Hundreds of Philadelphians live next to dangerous abandoned buildings.
That includes Emily Phillips and her family, whose North Philly rowhouse is attached to a home they didn’t know was vacant when they moved in. The empty house now has a gaping hole in the back of it, and a tree is growing inside.
The city labeled the rowhouse “imminently dangerous” and at risk of collapse.
That was four months ago.
Phillips told me her family is afraid that something as simple as a slammed door could send the rowhouse next door crashing down.
My colleague Joe Yerardi and I investigated how the city tracks and handles vacant properties. We found problems.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Knock, knock: Find out who’s living in all the apartment buildings that have popped up across Center City.
Struggling workers: Learn how much more a Philly retail worker would need to earn to afford the typical apartment rent.
Deed theft problem: See what City Council is doing to address a tax loophole that allows refunds for people who steal homes.
Maximalist in North Philly: Peek inside a home filled with books, art, and patterned rugs on more than just floors.
Market update: Scroll to see what the region’s housing market was up to last month.
— Michaelle Bond
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Residents rely on the city to keep an eye on vacant properties that are or could become dangerous.
My colleague and I started looking into the link between unsafe buildings and vacancy in April as I was writing about a Sharswood family who lived next to a rowhouse that collapsed.
We had a lot of questions for the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections. During months of reporting, we found out that L&I stopped using a tool that it once said would make the department more proactive in protecting the public from deteriorating vacant buildings.
We also found that:
predominately Black areas of the city are more likely to have vacant and dangerous rowhouses
nearly eight in 10 vacant and dangerous rowhouses are in the poorest 25% of the city’s zip codes
When people who live next to vacant properties complain to the city, they’re often left in the dark as they worry about their families’ safety.
Keep reading to hear neighbors’ stories, learn about issues with the city’s handling of vacant properties, and see what the city has to say.
And if you’re living next to a vacant property and you’re worried about what could happen, I have some tips on what you should do.
Here’s an eye-popping stat: 3,500 new apartments have opened just in the area between Pine and Vine Streets and between the Schuylkill and the Delaware River since 2023.
You may have asked yourself who’s living in all the pricey pads popping up over the last few years. Philadelphians I’ve talked to have wondered the same.
They’ve suggested that these renters are New York transplants. And some of them are. More New Yorkers and other out-of-towners are looking for apartments in Philly.
Center City’s business improvement district surveyed renters at more than two dozen apartment buildings that have been constructed downtown in the last decade.
Of the people who responded to the survey:
most are between the ages of 25 and 34
they’re paying more in rent than the typical Philadelphia renter
almost a third of them work in one industry in particular
Keep reading to learn more about the residents of Center City’s newest apartment buildings.
The latest news to pay attention to
Here’s how much more retail workers would need to earn to afford the typical Philly-area apartment.
A Philly tax loophole allows refunds for people who steal homes. A Council bill would direct that money to victims.
Camden County is building apartments for people experiencing homelessness.
The Wanamaker building’s new owners have revealed plans for a rooftop pool and a sunny Grand Court.
In Port Richmond, this new homeowner found a way to buy her house without sacrificing all her savings.
The cap over I-95 that will host the 12-acre Penn’s Landing Park is about 30% complete.
Northeast Philly’s Franklin Mills mall is for sale.
The former CEO behind an $82 million real estate investment scheme in Philly was fined by Pennsylvania’s attorney general for violating a settlement.
House of the week: For $399,000 in South Philadelphia, a three-bedroom rowhouse with a large finished basement.
Abel Tootle Jr. calls himself “a maximalist at heart.” And his North Philly rowhouse reflects the title.
Patterned rugs cover floors, tables, and walls. A canopy bed in the double parlor is framed by velvet and tasseled curtains. Throughout the house, books are displayed on shelves but also thoughtfully arranged on tables and stacked on floors.
Tootle estimates he owns about 3,000 of them — “the culmination of 40-plus years of book collecting, trading, and selling,” he said.
He had rented small apartments before he bought his house. So he took the purchase as the opportunity he’s always wanted to do his thing as an amateur interior designer. He experiments with lighting, colors, and textures.
Peek inside Tootle’s home and see one of his most prized antiques, made in the late Victorian era.
📊 The market
Across the Mid-Atlantic region and the Philly area, the housing market was kinda meh in November.
In our area, the number of closed home sales was down compared to the same time last year. And properties were taking longer to sell, so home listings piled up.
Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at the multiple listing service Bright MLS, explained what’s going on.
“Even with somewhat lower mortgage rates, homebuyers and sellers are still very cautious,” she said in a statement. “Economic uncertainty and ongoing affordability challenges remain the biggest constraints on the Mid-Atlantic housing market as we head into the final stretch of 2025.”
In the Philadelphia metro area last month:
🔻There were 4,754 closed sales, down about 4% from the same time last year.
🔺The number of homes actively listed for sale — 11,685 — was up almost 8% from last year.
🔺The median sale price was $390,000, up more than 3% from last year.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the location this photo shows?
📮 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 a photo of the Man Full of Trouble Tavern at 2nd and Spruce Streets.
I learned that a lot of my readers are fans of the tavern. Shoutout to Ilya S., Evan N., and Don L. — my most enthusiastic respondents.
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The words “cute” and “construction site” don’t usually go together in our stories.
But my colleague Kristen A. Graham wrote about some adorable second-graders who had a lot of questions for the workers building an addition on a house next to their school. And they got answers when folks from the construction company came to visit.
Story sneak peek: The students guessed that the project used “four thousand million” bricks.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
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