The Pennsylvania records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: Under the Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law (68 Pa.C.S. 7301 et seq.), a seller must deliver a signed, dated property disclosure statement disclosing known material defects that are not readily observable before the agreement of sale is signed, based on actual knowledge and with no duty to inspect or investigate.
Expect the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement before the agreement of sale, covering known material defects including, under current practice, whether the property is in a flood zone or has flooding problems. Note that Pennsylvania's expanded statutory flood questions (flood history, claims, assistance, FEMA zone and insurance requirement) are not required on the form until July 2028.
Sources: nolo.com · proppeal.com · pa.gov · publicrecordcenter.com · amp.insurancejournal.com
A sale does not reset a Pennsylvania assessment - values stay at the county's base year - so the seller's bill is usually a good preview of yours. The risk is not the sale itself but a taxing body appeal or a future countywide reassessment.
Homestead: Under Act 1 of 2006, an approved homestead (primary residence) receives a homestead exclusion that reduces its assessed value before school property tax is computed, funded by state property-tax-relief allocations; the amount varies by school district.
Pennsylvania Megan's Law Website is run by Pennsylvania State Police. Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
Open the official Pennsylvania registry
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
Pennsylvania taxing bodies, including school districts and municipalities, may file their own assessment appeals and routinely target homes that recently sold well above their base-year assessed value, so a low inherited assessment is not guaranteed to survive.
A 2026 law (House Bill 1704) will require sellers to disclose past flood damage and dates, FEMA 100- and 500-year zone status, flood insurance requirement or history, government flood assistance and prior flood claims, but sellers need not comply on the revised form until July 2028.
What the Pennsylvania disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official Pennsylvania registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Sourced registry counts and FBI-reported county crime for 1,420 ZIP codes in Pennsylvania — the registry figure is each ZIP’s own; the crime record is its county’s, labeled as such. Every figure dated.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview