Small-town commercial center raised high above Monroe County
Semantically, Mount Pocono is not a mountain. Neither are the rest of the Poconos. However, when ascending to nearly 2,000 feet about sea level in this rural, Monroe County borough, those kinds of topographical quibbles tend to get swept away by breathtaking views of the horizon meeting the rounded, verdant ridges of the Pocono Plateau. Why live in Mount Pocono? The answer lies around nearly every bend in a country road and break in the tree line. All around, hills roll, packed with the trails, ski mountains and waterparks that bring 30 million visitors through the Poconos each year. Nearly a century of growth since its incorporation has left Mount Pocono with its small town, just-over-3,000-resident sensibilities among the ever-evolving tourist destinations, retail centers and industrial spaces at the nexus of some of the region’s busiest highways.
Camelback Mountain has two challenging hiking trails, which are Echo Canyon and Cholla.
On Bartonsville’s Route 611, you can find local retailers like Pocono Farm Stand & Nursery.
Rail Gap Pocono Creek boasts captivating winding hiking trails that enchant all hikers.
The snowy hills of Camelback offer an unparalleled winter experience in Mount Pocono, PA.
A family pauses their roadtrip to take in the fresh air and views at Big Pocono State Park.
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Pocono Haven's quiet forests and natural wonder makes for a glorious place to call home.
Scotrun's fun-filled Great Wolf Lodge Water Park draws over 550,000 yearly visitors to the area.
Discover a wide variety of property types and sizes within the Woodlands area.
On quiet, winding roads, 1970s cabins and New Traditional homes nestle together in Pocono Haven.
1970s - and older - cabin style homes are uniquely curious and prevalent in Pocono Haven, PA.
Pocono Haven offers residents quiet forests and back roads to call home.
Discover the convenience of Pocono Premium Outlets, located just off I-80 in the Poconos.
Locals in the Poconos love The Original Pub & Grill for its delectable burgers.
Experience the allure of American Candle, a cherished local boutique in East Stroudsburg.
Indulge in classic American dishes at The Original Pocono Pub, a beloved spot in this area.
Uncover the irresistible appeal of Camelback Resort for an unforgettable summer retreat.
Explore the excitement of completing two renowned hiking trails at Camelback.
Residents can walk and enjoy the lands of Brodhead Creek Park.
Enjoy breathtaking views of the Delaware River at The Shawnee Inn Resort.
The Swiftwater Intermediate School boasts a superb student-teacher ratio of 10 to 1.
Niche gave Pocono Haven's Swiftwater Elementary Center an overall B grade.
Pocono Mountain East Junior High School is a well rated public school serving Pocono Haven.
Pocono Mountain East High School is a pillar of the community of Pocono Haven, PA.
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From Forks tourism to modern Poconos resorts and employers
Before it was Mount Pocono, the borough was a much smaller settlement called Forks or Forks Station, marking its 19th-century position off a railway and regional roadway intersection. These connectors drove Mount Pocono’s earliest tourism rush, spawning the development of resorts and boarding houses that rivaled those of the historic Delaware Water Gap borough. While many nearby resorts have shuttered or even burned down over the years, modern replacements have, sometimes literally, risen from the ashes. At the site of the former Mount Airy Resort, the Mount Airy Casino Resort and Mount Airy Golf Club now sprawl around a central lake. Despite opening decades after the region’s Honeymoon Capital of the World push, the Poconos Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center offers a cheeky nod to the past by placing a classic heart-shaped tub in their honeymoon suites. Many of Monroe County’s other largest employers are within a 10-minute drive of Mount Pocono, including the Tobyhanna Army Depot and Sanofi Pasteur vaccine manufacturing plant.
Mount Pocono doesn’t let surrounding resorts have a monopoly on the tourism industry. The active Mount Pocono Association holds regular street festivals on state Route 611, inviting vendors to set up shop between historic displays, kid-friendly activities and food booths. Bright red trolleys transport guests at the autumnal Harvest Festival & Craft show each year, and a competitive pet costume parade contest is the centerpiece of the Spring into Happiness event.
A family pauses their roadtrip to take in the fresh air and views at Big Pocono State Park.
Kalahari Resort offers one of the largest indoor water parks in Mount Pocono, PA.
Pocono Haven's quiet forests and natural wonder makes for a glorious place to call home.
Scotrun's fun-filled Great Wolf Lodge Water Park draws over 550,000 yearly visitors to the area.
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Below-average prices in a short-term rental-friendly borough
While housing styles are far from one-note in Mount Pocono, an overall sense of hilly, wooded seclusion encloses properties on gridded streets closer to the borough’s center and back on winding country roads. Between coves of trees, housing styles flip between prewar cottages and farmhouses, classic midcentury ranch-style homes and large New Traditional homes built in the past 30 years. The median single-family home price in Mount Pocono is around $310,000, lower than the National Association of Realtors median of $416,700. Buyers can find small condos in the Foxfire community for under $125,000. Houses sit on the market for an average of 44 days, exactly on par with the national average. “Up there around Mount Pocono, they’re more allowable for short-term rentals. If you can short-term rent near Kalahari, you’re doing pretty good,” says Bob Kelly, a Realtor with the Kelly Realty Group of Keller Williams Real Estate who lives and specializes in Monroe County. Those interested in putting their own properties on a short-term rental market will need to consult the local zoning map and apply for a license from the borough.
Discover a wide variety of property types and sizes within the Woodlands area.
On quiet, winding roads, 1970s cabins and New Traditional homes nestle together in Pocono Haven.
1970s - and older - cabin style homes are uniquely curious and prevalent in Pocono Haven, PA.
Pocono Haven offers residents quiet forests and back roads to call home.
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Commuting from the Five Points Intersection
Long after the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad stopped running passenger trains to the Mount Pocono Station, nearby proto highways were cemented, or rather, paved, into the highway-sign-pocked Five Points intersection of state Routes 611, 940 and 196. The Route 940 corridor has seen an especially marked uptick in development within Mount Pocono, filling with shopping plazas and big-name retailers like Walmart. Among a number of smaller retail developments, an enormous plat along the roadway has been under construction since 2022, slated to become a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse for clothing distribution through an as yet unnamed tenant.
While Mount Pocono is fairly car dependent, Monroe County Transit Authority buses, also called the Pocono Pony, make stops along major roadways and a handful of shopping plazas. Stroudsburg, the county seat, is about 15 miles away down 611, as is its twin borough and university hub, East Stroudsburg.
Mount Pocono has always had pull with the New York City tourist crowd but has seen an influx of permanent super commuter residents following the rise of hybrid work schedules. NYC is about 90 miles away via Interstate 80. From the Mount Pocono Martz Bus Terminal, riders have a roughly two-hour trip to Manhattan, though service is limited to morning and evening commuter routes on weekdays and further diminished on weekends. A modern Amtrak rail line connecting Scranton to New York has long been on the region’s wish list. Recent first-step funding by the federal government has increased hope that stations will be in service in both Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg by as early as 2028.
Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport is a couple of miles north of the borough, but commercial flights take off from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and Lehigh Valley International Airport, 35 miles and 45 miles away respectively.
Shopping and dining along the Route 940 and 611 corridors
Its highway junction traffic patterns have brought big-box footprints and smaller retailers to Mount Pocono’s strip mall shopping centers over the years, including Lowe’s and ShopRite. Fast food restaurants pull tourists from the road, as do classic chains like Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and smaller, family-owned businesses like the Pioneer Diner. A short, sidewalk-lined section of Route 611 combines enough street parking spots, sidewalks and pedestrian signage to form a hilly, Main Street-style pocket, lined with the borough municipal building and the local Vietnamese, Chinese and Mexican joints.
Discover the convenience of Pocono Premium Outlets, located just off I-80 in the Poconos.
Locals in the Poconos love The Original Pub & Grill for its delectable burgers.
Experience the allure of American Candle, a cherished local boutique in East Stroudsburg.
Indulge in classic American dishes at The Original Pocono Pub, a beloved spot in this area.
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Four seasons in public nature preserves and state game lands
The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau advertises the region as a four-season outdoor recreation destination, and Mount Pocono is no exception. Summer highs peak in the 80s and winter lows dip below freezing. Its elevation tends to keep Mount Pocono several degrees cooler and more prone to snow than even nearby boroughs. “Maybe a decade ago, there was a Halloween where they got 32 inches of snow on Mount Pocono when we only saw a couple of flakes driving down here in Stroudsburg,” Kelly recalls. Between temperature extremes, the surrounding rolling, forested hills are coated with springtime buds and fiery autumnal displays that draw leaf peepers from surrounding states.
Between private outdoor recreation centers, robust systems of preserves surround Mount Pocono with less structured access to the natural world. In deep, stream-crossed forests just north of Mount Pocono, hunters seek out black bears, whitetail deer and turkey in the thousands of acres of State Game Lands Number 221. The Pocono Heritage Land Trust maintains nearby preserves like Kurmes Nature Preserve, full of hiking trails through forests pocketed with thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel.
Uncover the irresistible appeal of Camelback Resort for an unforgettable summer retreat.
Explore the excitement of completing two renowned hiking trails at Camelback.
Residents can walk and enjoy the lands of Brodhead Creek Park.
Enjoy breathtaking views of the Delaware River at The Shawnee Inn Resort.
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Career and technical education through Monroe County and low crime rates
The Pocono Mountain School District serves the borough and earns a B-minus overall from Niche. Kids will attend kindergarten through 12th grade at schools a few miles down Route 611 in Swiftwater, including Pocono Mountain East High School which earns a B. Starting in high school, Pocono Mountain East students can enroll in one of 24 Pennsylvania Department of Education-approved career and technical education programs through the Monroe Career & Technical Institute, attending half a day of school at their home district before heading for hands-on learning and classes at the institute’s Bartonsville campus.
According to the FBI’s crime data, Mount Pocono’s violent crime rate was 32.48 per 100,000 people, less than half of Pennsylvania’s average of 68.72 which is already far below the national average. Property crime, while on par with Pennsylvania’s average, was higher at 129.91 per 100,000 people. In a 2023 annual report conducted by the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department, officials concluded that an uptick in Type 1 crimes, including theft and homicide, was attributable to the nationwide opioid epidemic. The police department covers the surrounding communities of Coolbaugh, Tobyhanna, Tunkhannock and Barrett, all of which are represented in the agency’s annual reports.
The Swiftwater Intermediate School boasts a superb student-teacher ratio of 10 to 1.
Niche gave Pocono Haven's Swiftwater Elementary Center an overall B grade.
Pocono Mountain East Junior High School is a well rated public school serving Pocono Haven.
Pocono Mountain East High School is a pillar of the community of Pocono Haven, PA.
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Increased treatment through St. Luke’s University Health Network
Patients can fill prescriptions, make primary care appointments and receive lab services at Geisinger Mount Pocono or just down Route 940 at the newer St. Luke’s Pocono Summit Primary Care. About 11 miles down Route 611, patients can receive further care or check in to the emergency room at St. Luke’s Monroe Campus Hospital. St. Luke’s University Health Network has filled a major void in Monroe County medical care in recent years – before the Monroe Campus’s ribbon-cutting in 2016, the last new hospital built within the county was in East Stroudsburg in 1915.
Written By
Julia Szymanski
Photography Contributed By
Elma Kukaj
Video By
Emily McNamara
Interested in learning more about homes in this area?
Reach out to
Ginger Walsh,
an experienced agent in this area.
GreatSchools:
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On average, homes in Mount Pocono, PA sell after 50 days on the market compared to the national average of 49 days. The median sale price for homes in Mount Pocono, PA over the last 12 months is $260,000, up 7% from the median home sale price over the previous 12 months.
MAJOR PRICE ADJUSTMENT!---Space for Everyone ! Stunningly Renovated Ranch on 0.79 Acres in the scenic Pocono Mountains, with views of the mountains! Come see this beautiful 5 bedroom House (2 beds on lower level) with 2 Luxurious updated Bathrooms & KITCHEN! House features LARGE living room and totally renovated Kitchen with stunning views! No Stone was left unturned during this renovation-- ALL
Price improvement on this dream home nestled in the heart of the Poconos! This charming 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath gem boasts a spacious layout perfect for both relaxation and entertaining. As you step inside, you'll be greeted by a cozy fireplace that adds warmth and character to the inviting living area. The home is situated on a flat lot, providing ample outdoor space for gatherings or simply
Sprawling rancher in the heart of the Pocono Mountains! This move-in ready home offers over 1,800 square feet of living space with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a 1-car attached garage. Set on nearly half an acre with no HOA—giving you the freedom to make it your own. Great opportunity for owner occupants, investors looking to flip or buy and hold, or anyone seeking a peaceful mountain retreat!
Please take a look at this very nice 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo. No one is over you, close to the shopping stores. Minutes from resorts like Great Wolf and Kalahari. Transportation at the back of development
For Rent, located in Mount Pocono borough, 2 bedroom 1 full bath duplex with a fresh coat of paint, all new windows and flooring, new stove, 1st floor laundry closet, and rear deck, public water and sewer, use of community pool & lake, All located within minutes to all major shopping, major roadways and public transportation. Sewer and Lawn care included in rent NO PETS !
Experience year-round lake front living in Mt Pocono, PA. The perfect blend of space, comfort, and natural beauty in this fully furnished lakefront home. Featuring 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, two full living areas, and dual kitchens, this home offers a flexible layout ideal for extended families. Enjoy private lake access with a newer dock and deck, providing the perfect setting for morning coffee,
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