Downtown Wilkes-Barre and the Market Street Bridge are seen at left, and the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton at right. Which city has lower rent prices? Read on.
Times Leader file (left), and Roger DuPuis (right)
Study’s results give Diamond City the edge in affordability
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Take that, Scranton!
In the age-old rivalry of two cities in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area but different counties, Wilkes-Barre outdid Scranton when it came to how much money can buy for a renter, according to a new study.
The RENTCafe blog (rentcafe.com), looked at how much space a person can rent in 57 Pennsylvania cities for $1,400 a month. That may sound high locally, but the website claims it is the state average.
In Wilkes-Barre, that kind of dough buys an average of 1,100 square feet. Scrantonians, alas, have to make due with 16% less space, averaging 918 square feet for the same amount.
No other local cities made the study, so Hazleton, Nanticoke and Pittston residents have to just hope they are better off in this (rental) space race.
Of the 57 cities the study looked at, Greensburg in Westmoreland County gives renters the biggest hang out for the bucks, averaging 1,540 square feet for $1,400 a month.
Most people would likely not be surprised to learn which city gives you the least for your $1,400 lease: Philadelphia, where that kind of rent will buy an average 676 square feet. Of course, you can also get some of the most luxuriant apartments in the City of Brotherly Love. Phillymag.com offered the “5 most expensive apartments” in a 2018 article, and the costliest one, in ritzy Rittenhouse Square, was $15,000 a month for 5,440 square feet.
If you’re trying to picture how big that is, the apartment in question had five bedrooms, five full baths and two half baths. That’s a lot, especially when you consider that, according to towncharts.com, the average house in Wilkes-Barre has 5.6 rooms total.
And $15,000 a month rent over a single year — $180,000, if you don’t want to do the math — would buy you almost any house in Wilkes-Barre. According to neighborhoodscout.com, the median home value of the Diamond City is $77,496. The site’s data says that and says that $180,000 would buy you any one of about 96% of the city’s houses, no mortgage necessary, with cash to spare.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish