Coldwell Banker Hearthside, a real estate firm operating in Pennsylvania, has acquired a locally prominent brokerage in the Lehigh Valley called Acre & Estate.
Acre & Estate launched in 2023 in Bethlehem as a boutique operation and has grown to more than a dozen agents. Eric Leadbetter founded the company, and now that it's under Coldwell Banker, he is the president of the newly created Coldwell Banker Lehigh Valley Division, the company said in a statement. Leadbetter's roster of agents is also joining him under the Coldwell Banker umbrella — including Rachel Corcoran, Timothy Dodge, Waldy Fernandez, Colin Kessler and Amrita Raghunath. Stefanie Hahn, a longtime leader at Hearthside, will serve as president of the Delaware Valley region.
Acquiring Acre & Estate helps Coldwell Banker expand its presence in the Bethlehem-Brodheadsville-Wind Gap parts of the state, Hearthside co-owner Jamie Mancuso said in a statement.
“This wasn’t just a market move; it was a culture fit,” Mancuso said. "Eric’s agents, his energy, his ideas — they will complement and elevate what we do company-wide.”
Region sees population swell
Coldwell Banker has a new arm in Pennsylvania, just as the Lehigh Valley experiences challenges in its housing market.
Lehigh Valley is Pennsylvania's third-largest metropolitan area by population, behind Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The region has seen its population swell by the thousands — 7,000 alone between 2023 and 2024, according to U.S. Census estimates — causing a housing affordability crisis, local officials say.
Housing construction has stalled for nearly a decade as more people pile into the region, creating a housing shortage of roughly 9,000 units that is "pricing families out of neighborhoods," according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. The region will need another 54,000 units by 2050 to keep up with today's housing demand, the agency said in a study.
The combination of rising population and a housing shortage has pushed prices skyward, real estate agents in the area note. The median home sales price rose from $322,000 in April 2024 to $345,000 in April 2025, a jump of 7.1 percent, according to Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors.
The Acre & Estate acquisition means homebuyers and sellers can find a Coldwell agent anywhere in the Lehigh Valley, from the Poconos to the New Jersey shore, the company said.
Leadbetter said in a statement that he was drawn to Coldwell Banker because the company allows agents to work under a larger corporation but still work independently. Being at Coldwell Banker does not mean "layers and layers of management," Mancuso said, adding that "our agents call me directly."
“This isn't a corporation absorbing a boutique firm," Leadbetter said in a statement. "It's two philosophies aligning. We're not just adding volume — we're scaling values.”
