Moorestown’s largest affordable housing project | Real Estate Newsletter

Moorestown’s largest income-restricted apartment building is opening soon. But getting to this point hasn’t been easy.

The 76-unit building is the township’s third attempt at providing affordable housing along a mostly commercial stretch of Route 38. Legal hurdles and opposition from residents killed two previous efforts.

The development that’s now under construction is helping Moorestown chip away at its obligation to provide its “fair share” of affordable homes.

Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:

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A thousand potential tenants have said they’d like to live in the Residences at Harper when the property is ready for residents this spring, its developer says.

The property, which is within walking distance of the Moorestown Mall, will be the township’s largest apartment building that offers rents below the market rate. But even so, it only has 76 apartments. And one of them is reserved for the on-site property manager.

The project is one of several underway that will bring more homes to Moorestown for folks with lower-than-average incomes.

The township’s new mayor said he wouldn’t have been able to stay in Moorestown if his family hadn’t had access to a below-market-rate rental home. He called the Residences at Harper “a step forward for the township.”

A law that passed in New Jersey last year is meant to make developing affordable housing easier across the state.

Keep reading for more details about Moorestown’s latest project and how it fits into national and statewide conversations about affordable housing.

The iconic Divine Lorraine in North Philly has lived a lot of lives.

Try to keep up.

It was built as a hotel in the 1890s. Then it became the city’s first racially integrated hotel under the operation of the International Peace Mission Movement.

It was abandoned in the 2000s. Then, in 2016, Philly developer Eric Blumenfeld turned it into apartments. Six years later, he ended tenants' leases to turn the building back into a hotel.

Now, the building on North Broad Street is turning back into apartments.

Blumenfeld’s chief lender foreclosed on the building in 2023 over almost $100 million in unpaid debt. His hotel operator pulled out a couple months ago.

So now, the lender plans to start renting apartments in April.

Keep reading to catch up on what’s happening at the Divine Lorraine.

With the prices of everything as high as they are, who wouldn’t want to save on energy costs? We can’t all live in the Chester County apartment building I wrote about where tenants have no electric bills.

And we’ve still got a bunch of winter left. (Thanks, Phil.)

So today, we’re highlighting some relatively cheap and easy ways you can cut down on your home’s energy use and save money.

Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook has put together a list of 12 ways you can save. They’re not all for everybody, but you can pick and choose what works for you. (I hate being cold, so dropping my thermostat down to 68 degrees during the day in the winter is far down on my list.)

Keep reading for the list of ways to save on energy costs at home.

In the 1800s, a one-room stone schoolhouse sat on the Willistown Township property now owned by Christina Rilke and Jorge Ramirez.

By the time the couple bought the property in 2021, an addition had been built with matching stonework. The house is now huge — 8,200 square feet.

The couple’s three kids, ages 11 to 16, hang out with friends in the 700-square-foot schoolhouse, which has 11-foot ceilings, a pool table, and arcade games. The schoolhouse also has its original bell, which kids love ringing.

There are six bedrooms and 5½ bathrooms in the addition, which also features a grand stairway and a reimagined kitchen with a 10-by-6-foot marble island.

Peek inside the house and discover the architectural quirks the homeowners had to tackle.

Rick Shetler is the last full-time bridge toll taker left in Cape May County after more than four decades on the job. That is until April 1, when E-ZPass takes over the county’s five toll bridges.

Question: In 2024, how much revenue did those five bridges bring in?

A) $3.4 million

B) $4.8 million

C) $5.2 million

D) $6.1 million

This story has the answer.

The Philadelphia-area housing market often is pretty stable, not experiencing the very high highs or very low lows that other markets do. That resilience was on display in the first month of the year.

Compared to other markets in the Mid-Atlantic, the Philadelphia metro area’s market was relatively strong, according to the multiple listing service Bright MLS.

In January:

🔺The median sales price was $357,250, up 5% from last January.

🔻4,453 sales were newly pending, down just 2.4% from last January.

🔺The number of closed sales increased by 9% from last January.

🔺Homes stayed on the market for a median of 21 days, up 3 days from last January. That’s the slowest sales pace since February 2023.

We can thank our relative affordability for contributing to our market’s resiliency. But we need to keep an eye on prices.

In January, prices grew at their slowest annual pace since June 2023. But over the last five years, prices have increased by almost 50%.

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I stumped you last week. The mural of Julius Erving, or Dr. J, is on a wall on the 1200 block of Ridge Avenue.

Speaking of photos, I’ll leave you with some by my colleague Tyger Williams, who captured some ways Eagles fans are showing their passion through home decorations.

(My favorite is the window sticker of Saquon Barkley jumping backward over a cupid. The skeleton wearing a jersey is pretty great too.)

Enjoy the rest of your week. And good luck if you’re going to the Super Bowl parade.

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