Howard, Pennsylvania.
. State College, PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$793 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
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.
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
Living in Howard, Centre County, Pennsylvania
Howard is a borough of 687 people in Centre County. Half its households earn more than $69,306 a year and half less, against $74,291 across Centre County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Centre County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Howard is a small borough in Centre County, and most of the homes there are lived in by their owners. The median age is in line with a working-age community, incomes run below the county's, and poverty is low. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, restaurants and hotels, and shops. Across Centre County, the largest workplaces include Pennsylvania State University, Mount Nittany Medical Center and State College Area Schools. The usual commute is a fairly short drive, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Beaver Stadium, the stadium best known in the area, is a longer drive away. Closer to home, Bald Eagle State Park is a protected area a short drive away, and the Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir lies in or beside town.
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- 231households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Centre County had 69,346 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 58°. About 35 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Millheim weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Centre County
- Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity or college17,378
- Mount Nittany Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,612FTE
- State College Area SDSchool district1,296FTE
- Bellefonte Area SDSchool district406FTE
- Restek Corporation BellefonteGas chromatographic instruments, industrial process-type, manufacturing387
- Wegmans Food MarketsRetail supermarkets379
- Pennsylvania State University-World CampusUniversity or college366
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters344
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 117 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 13,157 people in all across the county; Howard has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- LightningRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively 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 Howard’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 Centre County and the State College, PA metro.
Howard home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Howard11
Zip codes with a Howard address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Howard — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.