Jeff Fuentes Gleghorn

Car prices have skyrocketed in the last few years thanks to shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some areas have risen faster than others. According to information from the online car sale website iSeeCars.com, Pennsylvania as a whole has seen used car prices increase by nearly 13 percent in the last year compared to the national average of 11 percent. That means a used car costs around $400 more in Pennsylvania than it does across the country. However, not every city in the Commonwealth has seen the same changes to used car costs.

At the end of July, Pittsburgh was among the cheapest places to get a used car in Pennsylvania, with car prices going up by a little over 9 percent, making used cars about $950 cheaper than they are on average in Pennsylvania and in the rest of the country. In contrast, Philadelphia has higher costs than average in Pennsylvania, with car prices up by nearly 15 percent, or about $600 more than they are across the state. So if two people buy identical cars, one in Pittsburgh and one in Philadelphia, the person in Philadelphia will end up paying over $1,500 more than the buyer in Pittsburgh. With differences that extreme, it may be worth paying $100 to $200 for an airplane ticket from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to look at cars.