Buying the median home in Reading means financing $195,000. Against the area's $34,000 median household income, that works out to a 5.7x price-to-income ratio.
Property taxes in Reading run 1.75% of assessed value, above the 1.1% national average. On the median home, that's $3,413 a year, or $284 added to the monthly payment.
Pennsylvania levies a state income tax on top of the $1,377/month this mortgage runs. Model your real after-tax take-home before deciding how much payment you can carry.
Reading's cost of living index is 96, below the 100 national baseline. That's on top of the housing numbers above, not instead of them.
Reading's median home price runs 26% lower than nearby Philadelphia: $265,000 there versus $195,000 here.