Philly made a “top cities” list — yay. But it was for having some of the smallest new apartments in the country — boo.
A nationwide rental search website ranked 100 U.S. cities and found that Philadelphia had some of the smallest apartments built over the last decade. And the average apartment being built right now is even smaller.
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Keep scrolling for that story and to learn about efforts to fix Philly’s process for getting and giving land, find out whether you qualify for new ways to save on your property taxes, and peek inside a Point Breeze brownstone built in 1893.
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Small apartments
RentCafe compared 100 cities based on their apartment sizes and ranked Philly in the top 10 with the smallest new units. Building family-size apartments in the city has been hard.
The average size of an apartment built over the last decade in Philly was ...
100 square feet more than the average in Seattle, where new apartments were smallest.
about 410 square feet less than the average in the college town of Gainesville, Fla., where new apartments were biggest.
When you look at apartments under construction, Philly has the fourth smallest units.
For this story, I wanted some way to visualize how apartment sizes compare and give a sense of what square footage means in real terms. Our talented graphics editor, John Duchneskie, delivered.
Or maybe I should say his idea was a slam dunk. (Channeling dad jokes ahead of Father’s Day.)
John used an illustration of part of a basketball court to help us visualize dimensions in my story. Take a look and find out the size of the average Philly apartment.
Fixing the Land Bank
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has a goal of building or repairing 30,000 homes in four years. One of her top advisers said that’s only going to happen “if we have a functioning and fast moving Land Bank.”
That’s not what the city has. The Land Bank was created a decade ago to make it easier for the city to get abandoned private land and to do something with its own vacant land. But it hasn’t lived up to its promise.
It’s sold only 892 lots and created 992 homes. That leaves at least 7,680 lots. And the Land Bank hasn’t gotten new property in years.
The Land Bank isn’t popular. Candidates in last year’s mayor’s race targeted it as they campaigned. Neighborhood groups regularly argue at Land Bank meetings that more properties should be reserved for housing residents with the lowest incomes. Developers avoid dealing with it.
I wrote earlier this year about how getting city-owned properties from the Land Bank was one of the biggest hurdles for a group of developers of color in a program that’s trying to diversify the industry and grow wealth in communities of color.
Mayor Parker wants to reform the Land Bank, and people have lots of ideas.
The latest news to pay attention to
The most controversial housing proposal to come before the Philadelphia Land Bank in the last year is officially dead.
Philly tenants who say their apartments are moldy, leaky, and dangerous are suing their large nonprofit property management company.
The Philadelphia city budget that is poised to pass today includes $14 million for the development of income-restricted homes at the site of a former affordable housing complex.
Philly’s fiscal watchdog says the city is failing to track dangerous buildings or recoup the money it spends to demolish them because of private owners’ neglect.
Montgomery County plans to install turbines on the Schuylkill to power buildings it owns.
Developer Ori Feibush just took advantage of dropping office prices to buy an Old City building.
House of the week: For $449,000 in West Mount Airy, a three-bedroom rowhouse built in 1930.
New property tax relief options for Philadelphians
A lot of Philadelphia homeowners are going to see their property tax bills go up next year.
But the city has two new tax relief options that could help.
One increases the amount of money homeowners can shave off the value of their property assessments.
The other option is for certain low-income homeowners, who will be able to freeze their property tax bills to protect against increases in their assessments or tax rates.
Keep reading to see who qualifies, how to apply, and what this tax relief means for the city’s budget.
Home tour: Historic and modern in Point Breeze
Melanie Julian and Lane Savadove’s Point Breeze home is both a retreat and a “house for hosting,” Savadove said.
The couple has embraced the scale and historical architectural details of their home, built in 1893. The three-story brownstone features 11-foot ceilings, mahogany floors, and elegant crown moldings. Julian thinks the couple’s large closet was probably a nursery when the house was built.
One personal touch is the prominent display of their collections of bourbon and art, including stage masks from Indonesia.
A big renovation project was building their dream kitchen, including creating space to lay out more than 100 spice bottles. They wanted a kitchen that fit the historical character of the home and incorporated modern conveniences.
Peek inside the family’s house and see the kitchen’s transformation.
📊 The market
Mortgage interest rates have had some ups and downs over the last few months, but they’ve been trending upward since the beginning of the year. The average rate for the popular 30-year fixed mortgage was around 7% at the beginning of this month.
In more bad news for buyers (especially those on the edge of being able to afford homes), sales prices keep breaking records.
According to the multiple listing service Bright MLS, in the Philadelphia metro area:
🔺 The median sales price reached $375,000, a new record for May. That’s up from $345,000 last May.
🔺 The strongest price growth in May was in Philly’s collar counties. Median sales prices were up about 13% in Camden and Gloucester Counties to $335,000 and $340,000, respectively.
🔺 The highest median sales price in May was in Chester County — $549,120, roughly 9% higher than last May.
Why do prices keep rising? There aren’t enough homes for sale. Supply has gone up in the last two months, but it’s still 40% of pre-pandemic levels.
Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, said she expects conditions to get better for buyers in the second half of the year. We’ll see.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Last week’s photo was an aerial view of the Fountain of the Sea Horses behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Shout out to Matt C., who answered correctly and told me:
“Great memories as a kid exploring that area with my mom, dad and siblings, and years later, with my wife and kids, and friends. Fun times riding our bikes along Kelly Drive, navigating the edges of that roundabout, and continuing on to the Schuylkill River Trail to the South Street Bridge and back again. Also, value parking there for events at the Waterworks and for strolls along Boathouse Row.”
Enjoy the rest of your week.
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