What do you know about home ownership? | Real Estate Newsletter
And designing Fishtown hot spots.
Happy National Home Ownership Month!
It’s OK if you’ve never heard of it. There’s a national month or day for everything, and it’s hard to keep track.
Home ownership remains a major way American families build wealth. And buying a home is the biggest purchase most people will ever make.
So it pays to be prepared. Whether you already own your home or you want to buy one some day, take this quiz to see how much you know about home ownership.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Designing in Fishtown: Meet the designer behind some of Philly’s hottest spots.
No deal?: See how local civil rights groups are fighting a request by the Justice Department to end the agreement it reached with a bank that it accused of redlining in Philly.
Easy mowing: Peek inside this Camden County property where the homeowners spend time wandering through the garden.
Market update: Scroll to see how the Philly area’s real estate market did in May.
📮Between lawn mowing and garden weeding, which chore would you rather do? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
— Michaelle Bond
If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.
What size down payment do you have to make to buy a house? How much should you expect to pay in closing costs? What exactly is home equity?
These are some of the questions I ask readers in my new quiz about home ownership.
And in case those are too easy for you, I also ask you to guess what the typical mortgage payment is and what percentage of Americans think owning a home is part of the “American dream.”
Take the quiz to test your home ownership knowledge.
I’ve only been to Kalaya’s newer location once, but the Thai restaurant’s beautiful design left an impression on me. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to go.
Down the street at Suraya, one of my friends posed for engagement photos in the Lebanese restaurant’s pretty courtyard.
Today, we meet the designer behind these and other Philly hot spots.
Katherine Lundberg was working as a design manager for Anthropologie when she met the developer of Fishtown’s Suraya.
She designed the restaurant’s interior as a freelancer and then left Anthropologie to work for the developer full time. She created the courtyard that my friend had her photos taken in.
Lundberg spent two years designing Kalaya, fulfilling the owner’s vision of a warm and elegant space.
Keep reading to learn more about Lundberg and her past and future projects.
The latest news to pay attention to
The Justice Department wants to end an agreement it reached with a Pennsylvania bank that it accused of redlining in Philly.
In a lawsuit, a lender says it lost nearly $10 million in a Philly-based real estate scheme.
Homebuyers could end up saving a lot of money by shopping around for a mortgage.
In a rare move, City Council “effectively killed” an affordable housing project that was approved by the zoning board.
Rare sandstone taken from an Atlantic City church that’s being demolished will help save a “castle” in D.C.
A new book explores why progressives made it impossible to build in the United States.
A Wawa, an Applebee’s, and a zombie Rite Aid near Fishtown are part of a $14.7 million real estate deal.
The Sixers have picked an architect for their new South Philly arena.
House of the week: For $735,000 in Wayne, a three-bedroom townhouse near the Radnor Trail and Regional Rail.
Rob Thuener and his husband, Dave Jones, bought their bungalow in Westmont, Camden County in 2008. At the time, the yard had grass, some shrubs, and five trees.
Fast forward to now and the homeowners have 60 trees and hundreds of plants and shrubs.
A Japanese plum tree that was a sapling when the couple bought the property is now the focal point of the front yard.
Thuener’s Latin major in college helped him learn his plant’s botanical names. His fine arts major shines through in the way he designed his garden, laid out two blue-stone patios, and built paths, a pergola, and seating areas. He also has a landscaping business.
Peek inside the property that the homeowners love wandering through and find out what sorts of critters their plants attract.
📊 The market
Home prices keep rising, and that means homes are getting less affordable for potential buyers. High prices, economic uncertainty, and elevated mortgage interest rates are working together to suppress sales, as both buyers and sellers hesitate.
It’s all making for a sluggish spring in our area and across the Mid-Atlantic.
In the Philadelphia metro area, according to multiple listing service Bright MLS:
🔺The median sales price in May was $395,000. That’s more than 5% higher than it was at the same time last year.
🔻 The roughly 5,800 sales that closed in May represented a 2% drop from last May.
🔻 This year, as of the end of May, the number of new pending sales was 1.5% below the number at the same time last year.
🔻The number of homes hitting the market in May — about 7,500 — is a 5% drop from last May. And listings were down almost 5% from April.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the Philly location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories at this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Last week’s quiz featured a photo of people reflected in the water of the Rittenhouse Square fountain.
Shoutout to Lars W. for getting that right.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.