Every quarter we publish a real estate market report for the Center City area. We include neighborhood level information at the end of each year, but I thought you might find it interesting to see the quarterly results for Fishtown and Northern Liberties:
Fishtown Median Sale Price -- down only 2% for the quarter, still up 11% from Q1 last year:



Median Q1 2007 price was $155k with 83 sales.

Northern Liberties is down for the quarter and for the year:

Q1 median sale price was $332k (down 20% for the quarter and 3% since Q1 2006). Before you get too worried I should point out that the data for this neighborhood is highly irregular for Q3 and Q4 of last year. In a typical quarter around 40 homes are sold, for those over 100. This type of activity is bound to skew any results and I believe the market remains strong in line with all of Center City East.

You can get more details on the market in general with our quarterly report and more neighborhood information in our yearly report. Bother are available at http://www.phillyliving.com/report/.

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PhillyLiving.com - For all of your Center City Philadelphia Real Estate needs.

I bought my place in Fishtown for a MUCH higher amount than the average price.....got me a little worried.
Also, I looked at the other areas and Fishtown is definitely trailing behind in property prices. When I was looking at houses about 6 months ago- I thought that the prices of houses for sale in Fishtown were comparable to those in South Philly. Yet the average selling price of the South Philly neighborhood has broken well beyond the $200K mark and Fishtown remains at $150-175K

David,
Are you including real Fishtown or all of 19125? What are YOUR boundaries of Fishtown? I'd guess you're including at least up to Lehigh but I'd assume you're including everything that comes up in MLS as Fishtown which is 19125...that will change the numbers drastically. If that's the case, I'm surprised it's as high as $155K for all of 19125.

I'd say the average house price that's selling in Fishtown proper is around $225K--but maybe I'm wrong. There's more volume I see North of York where Fishtown ends (but is still in 19125) so perhaps it's higher than $225K.

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

You raised a really good point... the definition we used is 19125. So the properties we included are everything east of Frankford Ave and all the way up to Lehigh as determined by the property's zip+4.

For the future we will do a better job explaining the geographies involved as it certainly can have a major impact. Thanks!

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PhillyLiving.com - For all of your Center City Philadelphia Real Estate needs.

Does anyone have an opinion on what those casinos are going to do the real estate in Fishtown? Do you think it will have any impact?

Everyone has an opinion on this.

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

Ok well than what are the opinions? I have a house on Hazzard right off of Aramingo that I'll need to sell in about 2 years. It's a 3 bedroom 2bath 2 story row home. I bought it for $80,000 and put about $60,000 into it. It was one bath but I added a second. I want to be able to sell it for $250,000, do you think that's possible?

I am also VERY interested in opinions about house values in the next year for Northern Liberties and Fishtown. I would like to buy a house soon, but I think I will wait another year due to what I think will be a continuing correction to the current house prices. I suspect there are a lot of people out there just like me - so it's likely to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Um, it depends on what you did really. I see contractors that spend a lot of money and don't get it back...and some contractors that do cheaper but more tasteful rehabs that get a much higher return. I've put about $80K into my house but I overimproved the kitchen, knowing full well I didn't need a $800ish dishwasher, $6K in solid maple cabinetry with a nice finish, etc., etc. for what my house is worth...however, I did it because I don't plan on moving anytime soon.

Sorry if I seemed curt--people who are against the casinos think our property values will plummet. People who are for them think prices are going to go through the roof. We also are faced with a slowing market...the market is still really great in Fishtown especially in the under $300K market but it's a bit more tricky above York Street where you are...there isn't much selling for that much even right now there.

Also figure in that selling your house will cost about 8% of the sales price between commissions and transfer tax and bank/recording fees.

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