Rochester, Pennsylvania.
, asking rent $879 . Pittsburgh, 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 Rochester, Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Rochester is a borough of 3,472 people in Beaver County. Half its households earn more than $43,080 a year and half less, against $71,089 across Beaver County; 24% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Beaver County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rochester is a small borough on the Beaver River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Its residents are somewhat older than the typical American, and household incomes run well below the county's, with a good many people living below the poverty line. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than you might expect, and winters are cold, with summers that turn warm, and a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in transport, warehouses and utilities, and in manufacturing. Across Beaver County, some of the largest workplaces are Heritage Valley Beaver, a general hospital, along with Pennsylvania Cyber CS Schools and Lindy Paving. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year earlier, and the number of jobs has been close to steady. Getting to work is a short trip for most people, and few work from home.
Things to do. The Beaver River runs in or beside town, and Fort McIntosh, an archaeological site from the area's frontier past, is also in or beside town. For a longer drive, the Ohio River is among the nearby waterways, and the Andy Warhol Museum is one of the museums to visit.
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- 1,745households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Beaver County had 48,541 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 61°. About 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beaver Falls Northeast weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Beaver County
- Heritage Valley BeaverGeneral hospital1,028FTE
- Pennsylvania Cyber CS SchoolsSchool district762FTE
- Lindy PavingAsphalt paving695
- Beaver Valley Nuclear Power PlantElectric power generation, nuclear667
- McCarl'sMechanical contractors560
- VekaProfile shapes, nonrigid plastics, manufacturing552
- Shell Polymers MonacaEthylene made from refined petroleum or liquid hydrocarbons506
- EatonSwitchgear and switchboard apparatus mfg446
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 138 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 15,357 people in all across the county; Rochester has none of its own. Hospitals come 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
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rochester’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Beaver County and the Pittsburgh, PA metro.
Rochester 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Rochester listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Rochester27.41%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rochester31
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rochester10
Zip codes with a Rochester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rochester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.