Wilkes-Barre
The Wyoming Valley's Heart · Est. 1806
Wilkes-Barre is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. ZIP codes are 18702, 18705 and 18706.
Based on information from the Luzerne County Association of REALTORS® MLS as of October 29, 2026.
Wilkes-Barre at a Glance
Source - U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024.
About Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre was settled in 1769 by families from Connecticut, incorporated as a borough in 1806, and chartered as a city in 1871. It was named for John Wilkes and Isaac Barré, two members of the British Parliament who defended the American colonies. It is the seat of Luzerne County.
Anthracite built the city. On February 11, 1808, at his tavern here, Judge Jesse Fell burned stone coal successfully in an open grate, and the experiment spurred the rise of the anthracite industry and gave Wilkes-Barre its nickname, the Diamond City. The population climbed past 86,000 by the 1930s. Deep mining collapsed after the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster, and in June 1972 Hurricane Agnes drove the Susquehanna River to about 41 feet and flooded downtown under several feet of water.
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The city recovered behind a levee system finished in 2003 and remains the commercial anchor of the Wyoming Valley. It is home to Wilkes University and King's College. Nobel physicist William Daniel Phillips was born here, as was the Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline, whose black and white canvases of the 1950s carry the names Lehigh, Luzerne and Pittston.
Wilkes-Barre sits on the east bank of the Susquehanna, roughly 18 miles southwest of Scranton and about 8 miles from Pittston. Its 2020 population was 44,328. Housing runs from downtown apartments to dense blocks of coal-era doubles and single homes, and prices stay low by regional and national standards.
Current Listings in Wilkes-Barre
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