Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Typical home $407,367 (+2.5% in a year), asking rent $1,516 (+6.2%). Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,196 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,084 +3%
- $397,283$407,367 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $104,428 +34%
- $302,939$407,367 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Hershey$2,138
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Hershey, PA rose 2.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Hershey, PA rose 6.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Hershey runs $1,518/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $3,034 a month against $1,516 rent: a $2,138 mortgage payment, plus $459 property tax and $436 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Hershey
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,034
- Renting$1,516
- Mortgage only$2,138
Property tax · $459/mo 1.35% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Dauphin County, PA
Insurance & upkeep · $436/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Hershey, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Hershey, in Dauphin County, had 13,858 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $78,587 a year and half less, against $76,242 across Dauphin County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Dauphin County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Hershey is a community in Dauphin County, best known as a chocolate town, and it has a settled feel, with households whose incomes run a little above the county's. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a good share of adults have a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer highs, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and many more in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with retail close behind. The biggest workplaces in Hershey include Hersheypark Entertainment Complex, the West Hershey Plant and The Hotel Hershey. Commutes are short, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. Hersheypark, an amusement park in or beside town, is the best known place to spend a day, and Hersheypark Stadium, also in or beside town, hosts events. ZooAmerica is a zoo in or beside town, and Hershey Theatre is a theatre in or beside town.
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- 5,791households
- 50%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Dauphin County had 190,394 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 68°. About 30 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Middletown Harrisburg International Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hershey
- Hersheypark Entertainment ComplexAmusement and theme parks2,950
- West Hershey PlantChocolate, confectionery, made from cacao beans1,227
- The Hershey Company Reese CampusLiquor, chocolate, made from purchased chocolate830
- The Hotel HersheyHotels and motels666
- Keystone Clearwater SolutionsConstruction management, water and sewer line659
- Hershey LodgeHotels and motels602
- Derry Township SDSchool district531FTE
- Hersheys Salty Snacks PlymouthPretzels manufacturing281
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,619 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hershey’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Dauphin County and the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA metro.
Hershey home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hershey$407,367
- Pennsylvania$287,078
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Hershey listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Hershey37.53%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Hershey36
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Hershey15
Zip codes with a Hershey address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hershey — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.