Pennsylvania probate leads and inheritance data, by county.
If you are researching Pennsylvania probate leads, the public court file is only one part of the inherited-property market. USLeadList starts with death and property records, typically about five weeks after death, and generates an average of 4312 records a month across Pennsylvania.
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Pennsylvania counties
Browse 67 counties.Every Pennsylvania county has its own page. Highlighted counties currently generate the largest monthly record volume.
How inherited property moves in Pennsylvania
Verified state rules behind the county data.Probate rules matter because they determine when a public court record appears and which inherited properties never appear in an ordinary probate case.
What changes for an heir
Pennsylvania taxes every transfer at death, real estate included: 0 percent to a surviving spouse, to a parent from a child aged 21 or younger and, since Act 13 of 2019, to a child aged 21 or younger from a natural, adoptive or stepparent (72 P.S. 9116(a)(1.4)), 4.5 percent to direct descendants and lineal heirs, 12 percent to siblings and 15 percent to other heirs. The tax and any interest are a lien on the real property included in the transfer and the lien remains until the taxes and interest are paid in full (72 P.S. 9167, captioned Lien and duration of lien), and ultimate liability for the tax falls on each transferee rather than on the estate (72 P.S. 9144(f)). The tax becomes delinquent nine months after death, with a 5 percent discount for payment within three months. Working the other way, legal title to a decedent's real estate passes at death directly to the heirs or devisees (20 Pa.C.S. 301(b)), and Pennsylvania authorizes no transfer on death deed for real property.
Where probate records appear
Orphans' Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas Pennsylvania Judiciary Web Portal, also called the UJS Portal, which carries docket sheets for the appellate courts, the courts of common pleas and the magisterial district courts. Its docket types are civil, criminal, landlord/tenant, miscellaneous, non-traffic, summary appeal and traffic; there is no Orphans' Court or estate docket type. Estate records are held by the county Register of Wills.
Ways property can avoid ordinary probate
Revocable living trust and joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Pennsylvania does not authorize a transfer on death deed for real estate: Chapter 64 of Title 20 covers transfer on death registration of securities only, and no chapter of Title 20 creates a transfer on death deed. The small estate petition under 20 Pa.C.S. 3102 expressly excludes real estate, so it is not a route for a house.
Small-estate route
Petition for settlement of a small estate under 20 Pa.C.S. 3102 where the decedent died domiciled in the Commonwealth owning property of a gross value not exceeding $50,000, exclusive of real estate and of property payable under section 3101 but including personal property claimed as the family exemption. The court's authority to award distribution of personal property is not restricted by the decedent's ownership of real estate, but the section does not distribute real estate. The $50,000 figure was set by Act 35 of 2013 for decedents dying on or after its effective date and is unchanged as of 2026.
Timing investors should understand
Pennsylvania has no statute barring creditor claims outright after a fixed period. The floor is 20 Pa.C.S. 3532: a personal representative may distribute real or personal property at his own risk without liability to a claimant whose claim is not known to him within one year after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters, and a claimant has no claim against real property conveyed in such a distribution unless the claimant files written notice of the claim with the clerk within one year after the decedent's death, with that claim expiring five years after death. A personal representative may also demand written notice of a claim within 60 days of the demand or one year from first complete advertisement, whichever is later. Pennsylvania inheritance tax becomes delinquent nine months after the date of death.
Pennsylvania inheritance volume
Updated monthly · September 2026 edition.Newly inherited residential properties recorded in Pennsylvania, from the same database that builds the lists. Published nationally in the Inheritance Property Index.
Biggest Pennsylvania counties by volume
- Allegheny 5,421
- Philadelphia 3,611
- Montgomery 2,838
- Bucks 2,468
- Westmoreland 2,134
- York 2,057
- Delaware 1,979
- Lancaster 1,856
Free to cite with attribution: USLeadList Inheritance Property Index, September 2026 edition. See every state and download the data.
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