What’s grabbing our attention this week | Real Estate Newsletter

In our neighborhoods and towns, we’ve all seen those rough-looking, long-vacant buildings that you pass and think, “What’s going on with that?”

One of those buildings is on the 2000 block of Chestnut Street. The former headquarters of the Philadelphia Housing Authority has sat empty for 16 years.

Redevelopment proposals have come and gone. But the current plan for homes at the site could mean new life for the blighted lot.

Keep scrolling for that story and to learn about a housing developer’s political rise, see how much solo Philly renters pay as a “singles tax,” find out what the local housing market was up to in January, and peek inside a home in Media where owners spent two years prepping for renovations.

📮 When I first moved to Philly, I lived in an apartment with two roommates to save money. In my next place, I had two roommates, too. Outside of college, what’s the highest number of roommates you’ve lived with who weren’t your immediate family? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

— Michaelle Bond

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Something could finally be happening at 2012 Chestnut St. — a site owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority that its president called an “eyesore.”

Previous redevelopment plans for the site of the long-vacant building never got far, but plans are moving forward to demolish the offices to make way for something new.

A proposal calls for a 14-story apartment tower to replace the four-story office building.

Some of the apartments will be offered at market-rate rents. Others will only be available to tenants who make below a certain income.

The project has fewer total units and a higher share of units with below market-rate rents than when a developer originally proposed it.

Keep reading for more details on the project and to learn what delayed redevelopment of the site.

A group that advocates for residential developers, called the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, has a new leader. He’s a midlevel developer who’s frustrated with city policies he believes get in the way of home building. And he’s become Philly’s latest political power player.

In the last couple years, Mo Rushdy has:

“My priority as BIA president is to provide solutions that can be executed fast and provide homes for working-class people making $20 an hour,” Rushdy said. “We’ve seen what the alternative is: no scale, little things here and there, while the need grows.”

Rushdy’s company, the Riverwards Group, has built more than 700 homes, many of which were developed on vacant lots in Kensington and Port Richmond. Another 1,280 homes are in the pipeline.

Read on for this profile of BIA’s new president, which includes pushback from critics and Rushdy’s vision for the future.

Lynne and Skip Shuda have lived in half a dozen homes, but they see their current ranch house near downtown Media as the last house they’ll ever own.

The house was pretty ordinary when they bought it in 2017. It was definitely “less glamorous” than some of the other houses they’d owned, Lynne said.

But they had plans for it. And they took their time — two years — to plot out their renovations.

The home needed more light and space. To add those, they worked with an architect, who walked through the house trying out concepts using 3D renderings.

The Shudas raised the home’s roughly eight-foot ceilings and made windows bigger to let in more light. They got rid of a big closet in the middle of the house and opened up the first floor.

Peek inside the home and see the most significant architectural change to the house — a clerestory with electronically operated windows.

Dajé Walker moved from Brewerytown to Old City after her Hyundai Elantra was stolen and she decided not to buy a new one. One of the benefits of her choice, she said, was not having to worry about finding a convenient and safe parking spot when she was looking for a new home.

Question: Roughly how many passenger vehicles were registered in the city in 2022?

A) 350,000

B) 470,000

C) 640,000

D) 810,000

This story has the answer.

Housing market stats for the first month of the year are in, and we’re seeing more of the same.

The chief economist at the multiple listing service Bright MLS, Lisa Sturtevant, says the trend of demand outpacing supply in 2023 will continue this year. She expects more homeowners to list their homes for sale, which will help buyers.

But it won’t be enough to prevent a competitive market. And buyers still face high home costs. Prices were up in every county in the Philadelphia metro area last month compared to the same time last year.

According to Bright MLS, in the Philly metro:

🔺 the median sales price of $340,000 last month was up from $314,000 last January.

🔻 active home listings were down 6.5% in January compared to last year.

🔻 pending sales also were down by roughly the same percentage.

Spring is around the corner, even though that snow we got this week makes it feel far away. More sellers and buyers tend to jump into the market as the weather gets warmer. We’ll stay tuned to see what trends pop up in the coming months.

This three-bedroom, three-bath home in an over-55 community in Warrington is pending sale. Can you guess the price?

📮 If you have a guess, email me back.

Last week’s photo showed the Rail Park in Philly’s Callowhill neighborhood. I’ll admit that one was pretty hard.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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