Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Court Filings Intelligence
Analysis of property-related court filings (foreclosure, probate, divorce, partition, guardianship) in Lancaster County. See methodology.
Based on public court filings, analyzed by Keystone. As of October 2026.
- Max gross cap rate 7.1% at HUD Fair Market Rent ($18,312/year, 2BR FMR × 12) on the $256,768 median estimated market value. Section-8-eligible rent ceiling; real-market rent typically exceeds FMR; excludes operating costs (taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, management).
About Lancaster County
Lancaster County, sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States.
Source: Wikipedia
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$256,768 median estimated property value across filings with property-value data.
4.1% Pennsylvania unemployment rate (BLS, as of 2026-08). Filings should be read against the local-economy backdrop.
Filing type breakdown
| Filing type | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce | 9.1% | |
| Tax Lien | 1.6% | |
| Partition | 1.5% | |
| Foreclosure (Post-Filing) | 1.0% | |
| Other | 86.7% |
Each row is a distinct case as recorded on the county docket.
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Geographic concentration by ZIP
The ZIP codes in Lancaster County with the most property-related court filings, in rank order: where distressed real estate activity clusters.
| Rank | ZIP | City |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17603 | LANCASTER |
| 2 | 17602 | Lancaster |
| 3 | 17601 | Lancaster |
| 4 | 17512 | Columbia |
| 5 | 17522 | Ephrata |
| 6 | 17543 | Lititz |
| 7 | 17022 | Elizabethtown |
| 8 | 17552 | Mount Joy |
| 9 | 17545 | Manheim |
| 10 | 17517 | DENVER |
Based on filings with a parseable property address.
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Property value distribution
| Estimated value | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Under $75k | 1.2% | |
| $75k - $150k | 10.2% | |
| $150k - $250k | 36.4% | |
| $250k - $400k | 34.4% | |
| $400k+ | 17.8% |
Source: property records. Median $256,768; mean $311,147.
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Get owner names and property details (owner phone lookups where offered) for every new filing in Lancaster County.
Housing stock + distress signals
Underlying housing stock and distress indicators across all 217863 Lancaster County housing units, from US Census ACS 5-year data. National reference values shown for context.
| Indicator | Lancaster County | US average |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy rate (incl. seasonal + for-sale) | 3.4% | 10.5% |
| Share of owner-occupied units carrying a mortgage | 61.5% | 60.8% |
| Pre-1940 housing stock | 19.5% | 12.3% |
| Single-family detached share of housing stock | 55.3% | 61.2% |
| Residents age 65 or older | 19.2% | 17.3% |
Source: US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS 2023 5-year). National reference values are ACS 2022 5-year US totals. Why these matter: vacancy rate is the strongest single proxy for distressed inventory; mortgage-carrying share defines the risk pool exposed to rate environment; pre-1940 stock signals deferred maintenance and renovation opportunity; senior population correlates with probate pipeline depth.
Rent benchmark (HUD Fair Market Rent)
HUD sets Fair Market Rents at the metro area level, so the same FMRs apply to every county within the metro. Lancaster County sits within the Lancaster, PA. Used to set Section 8 voucher amounts; investors use it as a defensible rent-estimate floor for buy-to-rent underwriting.
| Unit size | Fair market rent / month |
|---|---|
| Efficiency / studio | $1,102 |
| 1-bedroom | $1,220 |
| 2-bedroom | $1,526 |
| 3-bedroom | $1,980 |
| 4-bedroom | $2,020 |
Source: US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents (None). 40th-percentile gross rent including utilities. Why this matters: Section-8-eligible tenants are a baseline demand floor for rental inventory at these price points; FMR is the official ceiling for voucher-eligible rents.
New construction (market momentum)
Annual building permits filed in Lancaster County from the US Census Building Permits Survey. Trend signal on whether new housing demand is accelerating or contracting in this market.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Total housing units permitted (2025) | 1,296 |
| Year-over-year change (2024 → 2025) | +9.5% |
| Single-family share of permits (2025) | 63.1% |
| Single-family units permitted | 818 |
| Multifamily units permitted (2+ units per building) | 478 |
Source: US Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, annual cumulative data. Why this matters: permits trending up signals strong demand for new inventory; permits contracting at the same time foreclosure activity rises indicates broader market softening (deals price differently). Multifamily share shows whether the market is densifying or holding to single-family stock.
Macro context: state home prices and national delinquency
Lancaster County filings should be read against the broader housing-market backdrop. Pennsylvania state home-price trend and the national mortgage-delinquency rate are the two macro signals most directly relevant to foreclosure exposure.
| Indicator | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania home price index (year-over-year) | +4.7% | 2026-04-01 |
| Pennsylvania home price index (cumulative since 2020) | +61.7% | 2026-04-01 |
| National mortgage delinquency rate (30+ day, single-family) | 1.86% | 2026-04-01 |
Sources: Federal Housing Finance Agency state house price indices (FRED series PASTHPI); Federal Reserve Board, Mortgage Delinquency 30+Day Rate on Single-Family Residential Mortgages (FRED series DRSFRMACBS). Updated quarterly. Free public data.
Local-market benchmark
Demographics of the ZIPs where filings cluster, weighted by filing count and benchmarked against Census ACS 2023 5-year:
| Indicator | Filing-weighted average |
|---|---|
| Median household income (where filings cluster) | $80,654 |
| Median home value | $268,855 |
| Owner-occupancy rate | 66.7% |
| Renter share of households | 33.3% |
| Median gross rent | $1,287/mo |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates, weighted by Keystone's filing volume across 10 top ZIPs.
Most active foreclosure plaintiffs in Lancaster County
Top mortgage holders and servicers named in foreclosure complaints filed in this county. Lender names are normalized to collapse common legal-suffix variants (e.g. "as Trustee for X Trust", "N.A.").
| Rank | Plaintiff |
|---|---|
| 1 | FREEDOM MORTGAGE CORPORATION |
| 2 | NEWREZ LLC |
| 3 | LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING LLC |
| 4 | PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES LLC |
| 5 | WELLS FARGO BANK NA |
| 6 | U.S. BANK TRUST N.A |
| 7 | ROCKET MORTGAGE LLC |
| 8 | MIDFIRST BANK |
| 9 | PNC BANK N.A |
| 10 | CARRINGTON MORTGAGE SERVICES LLC |
Source: public foreclosure filings in Lancaster County. Court records are public information.
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Lender concentration analysis
Foreclosure activity is spread across many lenders, suggesting diverse distress sources rather than a single institutional wave.
| Rank | Most active lenders / plaintiffs |
|---|---|
| 1 | FREEDOM MORTGAGE CORPORATION |
| 2 | NEWREZ LLC |
| 3 | LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING LLC |
| 4 | PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES LLC |
| 5 | WELLS FARGO BANK NA |
Lenders in rank order, most active first. Market type reflects how concentrated foreclosure filings are among plaintiffs. Based on foreclosure filings with identified plaintiffs.
ZIP code distress hotspots
Distress is geographically dispersed, with no single ZIP code dominating. The ZIP codes below are ranked by property-related court filings, most active first.
| Rank | ZIP | Area |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17603 | Lancaster |
| 2 | 17602 | Lancaster |
| 3 | 17601 | Lancaster |
| 4 | 17512 | Columbia |
| 5 | 17522 | Ephrata |
| 6 | 17543 | Lititz |
| 7 | 17022 | Elizabethtown |
| 8 | 17552 | Mount Joy |
| 9 | 17545 | Manheim |
| 10 | 17517 | Denver |
ZIP codes in rank order, most court filings first.
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Every lead includes the owner's name and property details; owner phone lookups where offered.
Distress composition
Distress diversity score: 4.04 (Shannon entropy across case types; higher = more diverse distress sources). The case-type shares are in the filing type breakdown above.
Property Value Profile
| Value range | Share |
|---|---|
| Under $100K | 3.5% |
| $100K - $250K | 44.3% |
| $250K - $500K | 42.3% |
| $500K - $1M | 8.2% |
| Over $1M | 1.7% |
Value breakdown by case type
| Case type | Median value | Avg value |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $257,889 | $292,064 |
| Foreclosure | $253,575 | $277,514 |
| Tax Lien | $275,584 | $359,946 |
| Pre-Foreclosure | $309,298 | $332,651 |
| Tax Sale | $361,864 | $532,519 |
| Partition | $300,000 | $361,903 |
| Estate | $323,260 | $405,662 |
Based on public property records for properties with court filings. Values are tax-assessed amounts, not market listing prices.
Investment Opportunity Score by ZIP Code
ZIP 17603 (Lancaster) ranks first on the composite opportunity score in Lancaster County. ZIP codes are listed in rank order, highest score first.
| Rank | ZIP Code | Area |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 17603 | Lancaster |
| #2 | 17602 | Lancaster |
| #3 | 17601 | Lancaster |
| #4 | 17522 | Mount Joy |
| #5 | 17512 | Columbia |
| #6 | 17543 | Lititz |
| #7 | 17022 | Elizabethtown |
| #8 | 17552 | Mount Joy |
| #9 | 17545 | Manheim |
| #10 | 17584 | Willow Street |
The score blends court-filing activity, property value, absentee-owner rate and case-type diversity. Compare ZIPs within the same county or state, not across markets.
Based on court filings by property ZIP code; ZIPs with too little data are excluded. Property values from public property records.
Municipality filing concentration in Lancaster County
Lancaster has the most property-related court filings in Lancaster County, predominantly Criminal Judgment. Filings show moderate geographic spread across municipalities.
| Rank | Municipality | Top case type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lancaster | None |
| 2 | Columbia | None |
| 3 | Lititz | None |
| 4 | Ephrata | Pre-Foreclosure |
| 5 | Elizabethtown | None |
| 6 | Mount Joy | None |
| 7 | Manheim | Pre-Foreclosure |
| 8 | Denver | Pre-Foreclosure |
| 9 | Willow Street | Tax Lien |
| 10 | New Providence | Tax Sale |
| 11 | Quarryville | Tax Sale |
| 12 | Marietta | Tax Lien |
| 13 | Millersville | None |
| 14 | New Holland | None |
| 15 | Mountville | Tax Lien |
Municipalities in rank order, most court filings first, among filings with a municipality on the property record. Municipality names from public property records.
Property Value Distribution
The median property value in distressed filings is $254,167, with the largest concentration (34.8%) in the $200K–$300K range. Suggestion Of Non Payment filings have the highest median value ($3,173,730) while Road Docket filings are lowest ($131,306).
| Price range | Share | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Under $50K | 0.5% | |
| $50K–$100K | 3.5% | |
| $100K–$150K | 8.5% | |
| $150K–$200K | 16.8% | |
| $200K–$300K | 34.8% | |
| $300K–$500K | 25.9% | |
| $500K+ | 10.1% |
Value by case type
| Case type | Median value | Average value |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $257,889 | $292,188 |
| Foreclosure | $253,354 | $277,513 |
| Tax Lien | $276,096 | $492,477 |
Assessed property values from public property records for filings with a valuation. Values reflect tax-assessed amounts, not market price.
Land vs improvement value composition
Across properties with assessed value breakdowns, the median land share is 29.1% (median land value $53,700, median improvement value $119,600). 4.2% of properties are land-dominant (50%+ land value), which makes them potential teardown or vacant-lot targets. Tax Lien cases skew most land-heavy (median 34.1%) while Suggestion Of Non Payment skews most improvement-heavy (16.9%).
Land share distribution
| Land share bracket | % of total |
|---|---|
| Under 10% | 0.7% |
| 10–20% | 12.3% |
| 20–30% | 42.2% |
| 30–50% | 40.6% |
| 50–70% | 3.0% |
| Over 70% | 1.2% |
Land share by case type
| Case type | Median land % |
|---|---|
| Divorce | 28.7% |
| Foreclosure | 29.2% |
Analysis of filings with assessed land and improvement value breakdowns.
Methodology and data sources
- Based on public court filings, analyzed by Keystone. As of October 2026. Court records are public information.
- These statistics describe property-related court filings in Lancaster County. The owner-of-record match and the entity-owner screen are applied to delivered leads, not to these aggregate statistics.
- Property value figures come from property records where available.
- Individual case data, defendant names, and property addresses are not published. Reports show aggregated statistics only.
- The methodology page at /reports/methodology documents data sources, sample sizes, and known limitations in detail.
- This report is current as of October 2026 (generated 2026-10-21).
Top cities for filings within Lancaster County
Where filings concentrate inside Lancaster County, by parsed property city or township, in rank order.
| Rank | City / Township |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lancaster |
| 2 | Columbia |
| 3 | Lititz |
| 4 | Ephrata |
| 5 | Elizabethtown |
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Cite: Keystone Court Data, "Lancaster County Pennsylvania Court Filings Intelligence," 2026-10-21, https://keystonecourtdata.com/reports/lancaster-pa-court-filings-intelligence