The real estate marketing is thriving in Carbon County but the same rental issues that plague the nation exist here, too. Rising prices have made it more difficult for some people to buy a house or even afford their rent.

Justin Porembo, the chief executive officer of the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors Association, told those gathered for the 2025 State of the County on Thursday morning that it’s a seller’s market.

In Carbon County for the second quarter of 2025, the median sales price of a house increased by 3.6% to $243,500. On average, a property was on the market for just 51 days.

“Anything coming in the market is flying off the shelf,” he said.

What concerns him is the low inventory. Porembo said a healthy market inventory is six months, which means that there are enough properties for sale to meet the demands of buyers for six months. Both Carbon County and the Lehigh Valley have remained in the two-to-three-month inventory level since Covid.

“This concerns me,” he said.

Part of the problem is what Porembo calls the sub-sixers. These are real estate owners who purchased their property when interest rates were at the 2% to 5% range. They don’t want to sell and then purchase a new house at current interest rates between 6% to 7%.

If people aren’t going to sell their houses, then one of two things has to happen in order to increase the inventory, Porembo said. Either interest rates have to drop or construction has to increase, but neither are making much progress.

Few building

permits

According to a chart Porembo provided from the Federal Reserve Economic Data, the current number of building permits in Carbon County is as low as it was in the late 1980s. It was actually even lower from 2008 through 2022 when it briefly reached the levels of the late ‘80s before dropping again within the last year.

“It doesn’t look like we are going to build ourselves out of this predicament,” he said.

Fewer houses being built also reduces the number of homes available to rent.

Porembo said the rental market nationally flourished after the pandemic. In addition to the low inventory, this could be due to people having too much student or other debt, and not enough help for first-time homebuyers, he said.

Last month, the Lehigh Valley rental market was the second most competitive in the United States, Porembo said.

“It’s been identified that the Lehigh market right now has 15 renters competing for each unit,” he said. For those who can’t find housing in the Lehigh Valley, “I’m telling you they’re coming over the mountain. They’re going to be looking. They love the quality of life here.”

When they do look to Carbon County, the average cost of rent in August 2025 was $1,243, and can range from $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the location and house size, according to Zillow.com. This is an 8.5% increase year-to-year. The average cost of rent in the Lehigh Valley is $1,780 per month.

Realtor.com reported that 82% of renters in a 2023 survey said interest rates and inflation were why they did not plan to buy a house. Sixty percent said they didn’t have enough money for a down payment; and 41% said they didn’t think they could qualify for a mortgage loan. Of landlords surveyed, 65% said they intended to raise rent in 2024. Of the renters, 55% of them said they could not afford an increase.

Cultural issue

Carbon County Commissioner Michael Sofranko said at the State of the County that housing is a concern — affordable housing, transitional housing, enough housing.

Sofranko said there is a cultural problem in Carbon County.

“You heard me say at the beginning of this what struggles we have — cultural. Here it is. Do we have homeless people in Carbon County? Absolutely. Do we have affordable housing prices? Absolutely,” he said.

When it comes to change, people always say, “not in my neighborhood,” Sofranko said.

“Cultural, we need to be forward thinking,” he said. “You need to push down those barriers. You can’t tell me you care about the homeless unless you want to help us address it.”

Sofranko continued, “Nobody wants that college kid that’s just getting out of school to be able to rent a home, rent an apartment, live next door to me because he’s going to be partying with his friends on Saturday and Sunday. Right? But yet you want those college kids to come back here. You want those students to come back here with those educations that we paid for, but we provide no housing. We provide no where they can afford to start. We need to change the way we look at that.”

Sofranko said senior housing is another area that should be addressed. He closed his talk with a quote from Will Rodgers, “Never let yesterday use up too much of today.”

“What I mean by that is we all have struggles every day. Don’t let those struggles you just had today take up tomorrow, because tomorrow’s a new day. We have to be forward thinking to get things done here in Carbon County,” Sofranko said.

The 2025 State of the County was hosted by the Carbon Chamber of Economic Development at Blue Mountain Resort in Palmerton. The speakers also included Patrick Reilly, the president of the Board of Directors; Jared Soto, economic development specialist at CCEDC; Marlyn Kissner, vice president of membership and community relations at the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau, introductions by Kylie Adams-Weiss, the senior vice president of the CCEDC, and the opening by John Nespoli, the president of St. Luke’s Carbon and Lehighton campuses.