The Hottest Philadelphia City Neighborhoods

Lower North Philly

Good things are on the horizon as development is closing the gap between Temple and City Hall.

Median home price: $135,000
Increase in number of properties sold (2011 to 2012): 65.5 percent
Increase in median price of properties sold (2011 to 2012): 16.4 percent

It may seem a surprising area to pop up on a “hot neighborhoods” list, but this Temple-centric ’hood has seen houses selling almost twice as fast as they did just four years ago.

It’s still on the lower rungs of up-and-coming territory, with the lowest median home price by far of all of our hot spots. But that number (as well as the percentage of bachelors’ degrees among residents) is slowly on the rise, agrees Mickey Pascarella, longtime realtor with Keller Williams, as development moves south from Temple and north from City Hall, slowly filling in the space. When the university cranked up its enrollment recently, he says, the area was suddenly inundated with smaller developers buying up housing. In 2006, mega-mogul Bart Blatstein really started the commercial ball rolling with his 90,000-square-foot retail and commercial space, Avenue North, bringing new business and entertainment and shopping.

The livability factor has bumped up significantly, and doesn’t show a whole lot of signs of stopping. Take, for instance, the ballyhooed Paseo Verde, a $48 million super-green mixed-use, mixed-income development, which debuts this spring at 9th and Berks streets.

Lower North Philly: A 20-Something City Destination:

• Lower North Philly is a hit with … Temple undergrads and grad students; 20-somethings.
• The food scene … is affordable. Think campus staples like Subway mixed with locally owned, accessible eats—the Creperie, killer Mexican food at Taco Riendo and Que Chula es Puebla.
• Shopping … is sparse, but residents are in close proximity to major retailers in Center City.
• Schools … Public schools fall in the Philadelphia School District—but within the zip code there are six privates and three charters, including Wakisha Charter School, YouthBuild and Young Scholars.
• The most prevalent crime is … Robbery and theft. One perk: Temple pays the Philadelphia Police Department to increase patrols in areas with crime patterns.
• Biggest selling points … Major renovations in the area and university expansion, all tidying up the outskirts.
• Residents describe the area using words like … “spotty” and “developing” and “young.”
• Neighborhood gossip … Bart Blatstein’s next big (probable) venture is the $700 million casino-shopping complex just a little south of the ’hood on North Broad, which supporters think will boost foot traffic and jobs in the area.

Data derived from HomExpert Market Report, a product of Prudential Fox & Roach, Realtors, Research Division.

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