com Market Hotness rankings, it also held steady in the company’s 2025 forecast.
The Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro area ranked as the country’s 19th-hottest market last month, a double-digit leap after ranking 30th in October.
It was among four markets in the Top 20 of November’s Hottest Housing Markets list that were not on October’s list.
Others that moved up with significant gains were Springfield, Illinois, Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio, and Lafayette-West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Lehigh Valley also ranked among the nation’s hottest housing markets for 2025, according to the annual forecast released Tuesday for the nation's 100 largest metro areas by Realtor.com, the California-based online real estate service.
What the national data shows
Realtor.com’s Market Hotness rankings have four Pennsylvania metros that made the Top 20 in November. Along with the Lehigh Valley, Lancaster, Reading and Erie made the list.
The median listing price for a home in the area active on the service within the reporting period was $385,000.
The average time on market was 41 days.
For the 14th consecutive month, every market on the list was from the Northeast or Midwest.
That set the table for the release of the 2025 forecast, which put the Lehigh Valley at No. 23, with an expectation that “housing inventory will continue to improve as gradually dropping mortgage rates and time help to ease the lock-in effect on existing homeowners,” the report said.
Riding a wave of momentum, the Valley went from not even cracking the Top 100 in the 2020 forecast to its current position.
The Lehigh Valley's last five years of rankings:
2020: Did not rank
2021: No. 95
2022: No. 68
2023: No. 39
2024: No. 23
2025: No. 23
Realtor.com’s forecast predicts an 8% price growth next year in the Lehigh Valley area.
What the local data says
On Friday, the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors said November data showed “a solid real estate market with a wider selection of properties on the market and sales prices remaining strong.”
Closed sales increased 8 percent, the report said, coming in at 542 listings. Inventory also increased 2 percent, with 718 units for Lehigh and Northampton counties.
The median sales price was $345,000.
“While inventory is improving, we still have a way to go to meet the pent-up demand in the housing market. We remain hopeful for a healthier balance between inventory and buyer demand in 2025.”GLVR President Lori Campbell
“U.S. existing-home sales have exceeded economists’ expectations for the month and marked the first annual gain since July 2021,” GLVR Chief Executive Officer Justin Porembo said.
“The recent dip in mortgage rates to 6.69 percent is a welcome relief for prospective homebuyers in the Lehigh Valley," Porembo said.
"Even modest rate changes can have a meaningful impact, giving buyers the confidence to enter the market. We’ve seen a noticeable uptick in activity, and this trend could continue as long as rates remain steady.”
Other notable housing statistics for November include:
- New listings increased 1.5 percent to 525
- Pending sales jumped 9.1 percent to 494
- Months supply of inventory decreased 7.1 percent to 1.3 months
- Percentage of list price received was at 100.5 percent
- Homes sold, on average, in 24 days
“While inventory is improving, we still have a way to go to meet the pent-up demand in the housing market,” GLVR President Lori Campbell said.
“We remain hopeful for a healthier balance between inventory and buyer demand in 2025.”
