Lehigh Valley Real Estate

With rising rents and limited inventory, the Lehigh Valley housing crunch is making it harder for many people to find affordable apartments or even think about buying a home.

The full story, to publish Wednesday, will explore why newly available apartments are attracting large numbers of applicants and what that reveals about the balance between housing supply and demand.

PBS39 will broadcast a special, hourlong community forum tonight on data centers — their demand, their needs and their potential impact on the Lehigh Valley.

In December alone, there were 676 eviction filings and defaults in Lehigh County — the highest monthly total since August 2023.

In counties such as Lehigh, eviction filings have reached their highest point in years, even as rental vacancy rates have fluctuated. That apparent contradiction — rising vacancy estimates alongside persistent eviction volume — is part of a broader housing dynamic playing out across the region.

The Central Park Apartments property borders a massive redevelopment project that's set to transform the former Allentown State Hospital property.

Officials signed off on plans that call for 73 condominiums — 15 one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units and 22 three-bedroom units — and about 2,500 square feet of commercial space.

Officials are looking to secure a developer to build a mixed-use space at a property that features a large parking lot and a 7-Eleven built almost a half-century ago.

Developers have announced a $67 million, 216-unit apartment complex is headed to Palmer Township, offering residents what they say is a wealth of amenities in close proximity to local metro areas.

Lower Macungie Township's planning commission voted Tuesday to recommend approving a 55,000-square-foot light manufacturing facility near Schoeneck and Alburtis roads.

The 15,100-square-foot facility would be constructed in consolidated lots at 1415 and 1425 Lehigh St.

A total of 44 one- and two-bedroom apartments will be offered at the Walnut Street location.

First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, which has worked toward building affordable housing on its 32-acre property, will put out a call for offers this week seeking a developer to work with.

Will a proposed, mixed-use, land development project in Allentown that was advanced by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission on Thursday night include affordable apartments?

The city’s approved resolution says the developer “will assume the full local share of the project costs, which will be in excess of the $9,075,000 grant, and also assume responsibility for the project’s ongoing operating and maintenance costs.”

The $928,623 infusion for the two-phase project, known as The Gateway on Fourth, was announced Tuesday by state Sen. Lisa Boscola and state Rep. Steve Samuelson.

The executive order, signed after a brief news conference at Bridgeside Estates, appears to be the first issued by an Allentown mayor in at least a decade.

Lehigh County's board of commissioners voted narrowly Wednesday to grant a LERTA tax break for a property in Emmaus set to become 144 apartments.

The new plan for the property calls for a building that's a story shorter but has about 25 more apartments.

Base Engineering's Drew Nyman, project manager on behalf of the applicant, said the original sketch plan presented last year was “a lot more expansive than what we’re doing now.”

Displacing 135 residents and shuttering ground-level businesses until further notice, a monstrous fire at Five10 Flats in South Bethlehem has officials left trying to pick up the pieces.

Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners will consider a request by Fellowship Community retirement community to complete its proposed expansion in three phases instead of one, as was originally proposed. The change is because of lack of funding.

Fellowship Community, an independent living community in Whitehall Township, announced expansion plans to construct three luxury apartment buildings on the 67-acre campus at Mauch Chunk Road and Schadt Avenue.

A dilapidated single-family home across from Touchstone Theatre and Parham Park may later become a three-story mixed-use structure.