Homeowner Bill of Rights

[spdrun]

OK, but Philly != NY. I went to school in Philly and am fond of some parts of that city, but not enough to move back there.

Then again, as I recall paying $280/mo rent for a ginormous studio at 45th/Osage in 2001, the thought can be tempting!! I’d probably buy one of the big old houses west of Zoo of Penn, but not too far west.

By new town house, do you mean quality, or junque with particle board roof trusses thrown up during the bubble?

[sdrealtor]

Ummm…..northern liberties = fish town which is only marginally better than Kensington (Philly Kensington not sd Kensington) sounds like u are in need of an edumacation. Gonna get one too. There is a pecking order in Philly also. No one from there with an income above 50k would everbbuy or live there. Congrats! You own in Encanto. Next question

[briansd1]

If its been a while, you should go back to Philly. It has gentrified. There are nice lofts in Old City.

I wanted to be on Washington Square or Rittenhouse Square but those areas are too rich for my budget. I would love to have a perfectly remodeled Federal house.

I have a 2009 brick house. Basement is perfectly sealed so there is no musty smell like the 100 yo houses. Mostly, I like my modern mechanicals, especially in the summer. I’m nice and cool while my friends are sweltering.

sdrealtor, maybe your view of Philly is still very 1990s.

In SD, have you been to North Park lately? It’s cool.

[spdrun]

Speaking as someone who lived there 10+ years ago, Philly was never as SDR described, at least not since ’97 or so.

[briansd1]

spdrun, Delancey is one my favorite residential streets in Philly. The street cuts off in in different sections of the city but goes from Old City to Rittenhouse.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=324+Delancey+St,+Philadelphia,+PA+19106&hl=en&ll=39.947543,-75.175488&spn=0.006424,0.011458&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.477264,93.867188&hnear=324+Delancey+St,+Philadelphia,+Pennsylvania+19106&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.947543,-75.175488&panoid=rnypSj2gkF8suCcMZcGFwA&cbp=13,87.74,,0,-1.43
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=324+Delancey+St,+Philadelphia,+PA+19106&hl=en&ll=39.943774,-75.146003&spn=0.006391,0.011458&sll=39.942802,-75.148917&sspn=0.006424,0.011458&hnear=324+Delancey+St,+Philadelphia,+Pennsylvania+19106&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.943774,-75.146003&panoid=DmMXmGmeEiozue5d4bZFaA&cbp=13,110.02,,0,0

I love old, but old well-done, not old for the sake be being old.

One of those townhouses in NYC would be out of reach to 99% of the buyers.

[sdrealtor]

Brian
Olde City is great. My best friend used to live there. You arent in Old City which is south of Vine/Ben Franklin Bridge. You are adjacent to Fishtown. It maybe a trendy area for young low budget people but never will be a truly desireable area because of what surrounds it.

I used to work a couple blocks away from Rittenhouse (16th and Walnut) and know it well. Know people on Delancy Place as well. Lots of my friends parents and neighbors moved back to the city after their kids grew up. Mostly in and around Society Hill. I lived in Philly for 30 years and know that place like the back of my hand. I get back occassionally and while my views arent up to the minute I know what its like there.

[spdrun]

briansd —

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/324-Delancey-St-Philadelphia-PA-19106/10196349_zpid/

😮 Sheesh. That house is actually surprisingly EXPENSIVE — for ~$1.5MM, one could buy a brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, within spitting distance of downtown Manhattan. Taxes would be under $200/mo most likely.

Great, cute, area, lots of street life, good restaurants, two subway stops in close proximity, easy bike ride to the Manhattan Bridge, etc.

And if one is willing to go a bit further (other side of Pratt, to Bed-Stuy, which isn’t really as bad as its rep anymore), that price can fall to under $1MM. Maybe much lower.

sdrealtor —

Areas change and evolve. Keep in mind that 15-20 years ago, parts of NYC’s Lower East Side were seen as no-go zones. Now they’re quite expensive and people are even raising families there. Wasn’t San Diego’s downtown area also deprecated a few decades ago?

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]…Wasn’t San Diego’s downtown area also deprecated a few decades ago?[/quote]

Actually, spdrun, dtn SD as a place to live didn’t really “take off” until after 2000 (the year Petco Park [baseball stadium] broke ground). The new stadium, along with the convention center expansion, served as an anchor for high-rise condo construction and the commercialization of the Gaslamp Disrict.

Before that, there were a handful of scattered condo complexes in the downtown core, the oldest being 18 years old (Marina Park – built 1982).

Dtn SD’s “urban renewal” began in full force in 1987-88. Prior to that, it only had a handful of buildings which were 12+ floors.

The only “residents” of the downtown core prior to 1982 were those living in a handful of scattered SFR’s (zoned residential/comm’l), the YMCA and YWCA and those living under bridges and out of cardboard boxes :=0

Note that dtn SD’s zip code “92101” extends over 1 mi north of the dtn core on the west side of Balboa Park. This is “Banker’s Hill” from Elm St to Maple St and has always been residential. This is not considered the “downtown core.”

signed,

lifetime worker in dtn SD

[spdrun]

Exactly — so we’re in agreement 🙂 Areas change.

20-30 years ago, downtown SD, or NYC’s East Village, or Northern Liberties in Philly weren’t “places to be at night.” But things evolve, though I never considered the Northern Liberties to be all that bad even when I was in school in the 90s.

The area around the main train station in Philly was much skeevier and emptier at night.

[briansd1]

I consider Northern Liberties about the equivalent to North Park in San Diego. Some people I know, who live in the suburbs, still think that North Park is hooker and crime infested.

Not where I’d want to live if money were no object. But as a part-time Philly resident I had to compromise. Given my preference for modern amenities, it was cheaper for me to buy than rent the equivalent. Philly has a lot of old and run-down housing. It’s not like in Downtown SD where you can rent a new condo for less than carrying costs.

I happen to like the bars and restaurants in North Park. The cool factor of North Park is increasing. For sure, Mission Hills and Bankers Hills are better neighborhoods but they more established, staid areas.

[sdrealtor]

sp
I understand areas change and evolve. I’m nearly 20 years older than you and have seen it. I also understand Philly a little better than you who spent a few years kicking around it as a college student and/or teenager. As long as they have the the highest city wage tax in the country, high income earners will never move to that city en masse and little will change. Until then it will continue to be dominated by welfare recipients, students, lower class workers and retirees.

Philly is not NYC nor does it have the draw for new residents that SD has. It has been a dying city for decades.

I own a condo in North Park

[spdrun]

I don’t see Philly as a dying city. Whatever dying happened was done by the mid-90s — the 70s and 80s were when a lot of industry fled. It’s more of a stagnant or only marginally improving city, but, yes, some neighborhoods did improve, following the general US trend toward re-urbanization.

And I don’t see the fact that the working class hasn’t been totally expunged from Philly as an altogether bad thing.

[sdrealtor]

expunged? They are just about the only ones left there.

As long as there is a 4% city wage tax for residents it will lag growth around the country.

[spdrun]

Out of curiosity, are Philly property taxes higher or lower than surrounding counties? This article seems to imply that they’re pretty low, and will remain modest even after revaluation:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/05/22/philadelphia-property-tax-hike/

[sdrealtor]

Never owned anything in Philly but beleive they are much lower. The city gets their tax revenue lots of other ways like the wage tax instead. Where I grew up in South Jersey taxes were much higher. I have friends whose annual RE tax bill is almost 4 times mine and their house is worth about half mine.

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