Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Philadelphia right now.
You have the upper hand in Philadelphia. Most homes for sale still have no buyer. Many sellers have already dropped their price once. Sellers are competing for you. Use it.
Only 45 out of every 100 homes for sale have found a buyer. The other 55 are still waiting. Your offer may be the only one on the table. About 1 in 6 sellers has already dropped their price. Each one has learned their first price was too high. Start below their new price, not their old one.
A typical Philadelphia home takes 52 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 10% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago. There are 4,712 homes for sale in Philadelphia. That is 1.6 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 4,989. Supply is growing against last year.
Asking prices are 17.5% below their Oct 2020 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower. Philadelphia prices rose in only 69 of the last 108 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
There is no rush. Prices are still coming down. Watch the homes you like. Come back after they cut. Let the seller move first.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Philadelphia right now. 0.45 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 18% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 52 days to sell.
Asking prices are 17.5% below their Oct 2020 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower.
-2.0%/yr. 1 year: -5.6% · 5 years: -2.0% · ten years: +3.6%. Do not use the ten-year rate. Most of that growth landed in the 2020 and 2021 boom. The five-year rate is what Philadelphia does without one. Underwrite closer to -2.0%. Measure growth per square foot, not on the median. The median moves when the mix of listed homes moves. Your house does not. The one-year rate is a timing signal. It is not an underwriting input.
A typical Philadelphia home takes 52 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 10% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago.
19121. Only 20 out of 100 homes there have a buyer, 27% have cut their price, and a typical home takes 58 days to sell.
Where it isn't: 19116 ranks #1,194 in the country for buyer demand. Expect the least room to negotiate there.
No ZIP is on both lists. In Philadelphia you pick leverage or growth. You cannot have both.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19140 | +18.4% | $120 | 0.44 | 120 |
| 19131 | +11.3% | $165 | 0.55 | 115 |
| 19126 | +9.2% | $181 | 0.67 | 29 |
| 19120 | +7.5% | $171 | 0.64 | 101 |
| 19119 | +7.3% | $231 | 0.56 | 66 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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