Monthly Archives: May 2012

Properties held by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, the Department of Public Property and the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. will soon be easier to purchase with a new website featuring a map which allows potential buyers to identify the location, price and other information of city-held properties. At present, 9,000 properties are listed on the website, which represents the majority of the city’s holdings.

According to Philadelphia development planners, the six miles along the Schuylkill River, from University City to Philadelphia International Airport, is valuable from a commercial development perspective and represents 68 percent of the city’s underutilized and vacant industrial land. At present, the land is filled with refineries, utilities, scrap yards and freight rail.

According to recent data released by RealtyTrac last week, foreclosure filings in April were higher than they were last year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, the number of foreclosures reportedly fell around 11 percent from March, but was 24 percent higher than they were last April. The increase in foreclosures in Philadelphia has reportedly been going on for the last six months. Statewide, filings were about 4 percent higher than March and nearly 17 percent higher than last year.

Development projects, even those that are years in the making, often face major setbacks. Last month, we wrote about a dispute that arose between Philadelphia Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez and the Norris Square Civic Association over a proposal to allow only single-family housing to be built in one section of the Norris Squire neighborhood.

After finding that a communications company installed on the front of their lawns the beginnings of what will become cell phone poles, a handful of residents in Bucks County are reportedly warning other homeowners around the Philadelphia area and across the state that they may be next. According to sources, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved the installation of 12 metal poles on the properties. The company installing the poles gained the rights to do so from the Public Utility Commission back in 2008.

San-Francisco-based real estate search engine NeighborCity recently lauched AgentMatch, a service advertised as seeking to connect high quality real estate agents with home sellers and buyers. According to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article, though, the new search engine may not be entirely accurate about agents’ qualifications. Part of the issue is suspected to be that the website is not correctly identifying townhouses as condos. In Philly’s older rowhouse neighborhoods, townhouses can be condominiums but are rarely so.

Our Philadelphia readers may be aware of the advances in zoning and development in Philadelphia over the past 10 years.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, construction activity in the Philadelphia region increased in March, with nonresidential construction increasing by 96 percent from last March. In terms of dollars, $197.7 million in contracts were reported last year, compared to $387.1 this year. Residential building reportedly increased by 57 percent to $281.2 million, compared to last March’s $179 million. Substantial increases were seen in construction projects involving commercial, manufacturing, educational and religious properties, going from $163.9 million to $323.1 million.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that landscaping contractors will be replacing roughly 3,400 trees in Norristown and four other Philadelphia suburbs which were lost in development projects. The effort, which will reportedly cost $2.2 million, is being funded by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure and Investment Authority, and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society are partners in the project. The goal is to help manage storm-water runoff, revitalize neighborhoods, and improve air quality.

A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday revealed that the national rate of homeownership has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, at 65.4 percent. An increase of renting accompanies the decrease, to the point where the apartment-vacancy rate was 8.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012.