Thorndale, Pennsylvania.
Typical home $418,473 (+2.0% in a year), asking rent $1,744 . Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,232 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,283 +2%
- $410,190$418,473 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $96,597 +30%
- $321,876$418,473 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.
- Thorndale$2,196
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Thorndale, PA rose 2.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Thorndale, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Thorndale, in Chester County, had 3,669 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Chester County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Thorndale is a small community in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where residents are somewhat younger than many older homeowners might expect. Very few residents live below the poverty line, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, while July brings warm summer afternoons.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, banking and insurance, and professional and business services also well represented. Across Chester County, some of the largest workplaces are QVC, THE Chester County Hospital and West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The typical commute is moderate, and a fair number of residents work from home.
Things to do. Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden, and Marsh Creek State Park, a protected area, are both a short drive away. Closer still, the Caln Meeting House, a small museum, sits in or beside town. For a longer outing, the Brandywine Museum of Art is a museum a longer drive away.
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- 1,548households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 20%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chester County had 253,659 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 65°. About 32 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Coatesville West weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chester County
- QVCTelevision order, home shopping3,505
- CubeSmartWarehousing, self storage3,348
- THE Chester County HospitalGeneral hospital2,218FTE
- West Chester University of PennsylvaniaUniversity or college1,844
- Downingtown Area SDSchool district1,802FTE
- Johnson JohnsonMed tech orthopedics1,577
- West Chester Area SDSchool district1,511FTE
- Paoli HospitalGeneral hospital1,362FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 459 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 63,589 people in all across the county; Thorndale has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Thorndale’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Chester County and the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro.
Thorndale home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Thorndale$418,473
- Pennsylvania$287,078
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Thorndale address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Thorndale — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.