A thousand bucks to be a Philly homeowner | Real Estate Newsletter

What could you buy with $1,000? Some Philadelphians are purchasing their first homes.

That might sound too good to be true, but a state agency’s pilot program is helping first-time home buyers both purchase properties and pay off student loans that have kept them renting.

Families have been moving into homes they bought for as little as $1,000 up front.

Keep scrolling for that story and to find out who the typical millionaire homeowner is in the Philly region, peek inside the home of grandparents who live in their daughter’s backyard, and take a look at the piece of art that two newsletter readers in Marlton had to have.

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Housing affordability is a problem no matter where you look, including in a city as “relatively affordable” as Philly. Many first-time home buyers struggle to come up with the money they need to pay upfront costs.

For the last few months, a Pennsylvania agency has been working with local Philly organizations to help more Philadelphians buy their first homes.

This program is unusual in a few ways. Individuals can make up to $196,200. People without credit scores can still qualify. And excess grant money can go toward paying student loans.

I first wrote about this program back in October when it was announced. A young woman who’d been squirreling away money for years to buy a home was searching online for home buying grants one day and found my story. She participated in the program and closed on a rowhouse in Fishtown last month.

It always feels good to see the impact of your work. Come back next week for the story of how an article I wrote a few years ago spurred the creation of another local home buyer assistance program.

In the meantime, learn more about this pilot program that gets people into homes for a couple thousand dollars or less.

In the Philly region, turns out they’re a Gen X physician.

That’s according to an analysis by the real estate search website Point2, which looked at home-owning households nationwide that make at least $1 million a year. Researchers put together profiles of the average millionaire homeowner nationwide and in the 30 metro areas in the country with the most people.

Nationally, the typical millionaire homeowner:

The number of millionaire homeowner households nationwide quadrupled between 2017 and 2022, according to Point2.

Keep reading to learn more about the typical Philly-area millionaire homeowner, how they compare to owners in other places, and what their house is like.

During the pandemic, Tracy and Jane Brown moved from out of state to Philadelphia to be near their young grandchildren. That’s not unusual.

What’s unusual is how close the families’ houses are. They’re actually connected by a bridge.

The Browns live in a three-story home built in their daughter’s backyard. They moved in a year ago after some construction delays.

The second floor includes a bedroom for their granddaughters’ sleepovers and a gym/piano room.

One of the Browns’ priorities was outdoor space where they could enjoy views of a nearby park. So their home has two outdoor terraces and a roof deck.

Take a peek inside their home, see how they incorporated a Scandinavian vibe, and find out what makes their home “passive.”

Philly has begun cutting down heritage trees in FDR Park after a multiyear battle over a plan to redesign the park. Opponents of the plan are mostly focused on an area nicknamed “the Meadows,” which went back to its natural state during the pandemic.

Question: What did “the Meadows” used to be?

A) soccer fields

B) playgrounds

C) skate park

D) golf course

This story has the answer.

Do you know the location this photo shows? (Bonus points for readers who are most specific.)

📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

Last week’s quiz featured the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. (I was initially going to also accept its former name, Revel, but lots of folks gave me the latest name.) Shout out to some of the first to answer correctly: Jaime K., Jack T., Bob R., Linda B., and Sue G.

Special shout out to Bob, who made me cackle when he told me, “I think it should win the award for the ugliest building in Atlantic City!”

Jaime used to run and bike there while it was being built.

Sue said the resort is a favorite of hers. “If you stand on the boards in the right places in front of the curved glass facade of Ocean, you feel like you’re under a magnifying glass focusing the sun. Those spots aren’t hard to find — they are bleached by the sun.”

The Browns, the homeowners from today’s home tour, commissioned colorful acrylic paintings from an abstract painter. A story I highlighted in the newsletter a couple weeks ago was about homeowners commissioning original artwork.

In that newsletter, I asked you about artwork in your home that you love. Last week, I showed you a piece of art that a newsletter reader created and shared with us in response.

This week, I’m sharing a message I got from Jackie and Dan P. in Marlton.

“In the mid-1980s, we were young, struggling new homeowners. During a weekend visit to an artists’ exhibit at Headhouse Square, we came upon a display of beautiful metalwork items created by artist Bruce Kelvin. We immediately fell in love with a tree in his collection and had to have it. It was way, way out of our budget, but we decided to make some financial sacrifices to get it.

It consisted of torch-cut brass, copper, and steel leaves, each one made by hand by Mr. Kelvin. We went to his house in Wyndmoor, where he worked out of his garage-studio, to pick it up a few weeks later. To this day, nearly 40 years later, we love it as much as that day we first laid eyes on it.”

A few years ago, I went to a national journalism conference in Minneapolis. A few hours before my flight back to Philly, I biked to a park, where I saw an artist selling his work. I really liked his giant metal sunflowers. But it’s not like I could fly home with one. The artist told me he could ship it, but I didn’t have anywhere to put it.

I wasn’t as motivated as Jackie and Dan, but I still think about those sunflowers sometimes.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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This article has been updated to replace a photo illustrating trends in millionaire homeowners.