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Introduction
Throughout the 1990s Philadelphia paid a great deal of attention to the restoration and development of its downtown, one of America’s most livable and exciting urban communities. The Center City renaissance was an important part of the city’s comeback story. Since 2003, Philadelphia’s residential real-estate market has been very strong. Center City’s hot real-estate market has been rivaled by other strong neighborhoods. In 2001, The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) developed a housing market analysis for strategic planning and allocation of resources. The housing market types were created using a statistical cluster analysis that included nine variables:
- sales price;
- demolition activity;
- vacancy rates;
- dangerous properties;
- owner occupancy rates;
- age of housing;
- presence of non-market rate rental housing;
- mix of commercial and residential uses; and
- consumer credit profiles.
By updating only the residential sale prices three years later, we get a glimpse of where market changes are occurring. Especially positive changes are notable in areas adjacent to markets that were recognized for their strength in 2001. The neighborhoods of East Falls, Powelton Village, Fairmount, Northern Liberties, Grays Ferry, Pennsport, Queen Village, Mount Airy and large sections of the Northeast made significant improvements.
As market values change, as new developments are introduced and new uses for old buildings are discovered, whole sections of the city reappear as valuable and fresh. This document focuses on a few of the areas that present opportunities for growth and investment. South Philadelphia West of Broad, the North Delaware Riverfront, North Central Philadelphia, Allegheny West/East Falls, the Far Northeast and West Philadelphia North of Market are all places of great potential value for residential and commercial developers. They have inherent strengths, are proximate to areas of strong investment and have undeveloped parcels of land zoned for effective reuse.
The development analysis gives some idea of the strengths and assets of each area and information on housing activities. In all cases there are both funding and tax-incentive programs that support housing development in Philadelphia.
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