Lehigh County Approves Its 2027 Property Tax Increase

Lehigh County commissioners gave the 2027 county budget its final vote Wednesday night, Oct. 28, and it passed with a county property tax increase. We wrote about the first vote on Oct. 14. This is how it ended.

What passed

The Board of Commissioners approved the 2027 budget with the increase, according to the WFMZ report from the Oct. 28 meeting. The final rate came in slightly lower than County Executive Josh Siegel first proposed. To get there, commissioners cut two county staff positions, a chief of staff and a communications director, and a clean-election grant program.

Two other amendments failed. One would have held the county rate flat. The other would have made the increase smaller.

Siegel told commissioners the size of the increase came from years of not raising taxes gradually. The 790 WAEB report notes the county last cut taxes in 2016.

Who feels it first

If you live in the house, a bigger county line on the bill is something you budget for.

It lands differently on a Lehigh County house nobody lives in. That might be the twin in Allentown that came to you from a parent, or the rental in Whitehall that has sat empty since the last tenant left. A house like that already carries:

• county, municipal and school district taxes, all three
• heat through the winter so the pipes do not freeze
• the lawn, the sidewalk snow and the township notices
• the drive over to check on it

Next year the county line on that bill goes up.

If the house is in Allentown

One more date matters inside the city. The City of Allentown transfer tax notice says the city share of the realty transfer tax went up on Jan. 1, 2026, and that the rate "is determined by when a document is submitted for recording, not by the settlement date." Your title company can tell you how that applies to your deed.

What we do

We buy houses in Lehigh County and across eastern Pennsylvania directly from the owner, as-is, with our own money. There is no cleanout, no repair list and no showings, and you pick the closing date. We do not sell our contracts to other investors. We close on the house ourselves.

If you would rather not carry a Lehigh County house into 2027, tell us the address on our cash offer form and we will tell you plainly what we can do.