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rynlingDamn I wonder why no one wants to buy a house here.
I'm making a joke about the stereotype that "bad things happen in Philly," but the truth is that the Philadelphia city government put strong measures in place to regulate mortgage rates in the late 1990s, when it seemed that Philadelphia was in danger of becoming like Detroit and Cleveland. At the time, Detroit and Cleveland were being decimated by urban depopulation, and they remain so to this day. The (majority African-American) city government of Philadelphia realized that this could be prevented by ensuring Black families didn't lose their homes while financially incentivizing younger families to live in the inner city instead of the suburbs.
There's currently an acute crisis in the American housing market. Mortgage rates that were around 3.5% during the pandemic have risen to over 7%, which means that nobody who isn't already wealthy can afford to buy any of the houses built during the recent construction boom. At the same time, a lot of municipalities across the country raised property tax rates at the start of the year, so a lot of people who bought houses during the pandemic can no longer afford to keep them. Philadelphia isn't exempt from this, of course, but it's not as bad as it could be. It's almost as if not sacrificing lower-middle-class families to the interests of property development corporations is good for a city's long-term health. Who would have thought.
So, despite everything, Philadelphia is actually a fairly decent place to buy a house. And I love having a house! Two days ago I got some tomato plants from Home Depot and put them out in the back yard, and this morning there were a bunch of little white butterflies on the tomato flowers. Fucking butterflies! I shit you not. Philadelphia is a far cry from DC or even New York, but you can't deny the appeal of butterflies and flowers.
I'm making a joke about the stereotype that "bad things happen in Philly," but the truth is that the Philadelphia city government put strong measures in place to regulate mortgage rates in the late 1990s, when it seemed that Philadelphia was in danger of becoming like Detroit and Cleveland. At the time, Detroit and Cleveland were being decimated by urban depopulation, and they remain so to this day. The (majority African-American) city government of Philadelphia realized that this could be prevented by ensuring Black families didn't lose their homes while financially incentivizing younger families to live in the inner city instead of the suburbs.
There's currently an acute crisis in the American housing market. Mortgage rates that were around 3.5% during the pandemic have risen to over 7%, which means that nobody who isn't already wealthy can afford to buy any of the houses built during the recent construction boom. At the same time, a lot of municipalities across the country raised property tax rates at the start of the year, so a lot of people who bought houses during the pandemic can no longer afford to keep them. Philadelphia isn't exempt from this, of course, but it's not as bad as it could be. It's almost as if not sacrificing lower-middle-class families to the interests of property development corporations is good for a city's long-term health. Who would have thought.
So, despite everything, Philadelphia is actually a fairly decent place to buy a house. And I love having a house! Two days ago I got some tomato plants from Home Depot and put them out in the back yard, and this morning there were a bunch of little white butterflies on the tomato flowers. Fucking butterflies! I shit you not. Philadelphia is a far cry from DC or even New York, but you can't deny the appeal of butterflies and flowers.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-25 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-26 11:36 am (UTC)I've been reading a book by a Scottish journalist named Cal Flyn called Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape. She talks about places like Chernobyl, the No-Man's Land in Verdun, the volcanic ruins of Montserrat... and Detroit. Honestly the photos of Detroit are the most upsetting. A lot of those houses and buildings are really nice, and there's no real reason why no one lives there. It's chilling to think that almost happened to Philadelphia.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-26 02:48 pm (UTC)Because I was curious, I went and checked the Chicago statistics in that report. We are pretty close to rent/own being the same (own is very slightly more, but like 1%.) Which vibes with my personal impressions.
(Interestingly, Chicago also is not one of those cities where rent is skyrocketing--such as Houston, Seattle, etc.--because instead of using that one coordinating software that ProPublica reported on last year, we have a lot of smaller landlords setting prices individually based on what's around them.)