You’ll find the most affordable places to live in Pennsylvania where Pierogis meet Hoagies – midway between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Relative to the skyrocketing real estate prices in many East Coast states, home prices in Pennsylvania are a welcome relief. The appeal of affordable housing combined with access to Pirates games and Philly Cheese-Steaks makes Pennsylvania great.
To find the cheapest places to live in Pennsylvania, we used Saturday Night Science and Census data to compare housing costs, the cost of living, and incomes across 181 places in Pennsylvania over 5,000 people. Pennsylvania offers a wide range of affordable options, from small towns to major metropolises.
$42,219 median income · $741 median rent · #24 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
You can make your castle in New Castle, the cheapest place in Pennsylvania. Northwest of Pittsburgh, the town has affordable metrics for utilities (98), services (97), and healthcare (43).
According to the Census, the average income is $42,219 and the unemployment rate is 12.46%.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$37,888 median income · $644 median rent · #6 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, 43 miles west-southwest of Altoona and 67 miles east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census and estimated to be 20,402 in 2013. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$45,670 median income · $827 median rent · #4 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Sharon, the third most cost-effective city in Pennsylvania, features home prices averaging $72,982, significantly below the state average. The city’s home price to income ratio sits at 1.6, easing the path to homeownership. Renters benefit too, with a median rent of $827.
Located along the Shenango River near Youngstown, OH, Sharon’s living expenses come in with an index of 80. Sharon is close to Moraine State Park for affordable family fun in the Keystone State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$35,454 median income · $774 median rent · #36 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Uniontown, yet another Pittsburgh suburb in Fayette County, made the list of the most affordable cities in Pennsylvania in fourth place. The average home price is the 36th lowest in the state at $155,712, according to Zillow.
The Uniontown Downtown Historic District has cheap thing to do on the weekend since it seems the park in the area are a bit lacking.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$39,690 median income · $824 median rent · #3 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Shamokin is a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, surrounded by Coal Township at the western edge of the Anthracite Coal Region. It was named after a Saponi village, Schahamokink. At the 2010 census the population was 7,374 residents. The city of Shamokin is bordered by Coal Township, Pennsylvania.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$52,661 median income · $626 median rent · #34 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Is it really super crazy green in Greenville? We’re not 100 percent sure, but one thing we’re sure about is that Greenville is our sixth most affordable city in Pennsylvania for 2026.
This little Hershey Kiss is 48th when it comes to home price to income ratio. We’re not surprised it’s so affordable. And we definitely think it’s because they have such a strong economy as a result of step ladders. Yes, step ladders. Greenville is home to the largest manufacturers of step ladders. Now if step ladder manufacturing isn’t your shtick, but living in the oh so affordable Greenville is, we heard “‘The Jewel of the Shenango River” is alway looking for river guides.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$44,180 median income · $739 median rent · #1 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
As should now be apparent, the most affordable area of Pennsylvania is around Pittsburgh, with another suburb making an appearance on the list – Duquesne. The city has affordable living because of a $59,332 average home price that is attractively below the state and national averages. The city’s cost-effectiveness solidifies with an overall affordability index of 81.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$45,997 median income · $682 median rent · #11 home prices in Pennsylvania
There’s more to Pennsylvania than Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; there’s our eighth most affordable city in Pennsylvania for 2026: Turtle Creek. Kudos to Turtle Creek, they have been one of the Keystone State’s most affordable cities three years in a row.
The median income for Turtle Creek is close to $45,997. This allowed Turtle Creek to grab the 11th most affordable city in PA in terms of home price to income ratio title, too. Do we think Turtle Creek has managed to keep their city so affordable because of their pop vocal group Vogue’s kickbacks? Maybe. Either way, seems like they’re keeping their townies employed and their city affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$51,028 median income · $738 median rent · #48 home prices in Pennsylvania
Located in
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Sunbury is a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, just downstream of the confluence of its main and west branches. It dates to the early 18th century and is the county seat of Northumberland County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$67,138 median income · $865 median rent · #29 home prices in Pennsylvania
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Pennsylvania’s statewide median.
Pennsylvania statewide median: $282,736
Pennsylvania statewide median: $77,971
On the map
Where your money goes furthest in Pennsylvania
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the most affordable places to live in the Keystone State for 2026
Determining affordability for places in Pennsylvania boils down to how much it costs to live here.
You need to understand your costs relative to what people in the rest of the state are paying.
With that logic in mind, we derived several cost of living statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2020-2024 for Pennsylvania using Saturday Night Science. We indexed the cost of living statistics across the following categories:
- Housing
- Transportation
- Services
- Groceries
- Healthcare
- Utilities
These are then weighted together to produce an overall cost of living index where 100 is the United States average. Anything below 100 is relatively affordable. Anything over 100 is relatively expensive.
We applied the biggest weight to housing as it typically accounts for 25% or more of your budget. Additionally, housing costs are the highest variant cost across a state. We then compare these cost of living metrics for each place in Pennsylvania to figure out which is the least expensive.
The “Cost of Living Index” allows you to rank all of the 182 places in Pennsylvania that have more than 5,000 people from least expensive to most expensive. Any ties went to the larger city.
The place in Pennsylvania with the lowest cost of living according to the data is New Castle.
We updated this article for 2026. This report reflects our eleventh time ranking the cheapest places to live in Pennsylvania.
The full plate
Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Cost Of Living Index | Median Income | Home Prices | Rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Castle | 21,579 | 78 | $42,219 | $144,556 | $741 |
| 2 | Johnstown | 18,087 | 78 | $37,888 | $86,108 | $644 |
| 3 | Sharon | 12,936 | 80 | $45,670 | $72,982 | $827 |
| 4 | Uniontown | 9,742 | 81 | $35,454 | $155,712 | $774 |
| 5 | Shamokin | 6,853 | 81 | $39,690 | $67,101 | $824 |
| 6 | Greenville | 5,523 | 81 | $52,661 | $154,867 | $626 |
| 7 | Duquesne | 5,149 | 81 | $44,180 | $59,332 | $739 |
| 8 | Turtle Creek | 5,007 | 82 | $45,997 | $97,661 | $682 |
| 9 | Sunbury | 9,617 | 83 | $51,028 | $177,767 | $738 |
| 10 | Ellwood City | 7,532 | 83 | $67,138 | $151,015 | $865 |
| 11 | Clairton | 6,044 | 83 | $36,538 | $157,509 | $1,009 |
| 12 | Franklin | 5,984 | 83 | $47,117 | $126,692 | $731 |
| 13 | Mount Carmel | 5,677 | 83 | $53,021 | $59,925 | $742 |
| 14 | Titusville | 5,189 | 83 | $38,194 | $113,341 | $662 |
| 15 | Chester | 33,619 | 84 | $41,342 | $92,320 | $1,091 |
| 16 | Oil City | 9,468 | 84 | $51,316 | $87,762 | $821 |
| 17 | Warren | 9,240 | 84 | $53,815 | $139,191 | $771 |
| 18 | Beaver Falls | 8,850 | 84 | $49,924 | $195,209 | $727 |
| 19 | Punxsutawney | 5,665 | 84 | $42,183 | $123,130 | $775 |
| 20 | York | 44,938 | 85 | $48,420 | $275,648 | $1,014 |
| 21 | McKeesport | 17,380 | 85 | $34,219 | $96,205 | $848 |
| 22 | Aliquippa | 9,079 | 85 | $50,188 | $199,055 | $821 |
| 23 | Tamaqua | 6,924 | 85 | $46,176 | $153,115 | $996 |
| 24 | Ambridge | 6,890 | 85 | $51,537 | $135,994 | $969 |
| 25 | Monessen | 6,780 | 85 | $52,889 | $80,829 | $733 |
| 26 | Corry | 6,116 | 85 | $48,618 | $150,126 | $802 |
| 27 | Clearfield | 5,873 | 85 | $54,646 | $134,055 | $691 |
| 28 | McKees Rocks | 5,786 | 85 | $41,131 | $193,202 | $1,081 |
| 29 | Schuylkill Haven | 5,253 | 85 | $54,167 | $231,981 | $904 |
| 30 | Vandergrift | 5,011 | 85 | $50,901 | $104,150 | $794 |
| 31 | Erie | 93,850 | 86 | $46,113 | $198,492 | $870 |
| 32 | Wilkes-Barre | 44,423 | 86 | $48,515 | $172,140 | $946 |
| 33 | Pottsville | 13,364 | 86 | $54,332 | $151,259 | $822 |
| 34 | Pittston | 7,626 | 86 | $49,941 | $201,703 | $871 |
| 35 | Plymouth | 5,770 | 86 | $39,167 | $143,725 | $930 |
| 36 | Reading | 95,242 | 87 | $44,091 | $260,654 | $1,067 |
| 37 | Butler | 13,212 | 87 | $44,247 | $235,361 | $818 |
| 38 | New Kensington | 12,011 | 87 | $49,063 | $169,954 | $751 |
| 39 | Nanticoke | 10,653 | 87 | $57,462 | $164,941 | $792 |
| 40 | DuBois | 7,402 | 87 | $62,697 | $169,881 | $899 |
| 41 | Connellsville | 6,849 | 87 | $45,721 | $136,535 | $683 |
| 42 | New Brighton | 5,567 | 87 | $52,939 | $151,446 | $749 |
| 43 | West Mifflin | 19,190 | 88 | $76,563 | $160,812 | $780 |
| 44 | Washington | 13,368 | 88 | $52,975 | $233,300 | $910 |
| 45 | Brentwood | 9,866 | 88 | $68,904 | $169,689 | $860 |
| 46 | Bradford | 7,683 | 88 | $56,161 | $95,097 | $800 |
| 47 | Coraopolis | 5,417 | 88 | $63,828 | $302,086 | $902 |
| 48 | Tyrone | 5,377 | 88 | $57,226 | $155,310 | $788 |
| 49 | Scranton | 76,033 | 89 | $50,739 | $181,950 | $1,048 |
| 50 | Harrisburg | 50,287 | 89 | $48,099 | $263,369 | $1,062 |
| 51 | Altoona | 43,196 | 89 | $51,250 | $134,583 | $819 |
| 52 | Williamsport | 27,612 | 89 | $48,851 | $202,721 | $855 |
| 53 | Lebanon | 26,536 | 89 | $48,456 | $285,427 | $992 |
| 54 | Wilkinsburg | 14,027 | 89 | $46,416 | $172,752 | $1,025 |
| 55 | St. Marys | 12,529 | 89 | $67,167 | $165,531 | $762 |
| 56 | Munhall | 10,548 | 89 | $52,517 | $147,110 | $780 |
| 57 | Jeannette | 8,657 | 89 | $49,188 | $174,394 | $863 |
| 58 | Grove City | 7,830 | 89 | $57,169 | $219,877 | $906 |
| 59 | Steelton | 6,296 | 89 | $58,194 | $149,756 | $1,289 |
| 60 | Somerset | 5,944 | 89 | $47,102 | $217,891 | $678 |
| 61 | Meadville | 12,577 | 90 | $43,308 | $154,203 | $855 |
| 62 | Berwick | 10,317 | 90 | $49,800 | $203,642 | $797 |
| 63 | Carbondale | 8,789 | 90 | $47,716 | $146,867 | $660 |
| 64 | Monaca | 5,519 | 90 | $73,538 | $209,283 | $768 |
| 65 | West Hazleton | 5,178 | 90 | $34,118 | $179,125 | $1,186 |
| 66 | Duryea | 5,084 | 90 | $62,462 | $195,348 | $1,130 |
| 67 | Swoyersville | 5,048 | 90 | $71,555 | $206,255 | $744 |
| 68 | Hazleton | 30,111 | 91 | $46,177 | $212,762 | $1,089 |
| 69 | Hermitage | 16,041 | 91 | $70,052 | $213,565 | $896 |
| 70 | Indiana | 14,212 | 91 | $40,857 | $192,679 | $849 |
| 71 | White Oak | 7,468 | 91 | $59,452 | $192,181 | $1,000 |
| 72 | Milton | 6,534 | 91 | $54,577 | $220,578 | $922 |
| 73 | Red Lion | 6,516 | 91 | $72,901 | $291,903 | $884 |
| 74 | West York | 5,092 | 91 | $80,995 | $137,313 | $971 |
| 75 | Lancaster | 57,719 | 92 | $63,690 | $243,853 | $1,240 |
| 76 | Darby | 10,687 | 92 | $39,863 | $130,981 | $1,308 |
| 77 | Canonsburg | 9,675 | 92 | $79,227 | $358,324 | $1,025 |
| 78 | Lock Haven | 8,447 | 92 | $46,102 | $197,124 | $792 |
| 79 | Swissvale | 8,418 | 92 | $60,341 | $163,309 | $1,136 |
| 80 | Huntingdon | 6,897 | 92 | $67,125 | $190,101 | $838 |
| 81 | Palmerton | 5,622 | 92 | $68,143 | $254,962 | $931 |
| 82 | Easton | 29,739 | 93 | $69,348 | $371,500 | $1,325 |
| 83 | Kingston | 13,397 | 93 | $55,347 | $220,513 | $1,038 |
| 84 | Columbia | 10,278 | 93 | $54,437 | $290,830 | $1,075 |
| 85 | West View | 6,533 | 93 | $84,063 | $252,296 | $1,080 |
| 86 | Bloomsburg | 13,024 | 94 | $51,536 | $257,067 | $980 |
| 87 | Yeadon | 12,181 | 94 | $49,759 | $228,207 | $1,213 |
| 88 | Castle Shannon | 8,209 | 94 | $64,071 | $211,413 | $1,126 |
| 89 | Taylor | 6,265 | 94 | $71,599 | $192,995 | $1,085 |
| 90 | Dickson City | 6,023 | 94 | $59,963 | $213,635 | $997 |
| 91 | Exeter | 5,541 | 94 | $57,639 | $225,840 | $981 |
| 92 | Olyphant | 5,381 | 94 | $66,423 | $228,298 | $963 |
| 93 | Lehighton | 5,268 | 94 | $64,651 | $277,947 | $1,019 |
| 94 | Greensburg | 14,741 | 95 | $64,914 | $238,469 | $839 |
| 95 | Coatesville | 13,353 | 95 | $59,256 | $384,165 | $1,471 |
| 96 | Old Forge | 8,573 | 95 | $71,812 | $207,907 | $859 |
| 97 | Carnegie | 7,978 | 95 | $67,656 | $224,034 | $890 |
| 98 | Folcroft | 6,772 | 95 | $61,306 | $214,934 | $1,329 |
| 99 | Blakely | 6,662 | 95 | $55,855 | $220,301 | $1,063 |
| 100 | Forest Hills | 6,286 | 95 | $89,688 | $222,967 | $1,068 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024, cost-of-living data. 182 places with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
Pennsylvania Affordability Summary
This is an accurate list of the most affordable places to live in Pennsylvania for 2026, if you’re looking at the cost of living numbers in Pennsylvania.
The cheapest cities in Pennsylvania are New Castle, Johnstown, Sharon, Uniontown, Shamokin, Greenville, Duquesne, Turtle Creek, Sunbury, and Ellwood City.
