LGBTQ+ renters’ struggle to afford to buy | Real Estate Newsletter
And fewer Airbnbs in Philly.
The LGBTQ+ population is fast-growing and younger than the population overall, and many are in or moving into their prime home-buying years.
But we don’t know much about the buying and selling experiences of people who are LGTBQ+. That means it’s hard to fully track or try to stop discrimination against them in the real estate market.
Researchers say we need more data, and organizations have recently started gathering some.
Keep scrolling for that story and to learn why Airbnb and Vrbo customers have fewer options in Philly, see what home prices are doing in the region, and peek inside a renovated modern home in Montgomery County.
📮 When you travel, are you Team Short-Term Rental or Team Hotel? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
— Michaelle Bond
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At a Temple University Real Estate Institute event this summer, I met an agent who identifies as queer and who shared a story of bias that stuck with me. It involves a tornado warning, a home showing, and a potential client running out into a storm.
One in five LGBTQ+ buyers and renters who recently moved said they think they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation as they searched for a home, according to a Redfin survey.
That survey found that LGBTQ+ renters were more likely to:
say they probably won’t buy a home in the near future because they can’t afford to.
say that saving for a down payment was a challenge and that they worked a second job to save enough.
say student loan debt is keeping them from buying a home.
In the housing market, marginalized populations often can’t compete against populations who haven’t been marginalized.
Researchers at the Urban Institute told me that we can’t properly identify, track, or prevent systemic discrimination against LGBTQ+ home buyers and sellers unless we focus on collecting a lot more data.
I have some history with homes used as short-term rentals.
I’ve stayed in them during group vacations. But I also was kicked out of an apartment at the end of my lease because my building was turning into short-term rentals — which is what my unit was before I moved in.
Philly has been cracking down on the ones that don’t have the required licenses. The city’s regulations — and the pretty new effort to enforce them — are shrinking the number of homes on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.
The city says more than 1,850 hosts have been delisted from their short-term rental platforms.
Read on to see how we got here, how many hosts have switched from short- to long-term rentals, and why Philly wanted to tame the short-term rental industry before 2026.
The latest news to pay attention to
Apartment construction has restarted at a redevelopment project in Cherry Hill that’s one of the largest of its kind in the Philly region.
Condo owners are fighting with fire safety groups and tradespeople over a Philly City Council bill that would require sprinklers in older buildings.
A Philly furniture icon is closing after more than three decades in business.
Thousands of workers who maintain Philly’s commercial buildings won a new contract with better pay as owners face record-high building vacancies.
Center City is doing better than most downtowns post-pandemic, but activity is not back to 2019 levels.
Longwood Gardens bought a former boutique winery and vineyard, expanding its footprint.
House of the week: For $789,900 in Havertown, a five-bedroom Colonial.
Paul and Lauren Lipowicz, both real estate agents, loved the modern look of the home they found in Penn Valley in 2014. But the inside was dated and needed a lot of work.
The renovation turned out to be a bigger job than they thought it’d be.
“In retrospect, it probably would have made more sense and been cheaper to tear the house down and start over from scratch,” Paul said.
But they’re happy with how their home turned out for them, their two daughters, and their dog, Nellie.
The family’s 4,100-square-foot house includes a large sunroom with floor-to-ceiling windows; a roughly 5-by-11-foot kitchen island; and a 10-foot custom, salvaged wood dining table. An outdoor pool fits into the L-shape of the home.
Peek inside the property, a space the family says is perfect for both work events and laid-back family time.
🧠 Trivia time 🧠
The Schuylkill is being dredged to clear the muck for rowers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now says a certain type of debris has prevented work from continuing as planned.
Question: A contractor has pulled 3,000 of what material from the river?
A) bricks
B) tires
C) concrete blocks
D) railroad ties
This story has the answer.
📊 The market 📊
As I’m sure you know, mortgage rates are pretty high. The average rate for a 30-year home loan hit 7.49% last week.
The chief economist for the multiple listing service Bright MLS thinks that rates are more likely to hit 8% this year than slide back down to the 6% range. In case you want to change your bets.
But first, let’s look back at the local real estate market in September.
According to Bright MLS, in the Philly metro area:
🔺 The median home-sale price was up 7.6% compared to last September — the biggest annual increase this year.
🔺 That price was $355,000 — up about 46% compared to before the pandemic.
🔻 New pending home sales were down 12%, and closed sales were down almost 22% compared to last September.
Homes for sale are getting snapped up pretty quickly. Elevated mortgage rates are still keeping homeowners from selling, so there probably won’t be a flood of homes on the market anytime soon. At the same time, many potential buyers are still being priced out of the market.
Stay tuned to see what the fall season brings, but it’s usually a slower time.
📷 Photo quiz 📷
This 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom, 1½ bath home near Graduate Hospital is pending sale. How much is it going for?
📮 If you’ve got a guess, email me back.
Last week, I thought I might be able to throw people off with an older photo of Longwood Gardens, but you guys are good.
Shout out to Lynne F., Gwen M., and Robert R., who were the first three to email the answer to me. Lynne told me that just before the pandemic started, she and friends went on a “backstage tour of the mechanics of Longwood.” So she’s probably got photos that most of us don’t have.
🏡 Your real estate experience 🏡
Last week, I asked whether you’d rather live on the fifth or 45th floor of an apartment or condo building. Readers chose the fifth floor for very practical reasons.
Cei B.: said: “In an emergency, such as a power failure or fire, I don’t want to live higher than I can comfortably climb stairs. The 45th floor is a nice place to visit.”
Susan S. said: “A nice view worth the compromise of an outstanding view.”
Dorothy S. said she lives on the sixth floor of her condo building. “While the expansive views on higher floors may be attractive, the benefits of being able to take the stairs for exercise (or possibly evacuation) are a plus for living on a lower floor.”
I’d have to agree with them. I can appreciate a nice lower view. Something in the 10th floor range would also give a bit of both worlds.
Enjoy the rest of your week.