Counties / Pennsylvania / Cumberland County

Cumberland County, PA

FIPS 42041 · population 268,323 · part of Harrisburg, PA

$353k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$353k
▲ 3.0% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,611
▲ 3.6% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.5%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,493
market rent is 1.08x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+50.0%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+3.0%FHFA HPI2025+3.9%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$278k
Surveyed gross rent$1,249
Rent burden 30%+41.7%
Median year built1978
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
4.4%vacant
111,278estimated housing units
Occupied tenure28.7% renter
owner 71.3%renter 28.7%
Structure mix76.1% single-family
Single-family 76.1%20+ units 4.9%Mobile home 4.6%Other 14.3%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs137,832▲ 0.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments7,096annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,269▲ 1.3% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities31.3% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.1%WEEKLY WAGE+1.3%Trade, transportation, and utilities31.3%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Cumberland County is a conditional screen: operators able to test parcel-level flood and tax exposure should investigate, while buyers relying on low carrying costs or rapid resale confirmation should be cautious. Zillow’s county observation labeled 2026-06 shows a $353,178 median home value, up 3.03%, and $1,611 median monthly asking rent. Its stated gross yield is 5.47% before costs, a measured rent-based starting point rather than a HUD-derived yield.

02Housing economics

HUD FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent, and cannot replace the published market-rent measure. Test gross yield against the 1.17% effective property-tax rate and $3,254 county median annual tax; neither county figure prices a specific house. FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 3.91%. It confirms positive direction, but is not a dollar home value and cannot be averaged with Zillow’s differently dated, differently constructed change.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS evidence showed higher year-over-year active-listing supply, 35-day median marketing time, and 12.74% of listings with price reductions. These measure visible asking supply, marketing time and seller concessions—not closed-sale prices or stand-alone buyer demand. QCEW annual covered workplace employment was nearly unchanged; Trade, transportation, and utilities was the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Net tax-return migration was 804 households, but incoming movers’ average AGI was $5,554 below outgoing movers’. Investors were 10.55% of purchase mortgages to non-occupants.

04Risk & next checks

Modeled annual climate loss of 0.10% of building value aligns with inland flood, but does not establish a parcel’s flood zone, insurance premium or mitigation need. Property-level flood and insurance data, condition, debt terms, vacancy and operating costs, lease performance, and closed-sale comparables are not published. Those gaps prevent a net-yield calculation, asset-level carrying-cost test, and confirmation that listing evidence translates into purchase basis or exit value. Check flood and insurance quotes, tax assessment, rent roll, expense history, and closed-sale comps.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Cumberland County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Carlisle borough21.9KMechanicsburg borough9.7KCamp Hill borough8.2KLower Allen CDP7.6KNew Cumberland borough7.6KEnola CDP6.5KShippensburg borough*5.6KSchlusser CDP5.4K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

21 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Carlisle boroughIncorporated place
    21,852
  2. 02
    Mechanicsburg boroughIncorporated place
    9,720
  3. 03
    Camp Hill boroughIncorporated place
    8,169
  4. 04
    Lower Allen CDPCensus-designated place
    7,646
  5. 05
    New Cumberland boroughIncorporated place
    7,580
  6. 06
    Enola CDPCensus-designated place
    6,534
  7. 07
    Shippensburg boroughIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    5,620
  8. 08
    Schlusser CDPCensus-designated place
    5,402
  9. 09
    Lemoyne boroughIncorporated place
    4,742
  10. 10
    Boiling Springs CDPCensus-designated place
    3,334
  11. 11
    Wormleysburg boroughIncorporated place
    3,077
  12. 12
    Mount Holly Springs boroughIncorporated place
    2,373
Show 9 more places
  1. 13
    Messiah College CDPCensus-designated place
    2,329
  2. 14
    Shippensburg University CDPCensus-designated place
    2,071
  3. 15
    Shiremanstown boroughIncorporated place
    1,777
  4. 16
    Newville boroughIncorporated place
    1,283
  5. 17
    West Fairview CDPCensus-designated place
    1,208
  6. 18
    New Kingstown CDPCensus-designated place
    748
  7. 19
    Carlisle Barracks CDPCensus-designated place
    730
  8. 20
    Newburg borough (Cumberland County)Census place
    444
  9. 21
    Plainfield CDPCensus-designated place
    248

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.105% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.17%

$3,254 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+804

7,971 in · 7,167 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$5,554

$66,331 arriving · $71,885 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors10.5%

303 of 2,871 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings396▲ 5.6% year over year
Median days on market35▼ 4.8% year over year
Listings price-reduced12.7%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 2.7% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Harrisburg, PA

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Cumberland County268,323$353k$1,6115.5%inland flooding
Dauphin County289,593$284k$1,4045.9%inland flooding
Perry County46,239$299kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Parcel flood exposure or insurance costs could overwhelm the gross-yield screen.
  2. County-level rent, tax, and value measures may not match the selected asset.
  3. MLS listing conditions may not translate into closed-sale liquidity or a supportable exit value.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can HUD FMR substitute for market rent in the yield calculation?

No. HUD FMR is a payment standard, while county median asking rent is separately published.

What does the investor-share metric cover?

It covers purchase mortgages to non-occupants, not the full universe of investor acquisitions.

What missing evidence prevents a net-yield conclusion?

The record lacks property-level flood and insurance data, vacancy, operating costs, debt terms, and lease-performance evidence.