Lehigh Valley Real Estate

Interest rates are dropping, but what does that mean for home buyers in the Lehigh Valley?

A slightly smaller-than-expected award of state funding forced a developer to downsize its plans for an affordable housing complex in downtown Allentown.

Palmer Township's planning commission reviewed early plans to transform a more-than-century-old building along the Bushkill Creek. once the Binney & Smith crayon factory, into 108 apartments.

Wilson Borough Council and Wilson Area School District repealed a LERTA for a former project at the old Dixie Cup factory site while approving a tax increment financing plan for the property so it can be developed into a 405-unit residential apartment building.

Bethlehem City Council unanimously voted down a developer’s wishes to build up to a 286-foot-long building within a planned 317-unit apartment complex on Hanover Avenue.

Officials are working to develop a comprehensive strategy to address a housing crisis, one that could deepen with Lehigh Valley the fastest-growing region in Pennsylvania.

Allentown City Council members unanimously backed a ballot question that — if approved by voters — would open the door for the deed-transfer tax to be raised for the first time in decades.

North Whitehall Planning Commission considered a plan to build a three-story, 40-unit apartment building at 3948 Portland St., the site of a former Lehigh Portland Cement Company building.

Racecar driver and property owner Marco Andretti should ease off the gas with his proposed West Broad Street apartment project, city planners agreed on Thursday.

The owner of an Allentown building plans to knock down the front portion of the first floor and replace it with an almost-all-glass storefront and new entrance on Hamilton Street.

Emmaus Borough Council continues to mull giving tax assistance to plans for a large apartment complex on condemned, environmentally hazardous former industrial land that has gone unused for nearly 30 years.

A 124-year-old West Ward building which previously served as a legal office may soon be turned into an eight-unit apartment complex in Easton.

A public hearing for Tax Increment Financing — a tax break for the Dixie Cup plant developers to pump money back into the project — drew substantial support at Northampton County Council even though one of the commissioners characterized it as "a payoff."

Sketch plans for an athletic complex for Allentown Central Catholic High School were reviewed by the Whitehall Township Planning Commission on Wednesday night.

Easton's Historic District Commission approved concepts for the Residences at Lynden, a 73-unit condominium project planned for South Third and Ferry streets Downtown.

Bethlehem City Council unanimously approved a $12,000 contract with the Center for Public Enterprise of Brooklyn, New York, to help with designing and implementing such a fund in Bethlehem.

Among the free food, candy and raffles was quite a spread of information available, both in English and Spanish, for families related to a major neighborhood redesign in the works.

The Gateway on Fourth, a 120-unit affordable housing project, expected to cost $29 million, just received $16 million in highly competitive tax credits awarded by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency board. It's one of two affordable housing projects out of six total applicants in the Lehigh Valley to receive the credits.

The Lehigh Valley’s position among the top three small rental markets highlights how much pressure local renters are feeling, but that’s just one side of the housing market continuing to squeeze budgets.

Those parties now will be able to call witnesses and make arguments of their own, as is the case with the original appellee, North Whitehall Township. Argument for the appeal is planned to begin at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 17 at Lehigh County Courthouse.

After a handful of meetings and continuances, the city Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday denied a favorable interpretation on inadequate lot size for property owner Ishtiaq Ali Saaem and Hanover Rauch LLC in a unanimous vote.

North Whitehall Township supervisors soon will vote on revised plans for The Ridings at Parkland Phase II, a 44-home subdivision set to take shape near Spruce Street and Timber Lane.

Two Bethlehem property owners await what’s next as developers plan to put up townhomes on adjacent lots. They’re preparing for what they say could be the worst-case scenario: losing their beloved trees and an established quality of life in the neighborhood.

Challenges for would-be homeowners in Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley are even more evident, with housing reflecting a mix of aging stock, rising values and a growing divide between homeowners and renters.