Montgomery County’s growth story has long been told through two places: Conshohocken and King of Prussia. But the next chapter centers around somewhere else entirely, according to Ryan Mulligan for The Philadelphia Business Journal.
Two smaller boroughs farther up the Schuylkill River are quietly emerging as some of the fastest-growing communities in the Philadelphia region. Neither is a name most people outside Montgomery County would recognize. That is starting to change.
Bridgeport’s Population Surge
Bridgeport recorded one of the most dramatic population jumps in the area. According to U.S. Census population estimates, the borough’s population climbed 15% since 2020, reaching 5,758 residents in 2025.
The engine behind that growth is hard to miss. Lennar’s River Pointe development has transformed a stretch of underutilized Schuylkill riverfront into a master-planned community of hundreds of new townhomes and apartments, bringing a wave of new residents to a borough that spent decades in the shadow of its better-known neighbors.
Affordable Housing in a High-Cost Region
The appeal is straightforward. Bridgeport offers something increasingly rare in the Philadelphia suburbs: relatively affordable housing with easy access to major employment centers.
It has a median home value around $341,100. This sits well below the price points of neighboring Conshohocken and King of Prussia, making it an attractive landing spot for buyers who want proximity to the region’s economic core without paying a premium for it.
Collegeville Is Growing Too
Farther northwest, Collegeville is telling a similar story. The borough’s population grew 5% since 2020, surpassing 5,200 residents by 2025, driven by a convergence of factors that have made it increasingly attractive to families and professionals.
Walkable downtown streets, newer housing developments, strong schools, and proximity to the region’s dense cluster of healthcare, pharmaceutical, and technology employers have all played a role.
The Bigger Picture for Montgomery County
Together, the two boroughs point to something larger happening across Montgomery County. For years, growth in the region concentrated around a handful of well-established corridors.
What Bridgeport and Collegeville suggest is that the map is expanding, with new housing, shifting migration patterns, and changing buyer priorities pulling residents toward communities that weren’t on anyone’s radar a decade ago.
The county’s next chapter, it turns out, may be written in some of its least expected places.
Read more about growth in towns across the region in The Philadelphia Business Journal.
