Lancaster appreciation rates and housing market information

Lancaster housing market information

With 56,347 people, 23,021 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $137,071, house prices in Lancaster are solidly below the national average.

row houses and other attached homes are the single most common housing type in Lancaster, accounting for 48.45% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Lancaster include duplexes, homes converted to apartments, or other small apartment buildings (20.79%), large apartment complexes or high rise apartments (17.05%), and a few single-family detached homes (13.41%). Cities that are predominantly high-density buildings are relatively uncommon in the US. Because of the density, these types of cities are often walkable and compact, and often have a lively downtown.

People in Lancaster primarily live in small (one, two, or no bedroom) row houses and other attached homes. Lancaster has a mixture of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing.

The housing in Lancaster was primarily built before 1939 (54.03%), making the housing stock in Lancaster some of the older overall in America, although there is a range of ages of homes in Lancaster. The next most important Lancaster housing age is 1940-1969 (32.21%), followed by 1970-1994 (12.40%). There's also some housing in Lancaster built between 1995 and later (1.36%).

Lancaster home appreciation rates

Real estate appreciation rates in Lancaster have tracked to near the national average over the last ten years, with the annual appreciation rate averaging 6.41% during the period.

Over the last year, Lancaster appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Lancaster's appreciation rate has been -1.67%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Lancaster were at -0.17%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -0.68%.

Relative to Pennsylvania, our data show that Lancaster's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 20% of the other cities and towns in Pennsylvania.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Lancaster differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Lancaster - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 1990, to assist you in making the best Lancaster real estate investment or home purchase decisions.