A continuing anomaly of the Greater Johnstown area is to be found in the real estate market, with prices levitating upward despite what should be limiting economic factors.
Understand that for various reaons I have been paying close attention to local housing prices for maybe the past 15 years — mostly via realtor.com. Back when I began monitoring this, housing prices in our area were abnormally low, even considering a backdrop of declining population and below-median income figures.
Back then, the point was made to various acquaintances living in higher-cost markets that they could sell and rebuy a similar property here, banking a considerable capital gain in the process.
I recall a time maybe 10 years back when nearly 300 homes were for sale in the 15905 zip code alone. A quick check of realtor.com shows 56 homes currently listed as available in 15905.
And one of those, a ranch-style example in the Westwood section, is typical. It sold for $39,401 in April 1997, for $50,000 in April 2025, and now has a pending buyer at a price of $129,900.
We will presume someone bought a home that was down on its luck and rehabilitated it, with the description confirming that presumption.
Regardless, this house has some of what used to be large red flags that hampered sales, including being in the Greater Johnstown School District. Also, there is only a partial basement – many of these Westwood homes have none. And there is no garage.
If you have no children, not a lot of stuff one might store in the basement, and no car you want to protect from the elements, this is a suitable purchase, albeit at a relatively high price.
But even houses in troubled Moxham (15902) seem to be riding the appreciation curve.
There is a current listing on realtor.com for a multi-family home in Moxham selling for $70,000, a $10,000 reduction from its previous asking price.
This property last sold in April 2023 for $50,000.
You might suspect this is another example of a flipper purchasing low, fixing up the place, and selling high. But, no, the description describes this house as needing to be rehabbed, with heat only working in one unit.
Despite this, the asking price is up 40 percent in two years, and was up 60 percent on the initial ask.
Inflation has been more like a total of 10 percent in that two-year stretch. Meanwhile, interest rates nationally have risen to near 7 percent for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and I presume that is similar for Johnstown. This increases monthy mortgage costs and prices some would-be buyers out of the market.
Median income figures for the City of Johnstown continue to be in the basement compared with other Pennsylvania municipalities. Even if you broaden your parameters to include Johnstown’s suburbs, median income for Greater Johnstown is only about 75 percent of national figures, according to censusreporter.org.
And we continue to lose population, which should indicate a lower demand for houses.
Also, our aged population means more and more houses should be coming on the market due to death or relocation to easier to care for apartments, or assisted living facilities.
This should equate to supply exceeding demand and, according to Economics 101, lower prices.
If you want to credit demand to house flippers, it still begs the question of who is the ultimate buyer? With a below-median average income, a tepid job market, and declining population, to what do we owe the steady demand at the margin?
I cannot explain it. This prompts me to quote the late economist Herbert Stein (father of Ben Stein, the lawyer, comedian, commentator, actor who played the teacher in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day off). Herbert is credited with observing “If a thing can’t go on forever, it will eventually stop.”
I’m thinking the Greater Johnstown real estate market can’t sustain this rate of ascent, and so is getting ever closer to a decline.
But what do I know?
Sam Ross Jr's site 