If anything, home-buying in Philly is closer to renting, or even advantageous in some areas. If you buy a 3-bedroom house, you can have 2 roommates and cover a good portion of the mortgage, even make money (especially if there’s a 10-year tax abatement), and take the mortgage interest deduction.[/quote]
I agree with this. I read a statistic when I first moved there – High home ownership rate in Philly – including a lot of poor people… that’s because there are areas (north Philly, west Philly) that are cheap (like super cheap) to buy in. I read about this in context of the heat wave of 1993 – where over 100 folks died – a lot of the elderly poor people who were afraid to open their windows for safety issues, didn’t have AC, so they dropped like flies. Here’s an interesting article about the demographics of the city. http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2003/11_livingcities_philadelphia.aspx
I still have strong ties to the area – 3 of my husband’s siblings live there – all of his aunts/uncles and most of his cousins… half live in South Philly – walking distance to the Italian market, the other half live in the North East part of town Mayfair, Oxford Circle, and up there.
sdr – I didn’t move to Philly till 1993 – but I remember a lot of fun music festivals down at Penns Landing. Yeah… how could I forget the Trocadero…
One more hint for anyone who ever gets to Philly – check out my friend’s bar/restaurant – Grey Lodge Pub, in Mayfair… Excellent beers, cool tile mosaics, and the owner is one of the coolest guys ever. http://www.greylodge.com/
