{"id":412531,"date":"2026-01-17T08:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412531\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:08:07","slug":"chester-county-draws-in-business-but-people-struggle-to-afford-to-live-there-an-analysis-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412531\/","title":{"rendered":"Chester County draws in business, but people struggle to afford to live there, an analysis finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing in front of Chester County<\/a> business and corporate leaders, financial expert Patti Brennan asked them to rank how they were feeling about the economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling a little worried, you\u2019re uneasy, welcome to America, you\u2019re not alone. This is the way Americans are generally feeling right now; the consumer sentiment is low,\u201d she told them. She pointed to the instability that dominated the country last year: tariffs, the longest government shutdown in history, international unrest.<\/p>\n

There are signs of stress: people are not paying their bills on time, delaying payments on car loans, credit card bills, and student loans. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all bad news. Brennan and financial expert Dianne P. Manges, senior investment adviser with Truist Foundations & Endowments Practice, advised the business community not to act based on chaos. <\/p>\n

The analysis was part of the Chester County Economic Development Council\u2019s 22nd annual economic outlook, which offers assessments of the local, national, and global economic landscape. <\/p>\n

Here are some of the takeaways from the conversation. <\/p>\n

Tax refunds will be a big driver<\/p>\n

An expected $517 billion nationally will come to consumers through tax refunds this year \u2014 a 44% increase from last year, Manges said. It\u2019s a bigger boost than the second round of stimulus checks issued in December 2020, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo things to remember about all of us here as consumers: No. 1, we are about 68% of the economy,\u201d in terms of gross domestic product, she said. \u201cAnd No. 2, we\u2019re Americans. When we have extra money in our wallets, we spend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to be mindful of whether those positive themes are applicable to everyone, she said, noting that people with lower incomes are struggling. A majority of people making a lower income will still benefit from those tax return refunds, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will be feeling warm and fuzzy when they get those tax returns,\u201d Brennan said. <\/p>\n

Pennsylvania has had job growth \u2014 with one particular sector leading<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast showing expansion, said Michael Grigalonis, president of the economic development council. Nationally, the commonwealth was second behind Texas in job growth in the year between November 2024 and November 2025, with roughly 97,000 jobs created during that period.<\/p>\n

Half of the jobs were created in one industry: healthcare, Grigalonis said. \u201cWe\u2019re one of the oldest states; we have one of the most aging populations,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Broadly, Manges and Brennan said that companies aren\u2019t hiring, but they aren\u2019t firing large-scale, either. <\/p>\n

In Chester County, the unemployment rate is below the federal level, Brennan said. <\/p>\n

Even with one of the highest GDPs in the state, affordability is an issue in the county<\/p>\n

Chester County is a place people want to live, work, and raise families. But it\u2019s tough to afford it. <\/p>\n

Chester County has the fourth-largest GDP in the commonwealth, Grigalonis said. (It rang in at $57.3 billion in 2023, behind Philadelphia, Allegheny, and Montgomery Counties) and it boasts the highest median income in the state, with 43% of households in the county earning more than $150,000 annually, Brennan said. <\/p>\n

But even with that, housing is an issue \u2014 both cost and availability, she said. The average cost of a home in Chester County is $500,000, above the state average of roughly $300,000.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not affordable, and we all know that,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge for so many people. \u2026 Inventory is increasing, but it\u2019s really limited overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chester County saw the second-highest population growth <\/p>\n

The county saw the some of highest population growth<\/a> in the state between 2020 and 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis population growth comes with its own set of challenges, but I will take these challenges to many of our colleagues throughout the commonwealth, [who] are struggling to get people to move into their communities, to provide a talented workforce that can help companies grow,\u201d Grigalonis said. <\/p>\n

Still, more people are living outside of Chester County and commuting in, Brennan said \u2014 mostly because they can\u2019t afford to live within the county boundaries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standing in front of Chester County business and corporate leaders, financial expert Patti Brennan asked them to rank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,197915,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-412531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chester-county-economic-outlook","10":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}