Housing
The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission brings together local governments, community organizations, and other stakeholders to increase understanding of the Region's housing needs. FutureLV: The Regional Plan aims to improve current and future access to attainable housing, and the LVPC facilitates a cross-sector approach to increasing housing attainability for all. The goal is to promote a balanced housing market where people at every income level can find the housing they want.
Housing Supply and Attainability Strategy
Nearly a decade of suppressed housing construction, combined with a consistently growing population, has resulted in a 9,000-unit regionwide housing shortage that’s making it difficult for families to afford homes in the Lehigh Valley. The Lehigh Valley Housing Supply and Attainability Strategy will provide achievable ways of increasing housing at appropriate income levels and in locations that support the needs of everyone. A partnership of the LVPC, Lehigh County and the Urban Land Institute, the Housing Strategy will be a result of collaborating with all housing sector stakeholders, including buyers, financiers, builders, designers, planners, educators and government leaders. Tackling an issue this important can only be done by working together.
The Kickoff Event - February 5, 2025
Market Reports
The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has a long history of following and analyzing the region’s housing market. The LVPC creates a five-year Housing Market Report every two years. The report is based on information collected by Lehigh and Northampton counties, as well as the US Census’ American Community Survey, and presents information on housing sales and rental costs and occupancy for the Lehigh Valley. This information is valuable to municipal staff, elected officials, housing professionals and the general public, and helps to inform conversations about housing and housing-related issues.
2014 Regional Housing Plan
Other Related Development Plans
Energy powers our daily lives from heating and cooling our homes and offices to our modes of transportation. Pricing and availability go hand and hand with energy and its consumption. In order to make practical decisions about energy consumption and conservation an existing baseline must be established. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s staff developed an information packet consisting of baseline energy data on the state and region. The packet was developed to assist the LVPC’s Environment Committee craft goals, policies and strategies for the energy element of the Lehigh Valley Comprehensive Plan. The committee believes the information contained in the packet such as: Energy Sources, Energy Pricing, House Heating Fuel for Occupied Units and Heat Calculator are timely for the discussion on powering the valley for the future.
Nationwide attention has been focused on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) as a development concept that can be used to achieve multiple smart growth and sustainable development objectives. TODs have been promoted and built in numerous large metropolitan areas across the country.
The purpose of this report is to introduce the TOD concept to the Lehigh Valley and assess its potential local applicability using rigorous data-based analysis. The report assesses the conditions, criteria and design elements necessary to build TODs that establish an actual connection between transit and development, rather than developments that merely use the term for marketing purposes.
The report contains a critical assessment of potential Lehigh Valley sites with regard to how each site meets the identified criteria.