West Reading, Pennsylvania.
Typical home $242,369 (-0.6% in a year), asking rent $1,662 . Reading, PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$752 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,529 -1%
- $243,897$242,369 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $65,054 +37%
- $177,315$242,369 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.
- West Reading$1,272
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in West Reading, PA fell 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in West Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania
West Reading is a borough of 4,553 people in Berks County. Half its households earn more than $65,885 a year and half less, against $79,777 across Berks County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Berks County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. West Reading is a small borough in Berks County, with a population that is younger than you might expect for a place this size. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the county, and incomes run below the county's. Rents are noticeably higher than home values would suggest. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, banking, insurance and property, and retail also employing people in town. Health care is the biggest source of jobs in West Reading itself, led by Reading Hospital and Medical Center, with Tower Health Medical Group and Saberhealth also among the largest workplaces. The drive to work is a moderate one, and only a small share of people work from home. Unemployment in Berks County is lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. Within the borough or right beside it, the Reading Public Museum is a botanical garden as well as a museum, and Tulpehocken Creek runs close by. A short drive away, Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center is a protected area for walking and time outdoors, and the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is nearby for anyone who likes aircraft. The Schuylkill River is a longer drive away.
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- 1,708households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Berks County had 175,054 jobs in 2025, 0.8% 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 86° and lows near 66°. About 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Reading Spaatz Field weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in West Reading
- Reading Hospital and Medical CenterGeneral hospital4,432FTE
- Tower Health Medical GroupClinics/centers of health practitioners with multi-industry degrees1,382
- TowerDirectAmbulance services, air or ground201
- SaberhealthSkilled nursing facilities159
- Tower Health Urgent CareAmbulance services, air or ground135
- West Reading Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation CenterSkilled nursing facilities115
- William A FraserOffice machinery and equipment rental and leasing40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,680 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in West Reading’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 Berks County and the Reading, PA metro.
West Reading home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- West Reading$242,369
- 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.
- West Reading6
Zip codes with a West Reading address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls West Reading — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.