Lower Heidelberg has highest housing prices, far and wide

by Steve Reinbrecht

Lower Heidelberg, right here in Southwestern Berks County, tops the county’s median housing prices, data from the county planning commission show.

On a map of prices, the township stands out against the rest of Berks, Lancaster and Schuylkill counties like a single cherry tomato in the middle of a big spinach and kale salad.

The ranking puts Lower Heidelberg average house price -- $286,500 [plus or minus $31,000] -- in the ranks of those in Chester County and Montgomery counties.

“If you drive around the township, we have some mighty big houses,” said Lower Heidelberg Supervisor Debbie Scull. “People don’t ever realize they are there.”

She said many of the people in the expensive houses have transferred here from New York and New Jersey, have high incomes and can buy big and expensive houses.

Berks Planning Commission Executive Director Shannon Brossman said she was not sure why Lower Heidelberg had the highest house prices.

It’s not because of big-lot zoning, she and Scull said. The township has a mix of housing, they said.

Having so much preserved farmland is very attractive to the remaining lots, Brossman said.

Across Penn Avenue from Lower Heidelberg, [and in another measure of economic health] South Heidelberg ranked 10th for total assessed value in Berks County in 2014, the latest data available.

From 2008 to 2014, South Heidelberg grew 4.2 percent, by nearly $16 million, to almost $400 million in total assessed value. Berks’ total assessed value rose 2.1 percent over that period.

[Get ready for more statistics. Remember, Census estimates have large margins of error, especially with small communities.]

Of Berks’ 74 municipalities, Southwestern Berks punches above its weight, according to numbers from the Berks Planning Commission, which gleans data from the Census and other sources.

Lower Heidelberg was ranked 13th in total assessed value in 2014, up 3.7 percent, to nearly $374 million. Sinking Spring was ranked 21st in assessed value.

Between 2010 and 2015, the median housing value DROPPED in:

• The United States
• Berks County
• Spring Township
• and Southwestern Berks:
• Lower Heidelberg
• South Heidelberg
• Sinking Spring

BUT NOT Wernersville. Anybody have a theory?

Spring Township, Southwestern Berks’s neighbor directly east, had the highest assessed value in Berks in 2014, almost $1.6 billion. Reading was second, at just over $1.4 billion. Berks County’s total assessed value was about $18.5 billion.

Spring ranked second in assessed value per resident, topped only by New Morgan, an outlier because of its tiny population. I guess Spring has a lot of value in commercial and business properties.