Major developer joins neighborhood board | Real Estate Newsletter

If your community has a neighborhood board, do you know who’s on it?

In Philly, registered community organizations (RCOs) are groups that are meant to give residents a voice when it comes to development in their neighborhoods.

The city officially recognizes these groups, but it doesn’t say who can lead them.

In one neighborhood on the border of Center City and South Philly, the makeup of an RCO board is raising some residents’ eyebrows. That’s because a developer who played a major role in transforming the area in and around the neighborhood is one of its newest members, along with some of his employees.

Keep scrolling for that story and to see what size apartment you can get for $1,700 a month in different Philly neighborhoods, peek into a house that combines the tastes of an Italian immigrant and a Philly area native, and find out why home prices were a little surprising last month.

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The Graduate Hospital neighborhood has seen radical change over the last few decades. Lots of new construction came to this part of Philly for the first time in generations. Many older Black residents left, and the neighborhood shifted from majority Black to majority white.

It’s made residents wary.

Now one-third of the 15-member board that leads a Graduate Hospital RCO works for — or owns — OCF Realty, a real estate company on the edge of the South of South Neighborhood Association’s (SOSNA) realm.

It’s unusual to have such a large real estate presence on an RCO board, but it’s not against any city rules or SOSNA’s bylaws.

But some neighborhood residents told me they’re worried that having more board members with real estate backgrounds could lead to decisions that benefit development interests over residents’ interests.

Board members affiliated with OCF Realty say they’re just being civically engaged in their community and would steer clear of conflicts of interest.

Keep reading for more details about what’s going on.

Paying $1,700 a month in rent could get you a spacious home or a shoe box, depending on where you live.

In Philly, that budget could buy a 1,500-square-foot apartment if you’re looking in the Northeast. Or it could buy less than 500 square feet in a section of West Philly.

That’s according to a report from the national apartment search website RentCafe. It looked at more than 1,600 zip codes in the country’s 50 largest cities.

Compared to some other big cities, Philly looks pretty spacious. In the northeastern United States, a rent of $1,700 could get you more than 1,000 square feet in only six zip codes. And they’re all in Philly.

And then there’s New York. A zip code in Manhattan has the smallest average apartment size for this price in the country — just 211 square feet.

Keep reading for more comparisons with other cities and an interactive map of Philly’s zip codes.

A Philly area native and an Italian immigrant walk into a Chestnut Hill home ... and they somehow combine their different decorating tastes in a way that works.

Homeowners Joseph Kotarski and Federico Mingozzi had been living only a few blocks away when the five bedroom, 3½-bedroom home went on the market. Mingozzi called it “humble and charming.”

The couple’s home was built in the 1970s by the owner of a commercial construction company, so it was sturdy. But that made it harder to make alterations. And alterations were necessary.

The house was dark and needed to be opened up. An architect got rid of a bunch of interior walls. Ceilings got taller, and large French doors let in more light.

Peek inside the home and see how Kotarski and Mingozzi were able to celebrate both of their backgrounds.

Twenty-one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are expected to grow their populations through 2025, according to a research arm of the General Assembly. Counties in the Poconos are predicted to have some of the biggest population drops.

Question: All our local counties except one are expected to gain residents by 2050. Which is expected to lose people?

A) Chester County

B) Philadelphia

C) Delaware County

D) Bucks County

This story has the answer.

Let’s take a look at the local real estate market in the final month of 2023.

Overall, it wasn’t easy last year for buyers to afford a home. The Philly area market stayed competitive throughout the year. And even December — a usually sleepy month — didn’t let up on unaffordability.

Sure, fewer home buyers were out searching. But in the Philly metro area, thanks to a low supply of homes for sale, the median sale price grew at the fastest annual rate since May 2022. And as we know, spring is one of the busiest times of the year for the housing market.

According to the multiple listing service Bright MLS, in December:

🔺 The region’s median sale price — $350,000 — was up more than 9% compared to December 2022.

🔻 The number of new pending sales — 3,754 — was down 4% compared to the previous December.

🔻 New pending sales dropped by roughly 21% between November and December.

🔻 Monthly pending sales dropped to their lowest levels since April 2020 — and we all know what was happening then.

Our region had fewer home sales because there weren’t enough homes on the market.

Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, said she was a little surprised that prices throughout the Mid-Atlantic rose so fast last month. But as long as home supply stays low and buyer demand continues, prices will keep rising.

This is the top of which Old City building?

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

Lots of readers knew that last week’s photo showed Welcome Park in Old City, which had been in the news over the fate of its William Penn statue.

Shout out to Steve W., Janet P., and Lars, who were the first few readers to email me with the correct answer.

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I told you last month how the Philly region is a top-10 housing market to watch in 2024.

Well, here’s some news for the renters: Philly also is a must-watch city for apartment rentals, according to a report by the national apartment search website RentCafe.

Philly was one of the top 30 most in-demand cities for renters in 2023.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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