Harrisburg, PA

The affordability dashboard for Harrisburg, PA aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 9 ZIP codes covering 165,527 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of B- (67/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $75,588, median home value of $216,243, median rent of $1,285 per month, and 32.5% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. These four metrics alone explain most of the variance between city dashboards.

Cross-agency feeds widen the picture beyond Census demographics. HUD publishes a Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in this county at $1,493 per month (studio $1,058, 1BR $1,212, 3BR $1,920, 4BR $1,977).

Reading the overall grade requires reading all seven dimensions together. The score weights Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, and Childcare 10%, with each sub-score benchmarked against national percentiles rather than state averages — so the grade is genuinely comparable across any city in the country. Unemployment currently reads 5.6% and poverty 14.3% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.