The Allentown metropolitan area made Realtor.com’s list of “10 U.S. Cities With Huge Increases in Homeownership.” (image courtesy Realtor.com)

The Lehigh Valley is one of ten cities in the United States to make Realtor.com‘s list of the “10 U.S. Cities with Huge Increases in Homeownership.”

Despite declining homeownership rates on a national scale, the website sought to find metropolitan areas where rates are on the rise. The Allentown metropolitan area ranked fifth on the list.

“Affordability is a strong draw to these areas,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “A lot of these cities are on the outskirts of big cities where folks can snag an abode for less and then commute downtown for work.”

The median home price in the Lehigh Valley is $225,050, according to the site. The city’s current homeownership rate is 74.8 percent, a three-year positive change of 7.3 percent.

Read the full Realtor.com story here.

The article, written by Clare Trapasso, notes the revitalization of downtown Allentown and the Lehigh Valley’s booming logistics and e-commerce sector, specifically citing the Fedex Ground megahub being built, and companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Nestle establishing fulfillment centers in the region.

“These blue- and white-collar jobs, combined with low, low housing prices, mean that more locals can now afford to become homeowners,” the story notes. “The city is also popular with commuters from Philadelphia and New Jersey seeking cheaper homes and lower taxes.”

Nationally, homeownership rates reached 63.9% nationally in the third quarter of the year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s down about five percentage points from a high in 2004, the story notes.

Only four other cities had a higher three-year homeownership change than the Lehigh Valley. They include Milwaukee, Wis. (11 percent); Charlotte, N.C. (10.5 percent); Memphis, Tenn. (9.3 percent) and Baltimore, Md. (7.3 percent).

Other cities on the list that ranked lower than the Lehigh Valley include Pittsburgh, Pa.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Texas; and Syracuse, N.Y.

Realtor.com analyzed U.S. Census data comparing the homeownership rates in the first three-quarters of 2014 to the first three-quarters of 2017. The Census data only included 75 of the largest metros, with some cities moving on or off the list over the years, due to population shifts, according to the site. Home list price data from Realtor.com dates from Oct. 1.

Realtor.com is a the trusted resource for home buyers, sellers and dreamers, offering one of the Internet’s the most comprehensive database of for-sale properties. Operated by News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc., it is credited with pioneering the world of digital real estate 20 years ago.