Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Pennsylvania (2026)

Chester leads Pennsylvania on gross yield at 22.5 percent, not because it is the cheapest city here (that is Johnstown at $52,250) but because its $1,500 median asking rent is high for a $80,000 home. One caution on the rent side: in Erie houses asked a median of $1,500 while the all-type median was $1,200. For a house, compare house rents with house sale prices; substituting the house rent into a ratio whose denominator is a mixed sale median only makes the number look better, not more representative. Volume and yield part ways: Erie closes about 99 homes a month, more than any other city here, and ranks seventeenth on yield at 9.6 percent. Measured against the whole state, these are cheap markets: a median of $148,375 here against $305,000 statewide. The table shows the 20 highest-yielding markets among 50 Pennsylvania cities meeting the coverage requirements; the yield range above describes the markets shown.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Chester, 22.5 percent gross

Homes in Chester closed at a median of $80,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,500, a gross yield of 22.5 percent. Full detail is on the Chester market page.

2. Johnstown, 21.8 percent gross

At $52,250 to buy and $950 a month to rent, Johnstown yields 21.8 percent gross on 192 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Johnstown market page.

3. Beaver Falls, 15.9 percent gross

Homes in Beaver Falls closed at a median of $84,720 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,125, a gross yield of 15.9 percent. Houses there closed at about $53 per square foot. The Beaver Falls market page carries the monthly figures.

4. Pottsville, 14.3 percent gross

Homes in Pottsville closed at a median of $105,000 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,250, a gross yield of 14.3 percent. Full detail is on the Pottsville market page.

5. New Castle, 13.6 percent gross

The numbers: $97,000 median closed price across 156 closings, $1,100 median asking rent across 149 listings, 13.6 percent gross. See the New Castle page for the property mix and the price band.

6. Aliquippa, 12.5 percent gross

At $120,000 to buy and $1,248 a month to rent, Aliquippa yields 12.5 percent gross on 166 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $93 per square foot. Full detail is on the Aliquippa market page.

7. Harrisburg, 12.3 percent gross

Homes in Harrisburg closed at a median of $144,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,471, a gross yield of 12.3 percent. Full detail is on the Harrisburg market page.

8. Butler, 11.8 percent gross

At $102,050 to buy and $1,000 a month to rent, Butler yields 11.8 percent gross on 206 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $73 per square foot. Full detail is on the Butler market page.

9. Coatesville, 11.6 percent gross

Rent is what puts Coatesville ninth here; on price alone it would sit seventeenth of 20. Homes in Coatesville closed at a median of $186,250 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,800, a gross yield of 11.6 percent. Full detail is on the Coatesville market page.

10. Coraopolis, 10.8 percent gross

Rent is what puts Coraopolis tenth here; on price alone it would sit fifteenth of 20. At $160,673 to buy and $1,450 a month to rent, Coraopolis yields 10.8 percent gross on 100 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $112 per square foot. See the Coraopolis page for the property mix and the price band.

11. Wilkes Barre, 10.5 percent gross

Read Wilkes Barre's $1,400 rent as an apartment figure: 61 percent of its listings are apartments or condos, and the house median is $1,500. The numbers: $160,000 median closed price across 171 closings, $1,400 median asking rent across 770 listings, 10.5 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $95 per square foot. See the Wilkes Barre page for the property mix and the price band.

12. York, 10.5 percent gross

Homes in York went under contract in a median of 10 days, so a buyer chasing its 10.5 percent yield needs financing ready before the search. At $160,000 to buy and $1,400 a month to rent, York yields 10.5 percent gross on 288 tracked closings. Full detail is on the York market page.

13. Reading, 10.4 percent gross

Reading moves fast, 9 days from listing to contract at the median, which matters more than its 10.4 percent yield if you cannot close quickly. The numbers: $185,000 median closed price across 447 closings, $1,600 median asking rent across 967 listings, 10.4 percent gross. Full detail is on the Reading market page.

14. Canonsburg, 10.1 percent gross

Canonsburg ranks fourteenth on yield but only eighteenth on entry price: the $1,682 median asking rent is doing the work, not a cheap purchase. At $200,000 to buy and $1,682 a month to rent, Canonsburg yields 10.1 percent gross on 153 tracked closings. The Canonsburg market page carries the monthly figures.

15. Altoona, 9.8 percent gross

Altoona is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: eighth on price, fifteenth on yield, because a $122,250 home there rents for only $1,000. Homes in Altoona closed at a median of $122,250 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,000, a gross yield of 9.8 percent. Houses there closed at about $76 per square foot. Full detail is on the Altoona market page.

16. New Kensington, 9.6 percent gross

New Kensington is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: eleventh on price, sixteenth on yield, because a $149,250 home there rents for only $1,195. At $149,250 to buy and $1,195 a month to rent, New Kensington yields 9.6 percent gross on 200 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $116 per square foot. Full detail is on the New Kensington market page.

17. Erie, 9.6 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Erie far: it is twelfth cheapest on this list and seventeenth on yield, with rent of $1,200 against a $150,000 median price. At $150,000 to buy and $1,200 a month to rent, Erie yields 9.6 percent gross on 593 tracked closings. See the Erie page for the property mix and the price band.

18. Whitehall, 9.2 percent gross

Only about 9 homes a month close in Whitehall; the yield is attractive, the resale pool is not deep. The numbers: $259,500 median closed price across 110 closings, $2,000 median asking rent across 124 listings, 9.2 percent gross. The Whitehall market page carries the monthly figures.

19. Pottstown, 9.1 percent gross

At $249,900 to buy and $1,895 a month to rent, Pottstown yields 9.1 percent gross on 210 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $169 per square foot. Full detail is on the Pottstown market page.

20. Williamsport, 8.7 percent gross

Williamsport is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: tenth on price, twentieth on yield, because a $147,500 home there rents for only $1,075. At $147,500 to buy and $1,075 a month to rent, Williamsport yields 8.7 percent gross on 341 tracked closings. See the Williamsport page for the property mix and the price band.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every Pennsylvania city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since September 10, 2025: 50 cities qualify and the table shows the 20 highest-yielding.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $305,000 across 83,307 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated September 10, 2026) and rental listings since September 10, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More Pennsylvania rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in Pennsylvania ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median, and Cap Rate by City ranks the Pennsylvania cities Resideline tracks by gross rental yield. The Pennsylvania housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest Pennsylvania markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.