Quote:
Originally Posted by hammersklavier
This is the sort of comment that makes me think the 52nd Street area will look totally different in ten years.
Partly because it's already percolating, partly because the hardest psychological divides are often the most brittle, partly because West Philly houses feel rather more spacious than South Philly ones, and partly because outward spread of affluence is a response to increasing affluence in the core...
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This.
I have a good friend in NYC who buys apartment buildings in Philly. He just bought his first building west of 50th Street, on 52nd to be exact. He is by no means a slumlord and spends good money on his buildings, generally upgrading them from the condition he buys them in. He's even reading the market in West Philly and upgrading many of his older buildings (closer in) with Central Air, etc, which is not an insignificant expense for an old multi-unit building, because he knows he is competing with new construction.
In addition, I have been looking myself for another property in Philly. I work in NYC and got tired of leaving my house in Philly vacant with the exception of weekends so I rented it out. But...I'm still in town enough that I can justify the mortgage on a fixer in lieu of spending money on hotels, etc.
I have been focused on Grays Ferry, Kensington, and far West Philly.
I've been outbid on two houses in West Philly. One at 56th and Washington and another at 54th & Chester. There are beautiful in tact blocks in Cobbs Creek and I suspect it will indeed gentrify not just because the homes are bigger than they are in South Philly (and thus can accomodate families and/or roommate situations) but also because they're generally in pretty good repair.
Much of Cobbs Creek never really stopped being middle class and thus many of the homes have been well-maintained though not necessarily modernized. Even better, many of them have benefitted from owners who have left the 1920s details in tact. Thus, they are time capsules just waiting for some polish and the right owners with a few bucks in the bank. In West Philly, you also have the advantage of residents who are invested in the elementary schools. It is obvious that Penn Sadie is great...but it also seems as though Powell has reached a tipping point where middle and upper middle class residents think it is a real alternative to Penn Sadie. Add to that Lea which seems close to that tipping point and the new elementary school that Drexel is proposing for the uCity development by Wexford and you're going to have a critical mass of good/acceptable public schools. The point being, as those catchments get more expensive, it will only spread to the adjacent catchments due west and north.
Those are my two cents. I was somebody who would have never looked out there but here I am, looking out there. When I can jump on a trolley at 56th & Baltimore and be at 13th&Market in under 20 minutes, it's simply a matter of time.
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