Living in Allentown, PA

Crime rates in Allentown are a touch above the national midpoint. The violent crime index comes in at 102 and property crime at 77, where 100 represents the U.S. average. That's not alarming, but it's enough that you should spend real time researching specific neighborhoods rather than assuming everywhere is equally fine. Talk to people who live there, walk the streets at different hours, and check the local police department's crime map. FBI UCR data.

It depends on your income, but the city-wide numbers are starting to feel tight. Median rent is $1,269/month against $53,403/year in household income — a 28.5% rent-to-income ratio. That's right at the line where financial advisors start raising eyebrows. You can make it work, especially with a roommate or dual income, but single earners at the median may feel squeezed. Some neighborhoods are cheaper than others, so shop around. Census ACS 2023.

Worth considering, yes. At 23 minutes average, the commute in Allentown isn't brutal but it's not trivial either. 71.2% drive alone, 3.3% ride transit, and 7.9% work remotely. Where you live relative to your office will make a bigger difference than the city-wide average suggests.

Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.