Single-family homes built for renters | Real Estate Newsletter
And more sheriff sale problems.
It’s no secret that home ownership is getting more expensive.
High home prices and elevated mortgage interest rates are keeping some buyers on the sidelines.
People who are priced out of the market but want to live in single-family homes are turning to build-to-rent communities. They’re just what they sound like. Developers create neighborhoods of single-family homes for residents to lease instead of purchase.
And these communities are getting more popular.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Stuck in limbo: Learn about the problems that have kept the Philadelphia Land Bank from buying any properties at sheriff sales for the last five years.
Down to buy: See how the typical down payment for a home in our area compares with payments in other regions of the country.
Filthy Fortunes in Pottstown: Peek inside a once-cluttered property that got a made-for-TV cleanout.
A possible sleepy spring?: Scroll for the latest housing market data, and learn why it seems like homebuyers and sellers have been holding back so far this year.
📮Have you had to clean out a cluttered room or home without the help of a TV show? How’d you do it? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
— Michaelle Bond
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Renting a single-family home is, of course, not a new concept, especially in Philly. I was renting a trinity in Southwest Center City when the pandemic hit five years ago. (The “Mouse House,” for my longtime readers.)
I have a friend with young kids who rents a single-family detached home in Burlington County while she and her husband save up to buy somewhere.
But build-to-rent communities are something different. These professionally managed neighborhoods of single-family homes come with dedicated maintenance staff and neighbors who are all also renting from the same landlord. Residents may have yards and garages. Depending on the place, sometimes there’s shared clubhouses, playgrounds, and other amenities.
Demand for build-to-rent communities is growing nationwide, largely because homes have gotten less affordable to buy and maintain.
The people who live in communities of single-family homes built for rent span life stages and incomes.
Some examples:
🚚 Households that move every few years or want to live in an area before deciding whether to buy.
🎒 Families who can’t afford to buy in their preferred school district.
👧🏽 Divorced parents who want a home similar to what their children are used to.
🔨 Older homeowners who can’t or don’t want to age in place but want space and less maintenance.
Some build-to-rent residents want to buy eventually, and others just like renting.
Keep reading to learn about the explosive national growth in communities of single-family homes built to rent and find out why we don’t see more of them in the Philadelphia area.
The mission of Philly’s Land Bank is to help turn vacant or blighted properties into affordable housing or other projects that will benefit the public. Part of that work is getting tax-delinquent lots at sheriff sales.
But since March 2020, the quasi-governmental agency has not been able to buy any properties through sheriff sale.
That’s because there’s a problem at the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office. Again.
City lawmakers are getting frustrated. It’s not clear what’s going on. But the issue seems to be related to an online auction house that the sheriff hired to run sheriff sales.
A process that’s meant to let the Land Bank buy properties more easily has hit a snag that officials said they’re trying to work out with the auction house. Meanwhile, supporters of community gardens on long-vacant lots are in limbo as they try to keep them from being developed.
Keep reading to learn more about how problems at the sheriff’s office are preventing the Land Bank from buying lots for community gardens and affordable homes.
The latest news to pay attention to
For $300,000, you could buy a home in Philly or make the typical down payment in San Jose.
The largest unit in Philly’s largest condo building is for sale for $2.3 million.
Want to buy a piece of a Jersey Shore beach? You can for $1 million.
Silence from the federal government is putting Montgomery County housing programs at risk as homelessness rises.
First responders couldn’t enter the building of a woman in medical distress. After her death, her son is suing for answers.
DOGE said it canceled a Philly apartment lease for Secret Service agents guarding Biden’s daughter.
Mitchell & Ness, the vintage sports apparel company, will open a larger flagship store on Walnut Street.
House of the week: For $415,000 in South Philly, a three-bedroom, two-bath rowhouse with exposed brick and beams.
After Barbra Levan and Michael Leininger’s father died, the siblings had to do something about the four decades’ worth of belongings their dad left behind on his 10-acre farm property in Pottstown.
The inside of the home was stuffed with stuff. And the outside was overgrown and littered with equipment.
The siblings learned that the cost of cleaning out the property was steep: two years and as much as $40,000.
Enter Filthy Fortunes, a new Discovery Channel show hosted by Matt Paxton, the former host of Hoarders. The new show searches for anything valuable or meaningful during cleanouts. Over Paxton’s career, he’s found money in some pretty unexpected places.
The Pottstown cleanout will be featured in Sunday’s episode of Filthy Fortunes at 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel.
Keep reading to get a sneak peek and see what the siblings found.
📊 The market
It seems like homebuyers and sellers took a wait-and-see approach to the market early this year as the country faced more economic uncertainty and wavering consumer confidence.
In the Philadelphia metro area last month, according to the multiple listing service Bright MLS:
🔻New pending sales were down 10.5% from the same time last year. Those 4,631 pending sales were the lowest February total in more than a decade.
🔻New home listings were down 10.5%, too. The 5,335 homes that were added to the market last month represent the lowest number of February new listings in more than 20 years.
🔺Active home listings were up almost 10% compared to the same time last year.
If you’re wondering how new listings went down but active listings went up, we’ve got an answer. More active listings don’t necessarily mean that more homeowners are putting their properties on the market. Across the Mid-Atlantic, there’s more supply “primarily because homes are remaining on the market longer,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.
But housing supply in the Philly metro area is still low — just 44% of what it was in February 2019.
The traditionally busier spring housing market is now upon us, so check back next month to see whether we’re starting to see the expected rise in the number of owners listing their homes for sale.
📷 Photo quiz
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📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Props to Bill G., who knew that last week’s photo quiz featured the Quebec Motel in Wildwood.
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I’ve been enjoying the very spring-like weather lately. Walking along the Ben Franklin Parkway the other day, I even saw a tree starting to flower. If you’re as excited as I am about that, check out The Inquirer’s 2025 Philadelphia cherry blossom guide.
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