A 343-year-old grid laid out by William Penn, one of America's three largest rental markets, and somehow still cheaper than every comparable East Coast metro. A guide to buying, selling, and investing in the city of brotherly love — and a doorway to its five most-asked-about neighborhoods.
William Penn called it a "greene country towne" in 1682. It was the second-largest English-speaking city in the world fifty years later. Almost nothing about the original grid has changed.
Before Penn, the Lenape had villages along the Schuylkill and Delaware for centuries — Shackamaxon at what's now Penn Treaty Park, Wicaco where Pennsport sits today. Penn's 1682 grid laid five public squares (Logan, Rittenhouse, Washington, Franklin, Center) and named the long streets after trees that no longer line them. The bones of the city are the bones Penn drew.
By 1750 it was the most important city in British North America. The Continental Congress met here. Both the Declaration and the Constitution were signed within four blocks of each other. For most of the 1800s, Philadelphia was the richest city in the country — Cramp's Shipyard built the U.S. Navy, the Reading Railroad ran the coal trade, and Wanamaker's invented the modern department store on Market Street.
The 20th century hit harder than the 19th had built. White flight, deindustrialization, and the loss of 600,000 residents between 1950 and 2000 left whole neighborhoods to gravity. Then something unusual happened: the city kept its housing stock. The rowhouse — Philadelphia's defining typology — survived because nobody had the money to tear it down.
About 60% of Philadelphia's housing is rowhouse. That's an extraordinary number. New York is 12%, Boston is 18%, even Baltimore — the other rowhouse city — is closer to 50%. It means Philadelphia has more walkable, owner-occupied housing per capita than almost any major American city, and it means the price floor is unusually low. A workable rowhouse in a transitioning neighborhood still trades for under $200k. Try finding that anywhere else from Boston to Washington.
The renaissance that started in Center City in the 1990s has expanded outward in a slow ripple — Northern Liberties, then Fishtown, then Brewerytown, Point Breeze, Pennsport, Kensington's edges. There is still room to ride that ripple. There aren't many American cities where you can say that.
Penn's grid means most of the city's neighborhoods score 80+ on Walk Score. The grocery, the coffee shop, and the corner bar are usually inside three blocks. You can do a full week without driving and forget your car exists.
Eight James Beard winners since 2010. Zahav, Vetri, Friday Saturday Sunday, Vernick. Then the BYOBs, the dollar-oyster nights, and the Italian Market sandwich shops that have been there since 1916. Eating well is cheap here.
Penn, Drexel, Temple, CHOP, Jefferson, IBX. Eight major hospitals and 100,000+ college students. Even when other markets wobble, these payrolls don't move — and that's why Philadelphia's rental market doesn't move either.
SEPTA buses, two subway lines, eight trolleys, regional rail to all five collar counties, NJ Transit and Amtrak from 30th Street. NYC is 75 minutes by Acela. DC is 90. You don't need a car if you don't want one.
It's a cliché because it's true. Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, Flyers, Union — Philly fans show up. Sundays in fall the whole city wears one color. If you're moving here, get ready to defend it.
Median rowhouse for under $300k. Walkable downtown for under $400k. Class-B rental yield around 8-12% in transitioning corridors. The quiet truth is that Philadelphia is one of the last East Coast cities where regular people can still buy.
There are 158 named neighborhoods in Philadelphia. These five are the most-asked-about by buyers and investors right now — for very different reasons.
The renaissance template every other Philly neighborhood is now copying. Walkable Frankford Ave food corridor, restored rowhomes, live music capital of the city. Median around $385k and still climbing.
Piazza Pod Park, Liberty Lands, the Standard Tap. Loft conversions over warehouses, a few new condo towers, plenty of original rowhouses still trading. Walk to Center City in fifteen minutes.
Walk to Rittenhouse, walk to Penn. Rebuilt rowhouses in the $500-800k range, families pushing prices up year after year. One of the few Philly neighborhoods with genuine school-district draw.
Hillside rowhouses, Main Street bar scene, Schuylkill River Trail right at your doorstep. Rental demand is dependable from young professionals — the canal-and-river setting makes it feel like a separate town.
The diagonal of Passyunk Ave, the Italian Market a few blocks west, Singing Fountain, Stargazy. Mature gentrification — the prices have come up but the diversity stayed. Steady appreciation, almost no volatility.
About 60% of the city's housing is rowhouse. The rest is a mix of mid-rise condos, converted warehouses, and pockets of detached singles in the further-out neighborhoods.
16-foot-wide, 1,000-1,400 sq ft, original kitchen and bath. The city's deepest value tier. Found in transitioning neighborhoods — the smart bet for live-in flippers and investors with a five-year horizon.
Full reno, open kitchen, often a roof deck. The dominant resale product in Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Point Breeze, parts of Brewerytown. Owner-occupant magnet.
Three- and four-story builds on infill lots, often with garages. Concentrated in NoLibs, Fishtown's edges, Pennsport, Point Breeze. 10-year tax abatement makes the math work.
Center City high-rises, Old City warehouse conversions, NoLibs lofts. Lower maintenance ceiling than rowhouses but HOA fees take some of that back.
Concentrated in Northwest Philly — Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, parts of Roxborough — and West Philly. Real yards, real driveways, real square footage.
Duplexes and triplexes scattered across South, North, and West Philly. Class-B yield play. House-hack the owner unit, rent the rest.
Tell us what you're looking for in Philadelphia and we'll send you the listings worth seeing — usually 6-10 properties a week, never the entire MLS firehose.
Whether you're an owner-occupant trying to land a renovated rowhouse in Fishtown, an investor running cash-flow numbers in Brewerytown, or someone who isn't quite sure yet — we'll point you toward the neighborhoods that match the way you actually live or invest.
— Prosperity Real Estate & Investment Services