Trader Joe’s vs. Whole Foods: Which helps your home value more?
It's not quite Sheetz vs. Wawa, but people have some pretty strongly held beliefs about Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.
A recent report from RealtyTrac looked at home values, appreciation and taxes in zip codes with a Whole Foods and zip codes with a Trader Joe's. They found 188 zip codes containing 1.7 million homes with at least one Whole Foods and no Trader Joe's. There were 2.3 million homes in 242 zip codes where residents had at least one Trader Joe's but no Whole Foods.
The average home appreciation in the United States is 34 percent, says RealtyTrac. That's also the percentage of home appreciation for owners near a Whole Foods. Properties near a Trader Joe's appreciated an average of 40 percent. Trader Joe's-adjacent housing also held higher average values ($592,339), compared with Whole Foods-adjacent housing ($561,840).
Unsurprisingly, that also means Trader Joe's neighbors are paying higher property taxes each year ($8,536 on average) when compared with those who live nearby a Whole Foods ($5,382).
Of course, we'll see what Whole Foods has to say about that when they open their new mega store on the Main Line this fall.
Read the full report here.
Know of an interesting property in the Philadelphia or South Jersey region? E-mail us!