Toll Bros. and the housing shortage | Real Estate Newsletter
And racial gaps in home affordability.
In 1967, siblings Robert and Bruce Toll built their first model homes in the same Montgomery County community where their father had built their childhood home.
Toll Brothers has since become a household name across our region. And the company has expanded into a national brand with the tagline “America’s Luxury Home Builder.”
Its CEO credits the founders’ drive and Philly-area roots.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Scrolling Zillow: Learn about the gap between what Black and white households can afford when it comes to homes listed for sale on Zillow.
Homebuying nightmare: See why a lawyer who was hired to help a Chester County couple buy a home was arrested and charged with theft.
Need a plumber?: Learn some tips for finding a good one who charges fair prices.
Bourbon in Bryn Mawr: Peek inside this redesigned home that includes a bourbon room.
📮Do you have a room in your home that’s dedicated to one of your passions? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
— Michaelle Bond
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That’s how Toll Brothers CEO Douglas C. Yearley Jr. sums up the driving force behind the national homebuilder, headquartered in Fort Washington.
I’m sure you’ve heard that we have a national housing shortage. Experts say it’s a shortfall of millions of homes. Homebuilders face headwinds when it comes to building more, including financing costs and restrictions and regulations on how land can be used.
Homebuilders also are keeping an eye on federal policies on tariffs and immigration. Toll Brothers imports lumber and steel from Canada, and the construction industry relies on immigrants, Yearley said.
But according to him, “The long-term outlook for the new home market is very positive, especially for our luxury niche.”
Some numbers that help tell the Toll Brothers story:
11,000: That’s how many new homes Toll Brothers completed in 2024.
22,000: The number of apartments the company has built, mostly in the last decade.
$900,000: Roughly the average current price of a Toll Brothers home. Homes generally sell for between $350,000 and $5 million.
$1.57 billion: The company’s net income for fiscal year 2024.
Keep reading to learn more about Toll Brothers and the home building environment we find ourselves in.
15%. That’s the share of Zillow home listings that the typical Black household in the Philly area could afford in 2024.
The typical white household, on the other hand, could afford 54% of home listings.
That gap in the affordability of listings by race was larger in the Philly area than it was nationwide. It was fueled by a higher share of white households here being able to afford to buy homes.
Even in the most affordable markets for Black households, only about 30% of Zillow listings were affordable in 2024. In one metro area, a shockingly low 0.4% of listings in 2024 were affordable for the typical Black household.
I made some graphics that make it easy to compare housing costs, affordability, and incomes within the region and across the country.
Keep reading to check those out and to see which markets were most and least affordable for the typical Black household in 2024.
The latest news to pay attention to
A lawyer hired to help a Chester County couple buy a home was arrested for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars meant for closing costs.
Buyers want remodeled homes, but they don’t want to do the remodeling.
The owner of a new Center City restaurant says she’s been harassed by people affiliated with the condos upstairs.
Hamilton Hall, the University of the Arts’ iconic building on South Broad Street, was sold to the Philly company that transformed the Bok Building.
Sheetz wants to build a store at an intersection that already has a Wawa in this Montgomery County township.
The Upper Darby School District might buy the closed hospital next door to its high school for $2 million.
Someone has been projecting unauthorized Samsung ads on a Center City high-rise apartment building.
House of the week: For $550,000 in Logan Square, a loft-style condo with parking and oversized windows.
I have a leaky faucet on my kitchen sink. But I know exactly how to leave the handle turned to stop the drip, drip, drip.
If you’re more proactive than I am and find yourself with a dripping faucet or running toilet, you might choose to call a plumber.
The nonprofit Delaware Valley Consumers’ Checkbook says there are big price differences to do the same work depending on the company you choose. So you’ll want to shop around, even for small jobs.
Keep reading for the nonprofit’s tips for getting accurate quotes and keeping costs down.
What’s that saying? It’s what’s on the inside that counts?
That wasn’t true for Lisa and Brian Walsh as they shopped for a home in 2023. They fell in love with the outside of a Bryn Mawr house for sale — specifically, the backyard. It convinced them that this was their home.
Then, they stepped inside.
The Colonial-style, 3,800-square-foot house needed a lot of work. But thanks to that yard, the Walshes bought it anyway.
Over the course of six months, they gutted the first floor to open the space; designed a new kitchen, mudroom, and living room; and replaced the staircase and floors. Upstairs, they updated bathrooms and bedrooms, including adding a second walk-in closet to the primary bedroom.
Peek inside the Walshes’ home to see their kitchen island that seats 12, an example of their “funky” powder rooms, and the family’s bourbon room, where a metal deer head wearing glasses hangs on the wall.
🧠 Trivia time
Philadelphia’s version of New York’s Ellis Island was the Washington Avenue Immigration Station. From the time it opened in the early 1900s to when it closed four decades later, more than a million immigrants came to Philadelphia from Europe.
Question: The city’s immigration station opened how many years before the one on Ellis Island?
A) 5
B) 19
C) 26
D) 35
This story has the answer.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back.
Last week’s photo quiz stumped you. In case you want to visit, the 1200 block of Christian Street is the location of that Saquon Barkley mural.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
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