Zillow: Philly Rent, Home Prices Growing Slower than National Average

That makes it much more affordable than East Coast rivals.

Image via Google Streetview

S. Delhi Street. (Image via Google Streetview)

Good news for renters and potential home buyers — Philly is still way more affordable than other East Coast cities. Despite the current real estate boom and surging demand in neighborhoods like Fishtown and Point Breeze, rents in Philly increased just 1.8 percent in 2015 — less than the national average of 3.8 percent. That’s according to a new study from the popular real estate site Zillow.

The estimated monthly rental price in Philly was $1,558 in November 2015 (the most recent data available) which is chump change compared to New York ($2,371), Boston ($2,245) and Washington, D.C ($2,110.) The top city was San Jose at a whopping $3,416. The study found that 17 cities had higher average rents than Philly.

While landlords might complain about getting less money for their properties, keeping cost of living low is an absolute must for attracting young professionals and fighting brain drain from local colleges and universities — especially the tech-savvy folks coming from Penn and Drexel.

Another metric that could help attract and retain young folks is the affordability of home ownership. Zillow found that Philly had a median estimated home value of $202,700 in November 2015, which was 18th highest in the country — compared to $381,700 in Boston, $380,600 in New York and $357,200 in Washington, D.C. In fact, Philly is even more affordable than significantly smaller cities like Baltimore ($241,800) and Riverside, Calif. ($296,500.) San Jose once again topped the list. It had a mind-blowing $924,000 median home value.

Philly’s total home value at the end of 2015 was $567 billion, which fell slightly ahead of Seattle ($506 billion), Phoenix ($421 billion) and Riverside, Calif. ($417 billion) but pales in comparison to heavy hitters like New York ($2.3 trillion) and San Francisco ($1.2 trillion.)

When it comes to total rent paid in 2015, Philadelphia ranked 11th at a cool $9.8 billion, much less than other East Coast cities like New York (at an astronomical $55.9 billion), Washington, D.C. (14 billion) and Boston ($13.4 billion.)

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