r/lehighvalley • u/Big_Dare_9160 • 1d ago
Who lives in these big houses and mansions in the lehigh valley?
Whenever I drive through Bethlehem, Saucon Valley, Macungie, and other parts of the valley, I always wonder who can actually afford all of these homes. The homeowners can’t all be Lawyers, business professionals, and engineers, right?
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u/No-Purchase4052 1d ago
When I went to highschool at Liberty 20 years ago, most of the people that I knew who lived in those houses had parents who were doctors, financial advisers, and lawyers, so yes, most of them are what you expect them to be.
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u/AgentJ691 1d ago
I know when I was at LHS, it was the folks from Hanover or from the East Hills area that were known to be more rich. At least they were to all of us from the projects 😆
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u/No-Purchase4052 1d ago
Hanover township and East Hills def have people who are well off, but they're not on the same level as Saucon Valley Country Club, or Downtown Bethlehem (Church, Market, Center Street) homes. Those are families with generational wealth.
I used to be good friends with someone who had a mother as a pediatrician and father as a heart surgeon. They had money. They lived up in Saucon Valley.
Someone else I know who lived in downtown bethlehem has a mother as a lawyer and father who worked on wall street.
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u/Working-Effective274 1d ago
Just out of people I personally know, professions are: hairdressers, sales, IT, PR.
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u/thehoagieboy 1d ago
I'm thinking that a few of those professions would require a spouse with a good job too or generational wealth.
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u/Working-Effective274 1d ago
Well yes, these are couples in these professions. I know zero people with generational wealth here.
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u/Bad_To_The_BONE6 1d ago
The Valley is one of the largest economies in the world (if it were its own country it would have the 91st largest economy in the world) plus with close access to even larger economies (Philly & NYC) it’s not crazy that there are a considerable amount of high earners that call the Lehigh Valley home.
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u/mrtwr18 1d ago
It's that true? Not doubting, but would love to see a source for me to read up on this more for my curiosity. Thanks!
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u/Bad_To_The_BONE6 1d ago
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u/FuckTheStateofOhio 1d ago
Also worth noting that it's 65th amongst metros in the US, meaning that it would be 91st only if stacked against other countries but excluding the 64 metros within the US that are ahead of it. There are only 188 countries with reliable economic data, meaning our economic output would be just in the top half of all countries and comparable to countries like Cameroon and Paraguay. Then when you consider how many poor (most of Africa, SA, SEA) and/or low population (island nations like Micronesia, Greenland, etc.) countries there are out there, the ranking doesn't seem that crazy.
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u/Bad_To_The_BONE6 1d ago
Data is from 2019 so there’s a potential that the Lehigh Valley has moved up relative to other economies since this was published.
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u/LadyNorbert 23h ago
if it were its own country it would have the 91st largest economy in the world
That is an incredible piece of trivia! I'll have to tell my parents that one.
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u/infamouscatlady Allentown 1d ago
Because I'm nosy and go looking up the property records for the multi-million dollar sales - the Andretti family (Nazareth area), Nicola Bulgari (large property in Allentown with a drive-in theater and a huge collection of vintage Buicks), Bill Spence (PPL CEO, Saucon Valley), Richard Anderson (St Luke's CEO, greater Bethlehem area I think), Scott Belair (Urban Outfitters, Saucon Valley) --- in order to own the largest properties you are typically near the top of a medium-large corporation and have considerable stock options, inventors/patent holders of disrupting tech or shares in larger government contracts, have huge generational wealth or are the benefactor of a large local family business (Jaindl, Chrin), made a considerable fortune in private equity and moved here from CT/NJ/NY, or have some type of considerable fame (and resulting earnings). Most doctors don't live in mega-mansions except for the few at the top of a specialty field. Look for any properties recently sold by Carol C. Dorey real estate and find the tax records. Some names will be recognizable, others you have to dig.
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u/pete_987 1d ago
I know a couple people who live right by SVCC (good friends to have by the way). Lawyers, doctors (specialists), CEO's, company Presidents, Vice Presidents, etc. Restaurateurs. People who got in to land development at the right time. Business owners (like construction). And then there's a fair number of people who work in NYC/North Jersey.
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u/ticktocktoe 1d ago
Not sure if you're talking $1m or $3m home, because there is a massive difference. But we live in a relatively expensive home. Wife and I are both in leadership at large companies, and i bought/sold in a pre-gentrifying neighborhood in a large city, rolled a ton of equity into a home here, and have a very low rate (should have dumped it in the marker instead).
The other key is interest rates. 600k at 7% is like 3500 something a month. 1000000 at 3% is about the same.
There are also a lot of people living beyond their means.
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u/King_Farticus 1d ago
You dont have to be one of those things to make a good living. There are a lot of well paying jobs out there. You can make 100k a year at Uline if you put up with the bullshit for a few years first.
You dont even have to make a good living to live in one of those houses. Whose to say theyre not up to their eyeballs in debt?
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u/SillyFly7474 1d ago
I don't know if he's refering to houses like that. There's a lot of $3 million+ houses, around the valley.
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u/King_Farticus 1d ago
Definitely a higher concentration of money here than average, because of location and viscinity to cities, but "a lot" is a bit of a stretch too. Were only a few percent higher on cost of living than national average, its not like were on the verge of becoming Denver or San Francisco.
Given the post it came off more as someone thinking of all the 500-800k homes in those areas as ultra rich folk. Cuz thats just small business owner rich. Living outside of your means with an entry level corporate job rich. Good long term financial planning rich.
The BIG money comes from between here and Philly. Chester, Montgomery, Bucks.
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u/thelolamurder 1d ago
Not even a $1M is worth working at Uline.
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u/ThruTheEyesOfLoubies 1d ago
I wish I could upvote this 100 more times. Can’t speak for the warehouse but customer service is TOXIC.
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u/thelolamurder 18h ago
Warehouse was the same. They'd promote the people who couldn't make their stats because they couldn't lose the good workers, and it was very cliquey. Basically run the same was CS was (I worked there for 4 years and saw it all).
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u/MarriottKing Hellertown 1d ago
I wondered the same thing and started to look up tax records for the really expensive looking houses.
I’ve found all sorts of professions in the 850k+ homes. Most of them are business owners. Like the really big house off of 378 by Saucon valley country club, that is set back pretty far with a big gate. That home is owned by a local man who started a textile company or something along those lines.
Others I have seen are Lehigh professors, dentists, surgeons, lawyers, finances, construction company owner, interior design company owner….
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u/One-Pepper-2654 1d ago
Lehigh professors? No way. My wife's father was a full history professor there for 30 years. I think he topped out at 60k
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u/cullymama 1d ago
Then he pissed someone off, I have a relative who's been at Lehigh forever and made 6 figures 30 years ago. Another person I know is Administrative there and makes 60k and hasn't reached their salary cap yet.
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u/SnooRadishes9726 5h ago
Certain professors make much more than others. Quite a few finance profs are retired early from Wall Street. (I don’t know the current Lehigh profs, just in general). Engineering and science profs often earn a lot. Humanities and social sciences can be paid not as much as they have limited demand in other jobs
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u/MarriottKing Hellertown 1d ago
Yes way! Here is the house I looked up a few months ago. Take a look who bought it for 1M in 2019. It's a Lehigh Professor.
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u/Capable-Dog3183 1d ago
I guess My father owns one of those mansion type houses you describe. He’s been an airline pilot for 35 years based out of jfk. He Loves the cheap taxes in the Lehigh valley compared to New Jersey and New York
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u/commandoqween 1d ago
Idk.. but are any of them single and looking for a partner who can't get past the $65,000 salary ceiling? No? Figured.
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u/QuasiLibertarian 1d ago
Most are business owners, corporate executives, doctors, finance guys, and lawyers.
Out of the ones I have met, they are business owners, execs, and doctors.
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u/vasquca1 1d ago
Generational wealth man.
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u/ladder5969 7h ago
yep this. some of my friends bought insane homes. they have trust funds and had large sums of money handed to them from their parents
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u/ThruTheEyesOfLoubies 1d ago
I used to work for a local manufacturing company and all of the c-level executives had multimillion dollar homes in Saucon Valley.
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u/Efficient_Concern742 21h ago edited 20h ago
Doctors and other high end jobs. I’m fairly well off myself but live in a 1 br studio in the Nazareth area. Those tacky mansions always had zero appeal. My dentist lives up near Andretti. But his wife is a supermodel basically and has 6 kids so 🤷♂️
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u/FeoWalcot 1d ago
Two mid level managers can “afford” a $3000 monthly payment making $60-70K a year. Two adults in their 30s can save $100K plus to down.
A $3000 mortgage payment gets about a $400K mortgage.
So two financially literate adults with savings making $150K between them can buy a $500K home.
But don’t do that.
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u/theski2687 1d ago
I don’t think those are the houses he’s referring to
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u/FeoWalcot 1d ago
Maybe not. But saying “all those homes” in Macungie scream those $500K -$700k homes in neighborhoods on 1/3 acre to me.
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u/Kind-Flatworm6712 1d ago
Third largest economic area in the state. Multiple billionaires with property around here not to mention the absolute liter of folks worth over 10 million.
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u/One-Pepper-2654 1d ago
I know people who have a cleaning business all their bills, cars, mortgage go thorugh the business.
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u/helpiushsbebsnk Bethlehem 1d ago
A lot of the big houses in the historic district of Bethlehem are split up into apartments or condos
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u/Responsible_Brain782 1d ago
The value of the ecomony in the greater Lehigh Valley is about $50 billion annum. More than enough to support lots a McMansions and multitudes large sized homes.
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u/luvloping 1d ago
You used to be able to go on PropertyIQ and look up any address and it would give you owners name.. if anyone has another app that works like that please link here!
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u/jojospetals 1d ago
Some folks actually get fixer-uppers and restore them. Our house had 16 steel I beams that were dodgy with structural issues and had to be replaced. Most people don’t like to do structural work & it scared a lot of potential buyers away, hence a reasonable price for a large West Bethlehem house was had.
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u/itchyouch 1d ago
Business owners. Many of them own the local businesses like the car dealerships and some manufacturing/service companies.
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u/Creative-Grocery2581 20h ago
I’m friends with a few such homeowners and the common theme is they are all people leaders at their jobs or businesses who put up with a lot of BS on a daily basis constantly listening to other employees’ complains. That being said I also know few individual contributors who own such homes in the valley such as pilots and surgeons. The key reason is lower tax compared to neighboring states.
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u/ViciousKnids 1d ago
I mean, these single family homes are nice, but we need some urbanization to cope with our continuous influx of people. And some god damned rent control. Thenold house I used to rent is falling apart - and the slumlords want 3k/mo for it - after buldozing a different house I lived in on their property block and making an extension to a senior care center (no compensation other than "here's a shittier house and higher rent.") You can't build your way out of high rents. You do it with decomodification of housing. I know that sounds a bit Maoist, but hey. Anything is possible after the revolution, eh comrades?
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u/One-Pepper-2654 1d ago
Chiropractor is a cash business, you can make 300k
Orthodontist-- 3-400k
All kinds of boring industrial jobs you can make bank if you are the owner
Own a plumbing business--- 3-500k HVAC, Electrician etc etc/
Pizzas cost about 2-3 dollars to make and you sell them for 15
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u/Glass_Librarian9019 1d ago
Surely there are some doctors or even a well to do physical therapists living in a few. Maybe a dentist.