Lewisburg Property Management

Property Management in Lewisburg, PA

Lewisburg is the top rent earner in our entire market territory. A one-bedroom apartment here rents for more than a three-bedroom house in some of the towns we serve.

We have been managing in Lewisburg since 2021, the same year we expanded into Danville. Both moves were about the same thing. The corridor south of us was getting stronger, and we wanted to be in it properly.

Bucknell University is a big part of why, but not for the student housing. Bucknell requires students to live on campus for all four undergraduate years, with limited exceptions for seniors in approved off campus housing. So this is not a student housing town, no matter what “college town” makes you picture. It is a campus generating a lot of economic activity, and the people who work there need somewhere to live. Faculty, staff, administrators, the whole operation. Those are long term tenants with real incomes, and they do not turn over every year.

WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital is here, which brings its own year-round employment. And Lewisburg has one of the best downtowns in central Pennsylvania, a Main Street with real shops, real restaurants, and things for families to do on a Saturday. In 2024 Lewisburg was designated as a Keystone Communities Main Street. People do not just live in Lewisburg because it is close to their job. They live here because they want to. Lewisburg is profiled in Norman Crampton’s The 100 Best Small Towns In America.

The housing is still historic stock, same as the rest of our region, but much of it has been maintained beautifully. That is a real difference from some of our other markets, where the old housing comes with somebody else’s twenty years of deferred maintenance attached. In Lewisburg you are more often buying a well-kept older structure.

The Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway has been reshaping traffic here, and it is good news for anyone holding property in the borough. The project’s whole purpose is pulling trucks and through traffic off local streets, and PennDOT’s own counts show it has already removed a substantial amount of north to south through traffic from Lewisburg Borough. The northern section, including the river bridge, opened in 2022 and now carries roughly 16,000 vehicles a day, about 3,800 of them trucks. That is 3,800 trucks a day no longer being pushed through a small commercial district. The rest of the thruway is set to open in 2028, and it should only get better from here. None of this makes Lewisburg harder to get to. It makes it quieter and more pleasant to live in, which is exactly what you want happening around a property you plan to hold for twenty years.

What rent looks like in Lewisburg

These are the ranges we actually see on Class A and Class B properties in Lewisburg. Rents will vary based on features, location and utilities.

• 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment: $1,000 to $1,200
• 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment: $1,100 to $1,300
• 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath single family house: $1,300 to $1,600

The rules in Lewisburg

Lewisburg requires a rental inspection and license for long-term and short-term rentals. For long-term rentals it is an inspection every two years, and the Borough uses Central Keystone Council of Governments to administer them.

If you own inside the historic district, there is another layer. Lewisburg has a Historic and Architectural Review Board, which means you will need their approval on any exterior construction, renovation or change to a property in the district. Expect them to be particular. The streetscape in this community is exceptionally well preserved.

What about flood risk in Lewisburg?

Lewisburg does not use the same type of levee system as our other river towns. There is no levee or earthen structure holding the river back here. The area relies on other mitigation approaches instead, and that is not the same thing as being behind a wall. So the question of whether a specific property sits in the 100 year or 500-year flood zone matters a great deal more in Lewisburg than it does anywhere else we work.

Pull up the FEMA flood maps for the exact address, find out precisely where that property sits, and talk to your insurance agent before you make an offer. You want to know and understand how the flood exposure will affect your expenses before you commit to purchasing.

You will complete this application and submit it to Central Keystone Council of Governments, the agency that manages the rental inspection and licensure process for Lewisburg Borough. The property will be reinspected every two years.

Ready to stop chasing your own rental? Contact us to schedule your discovery call.

Not ready to hand it off yet? Get the Buy and Hold Playbook and do it right yourself.