Old Forge, Pennsylvania.
Typical home $228,987 (+9.0% in a year). Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$791 (+192%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,831 +9%
- $210,157$228,987 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $87,336 +62%
- $141,652$228,987 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.
- Old Forge$1,202
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 7 years.
Typical home values in Old Forge, PA rose 9.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Old Forge is a borough of 8,497 people in Lackawanna County. Half its households earn more than $71,812 a year and half less, against $66,223 across Lackawanna County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 70% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 30% are rented. Unemployment in Lackawanna County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Old Forge is a borough in Lackawanna County, home to a close-knit community of homeowners, with most houses lived in by their owners. Incomes run a little above the county's, and a smaller share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect for a former coal-region town. Winters are cold, with January highs only a little above freezing and lows well into the teens, and a good deal of snow falls each year. Summers are warm, with July the warmest month.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in town are Old Forge Schools, Pennsylvania Bedding and Pride Mobility Products Old Forge. A four-year degree is held by a minority of adults, and the typical commute is modest, with a small group working from home.
Things to do. Keyser Creek and Spring Brook run in or beside town, and the Lackawanna River is a short drive away. Steamtown National Historic Site, a protected area devoted to railroading, is also a short drive away, as is Montage Mountain, a ski area that suits the snowy winters. For a longer outing, Pocono Raceway is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 3,786households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lackawanna County had 98,798 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 45 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wilkes-barre International Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Old Forge
- Old Forge SDSchool district128FTE
- JED Pool ToolsPool and equipment merchant wholesalers46
- Pennsylvania BeddingMattresses manufacturing30
- Pride Mobility Products Old ForgeWheelchairs manufacturing25
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 101 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
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Old Forge’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 Lackawanna County and the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA metro.
Old Forge home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Old Forge$228,987
- Pennsylvania$287,078
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Old Forge 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Old Forge19
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Old Forge9
Zip codes with a Old Forge address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Old Forge — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.