I am a single female in her thirties from NYC am I am interested in buying an affordable home in philadelphia. Can anyone tell me which areas to look into that is safe, transitional is ok. It doesn't necessarily need to be accessible by public transportation because I drive. I am looking to buy a home for under 130,000. I am willing to buy a home with minor repairs. Is it a far stretch? How do I find out about listings? Is there another area nearby I should consider?

i just bought in fishtown for under that and i'm a single woman as well. i was checking out some places in kensington as well, but walking around and being by myself, i just didn't feel safe at all. one block is up and up and then you turn the corner and u'r lookin over your shoulder. It's DEFINATELY gonna pick up in the next 4-7 years i'd say, but being nervous for that amount of time, i couldn't deal w/.

I've lived in northern liberties for 2 years.. which it's impossible to find something under there for 130... (i was renting at the time)... i basically didn't want to pay the increasing rent amount so i moved further north to fishtown. i was a little leary at first... but damn i've come to love this place.... people care about and look out for each other.... so, this year, i bought a little tiny house only 3 blocks away from where i'm renting.... (i actually settle june 28th)!!!

my real estate agent and long time friend was so inspired by what i found, her and her boyfriend started looking into buying in fishtown... wouldn't luck have it that they found a place a half a block away from me!

I have to say though, i was looking for a month and a half and pretty much gave up. Everything that i could afford was in horrible shape. this one place we went into had mouse traps w/ dead mice skeletons in them!... but all of a sudden, something popped up and worked out.

Good luck to you!

P.S. I know brooke on this board is a real estate agent that also lives in fishtown, but if you'd like my friend's contact info let me know. she'll bend over backwards for you.

Hi, I found a pretty sound house right above Frankford Ave. in February for well under $100k. It has a few minor repairs to be made nothing really urgent. Kensington is different from Fishtown, but in some ways it's better. It certainly is quieter, although that probably varies from block to block. There are usually several non-threatening people out on my block most of the time until fairly late in the evening and nothing particularly sinister goes on. I am formerly from the Bronx, and it's a whole lot safer than there. Fishtown is kind of at the level of Greenpoint while the near part of Kensington is more like Long Island City.

The neighborhood blogs--this one and fishtown.us--give you a general sense of what the whole area is like but you really have to just do your own due diligence on blocks and especially houses. Don't get rushed about looking over houses; they are quite old and can have a lot of warts.

I found this realtor site more than usually helpful; you can look at multiple listings by searching under the zip 19125:

http://www.remax.com

I hope those analogies help, they're not what I would use,...

but then this is most definitely nothing more than a start.
You definitely need to do your own research, both online and onfoot, and with a good realtor to guide you, with geographic and transactional knowledge, and just about everything else that comes up during the homebuying process.

Any major realtor's website (Long and Foster, Weichert, Remax, Prudential Fox Roach, etc.) will allow you to search all available listings.

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Real Estate Practitioner & Quasi-Intellectual
ERA Aarch Realty LLC
Urban Green Partnership

Some of the national real estate sites tend to be out of date or lacking details like address (unless you register & log in). I recommend trying www.elfantwissahickon.com

In zip 19125, west of Frankford Avenue is less developed, but also less expensive and more diverse. Port Richmond, zip 19134, north of here, is another area to explore.

You might consider posting here for more info after you've identified specific blocks or properties.

If you do a search here or www.fishtown.us you'll find many prior threads addressing similar questions.

You should be able to find what you're looking for in "Upper Fishtown" - - that is, the area between the traditional limit (Norris St.) and Lehigh Ave. This is, for the most part, a very stable, friendly area. (The blocks closer to Frankford Ave. - - e.g. Sepviva St. - - may be a bit sketchy.)

Aside from that, you could consider "East Kensington" (Frankford Ave. to Kensignton Ave., Front to Lehigh) or "Old Kensington" (Girard to Oxford or so; Front to 6th), but those areas are sketchier and more of a pioneer territory (although changing gradually).

The Northeast. anything else is a crapshoot.

Mayfair and points north.

But people live under this impression that just becuase they bought an expensive house it's a safe house.

Kensignton is, was, and may always be a lower class working neighborhood with issues and a lot of pride but issues.

Fishtown was a bad section but was gentrified...they still suffer from robberies and such being close to North Philly.

Try to stay away from North Philly or connecting neighborhoods.

Kensignton (which borders North Philly) also has a section referred to as "the Badlands" by the police....draw your own conclusions.


Two good maps...

The newspaper shooting map (as in stay away from red areas)

and Wikipedia's guide to Philadelphia neighborhoods....PC and informative but doesn't tell you what sucks...they use terms like "up and coming"

be leary of "up and coming" or gentifying....this means they were bad and just started to get better. (it's like gambling...not everybody wins)

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...s/11180561.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._neighborhoods

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Hey there,
Yep, as mentioned above I'm a realtor in the area neighborhoods and a resident of Fishtown. You can find something in your price range on the smaller side in the upper end of Fishtown a/k/a Kensington a/k/a Port Richmond (the area between York and Lehigh, Frankford and the Delaware).

Your best bet is to contact an actual realtor and get real MLS listings rather than going through realtor websites. The MLS listings give you all the info you need...and a realtor familiar with the neighborhood should be able to tell you what actual section of the area you're looking in (everything in 19125 is called Fishtown...and it's not).

Port Richmond further North is a good bet as well. Further North than that is Bridesburg.

I'm from the burbs of Upstate NY originally and am a single female and feel completely safe in my neighborhood as well as the ones above.

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Resident of Fishtown, Moderator of Fish/No. Libs/Kenzo forum, Real Estate Agent-Prudential Fox & Roach

The NE isn't a crapshoot? Or are you saying it's guaranteed to be dangerous? What with the half dozen or so rapes in playgrounds I've read about up there lately.

No..it's the safest and largest section of the city...bigger than Pittsburg and about the size of Staten Island (population)

all you have is an isolated sexual assault? for 400,000 that's remarkable.

I'll admit we have a shooting but it's almost always a crime of passion (anywhere) or isn't in the NE or in the southern areas which border North Philly...(carryover) like Frankford and Oxford Circle.

Let's take a look at a perceived "safe" "up and coming" section.

http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/crimes-index.html

hmmm...



Nu2Philly - Listen to Brooke. She knows her stuff and can direct you better. Safe sections are most of Fishtown, Port Richmond and Bridesburg. Not so safe are the areas next to Kensington and Frankford. Kensignton and Frankford aren't safe.

North of all of this is the Northeast (above Frankford) and all of that can be considered "safe" by any normal American standards.

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