Living in Swatara, PA
Small city in Pennsylvania
Swatara is a small city in Pennsylvania, home to about 28,000 people, with 660,000 living within 31 mi. Day to day, a car is essential. Life moves at a relaxed pace, and homes are mostly apartments.
Is Swatara a good place to live? Pros and cons
👍 Pros
- Affordable housing: a typical 3-bedroom home is about $235k and rents for $1,920 a month
- Strong healthcare: 9 top-rated (4–5★) hospitals within 31 mi
- Low natural disaster risk: 8 federally declared disasters since 2000
- Dog-friendly: 11 dog parks within 9 mi
👎 Cons
- Weaker public schools: test results well below the US average
- Cloudier than most places
- Fewer graduates: 26% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher
- Smaller job market: about 660,000 people live within 31 mi
Whether it's a good place for you depends on what you value. Take the quiz to see how Swatara ranks against your own priorities.
Key facts
Living in Swatara: common questions
What is the cost of living in Swatara?
A typical 3-bedroom home is worth about $235k, and a 3-bedroom rents for about $1,920 a month including utilities. Overall living costs are close to the US average (index 99, where the US is 100).
What are taxes like in Swatara?
Pennsylvania collects about $1,376 in state income tax per resident, and homeowners here pay about 1.37% of their home's value in property tax each year.
Is Swatara safe?
Violent crime is close to the national rate (0.8× in FBI 2019 data).
How are the schools in Swatara?
Public schools in Swatara test well below the US average in math and reading (2018–19 state tests, put on one national scale with NAEP), with about 14 students per teacher.
What is the weather like in Swatara?
Swatara has cold winters: winter days average around 43°F and summer days around 85°F, with roughly 30″ of snow a year.
Does Swatara get natural disasters?
Natural disaster risk is low, mainly from flooding: 8 federally declared disasters have hit the county since 2000, and FEMA expects about 0.35 deaths or injuries per 100,000 residents a year.
What is the nearest major airport to Swatara?
The nearest major airport is BWI, about 75 mi away.
How Swatara scores
Each bar compares Swatara with the other 1,990 places in Best Life Fit Me. A dot shows where it sits between two ends, such as major metro and small town; neither end is better. Coloured bars run from poor (red) to excellent (green).
Places like Swatara
These places have the most similar overall profile across all 24 aspects.
The circle is each place's all-round score out of 100: the average of its 15 quality scores, from red (poor) to green (excellent).
Nearby
See all the best places to live in Pennsylvania.
Is Swatara right for you?
Answer 27 quick questions and see how it ranks against your priorities.