Bloggers,

I recently have decided to buy a house in South Philly. I have settled on what I think are several neighborhoods that would be good for me. The Italian Market, Bella Vista and Passyunk Square. I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to tell me what the boundaries of these hoods are, and what areas in them to stay away from. Also, I top out at 300k as far as housing price.

Thanks in advance.

Bella Vista is by far the ritziest of the three areas you mention. You might find what you want is not affordable there.

The Italian Market isn't really a neighborhood per se, the portion north of Washington Ave is part of Bella Vista.

I'm personally a big booster of Passyunk Square, I live here and I love it. You want to live in the vicinity of 8th and Wharton. If you would like some quiet and some cleanliness, you want to live on one of the smaller, named east-west streets, not one of the numbered north-south streets. It's a block-by-block proposition... get down here, get out of your car, walk around and see what it's like on the ground.

I have no idea what you want for your $300K, so I don't know how realistic a figure that is. How many bedrooms are you looking for?

Bella Vista neighborhood is 6th to 11th - South to Washington. Contained within this neighborhood is the Italian Market which runs along 9th street.
No part of Bella Vista is unsafe.

Passyunk Square neighborhood is 6th to Broad - Washington to Tasker. Contained within this neighborhood is Pats and Genos steaks. The northwest corner of the neighborhood has some drug dealing especially near the deadend streets off of 12th and again on Watts. On the other end of the hood as you work towards 6th it is less gentrified but improved much over the last few years.

Now that was the information you asked for here is some more...

Pennsport neighborhood runs Delaware River to 4th - Washington to Snyder.

Queens Village is bounded by the Delaware to 6th - Lombard to Washington.

Hawthorne neighborhood is 11th to Broad - South to Washington


Also...

Dickinson Narrows is a neighborhood association with borders 4th to 6th - Washington to Morris

East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association has boundries of 9th to Broad - Tasker to Snyder.

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We live on the 1100 block of Christian. While it's technically "Hawthorne" the block feels more like Bella Vista with established neighbors and a lot of foot traffic with people heading to and from Italian Market. There are also a lot of students on our block. One person owns many of the homes so it takes him a while to renovate and we have a couple that could use a major rehab but he's been slow to move on those. To outsiders they look boarded up and ugly, but we all know who owns them and that they're not crack houses or anything to worry about. It's a GREAT block since all of the neighbors know each other and we are so close to everything. We've been here two years and have not had any issues with crime or drugs on our block. There are houses for sale but they're 399K and up. The last house under 300 was recently snapped up and it was only that little because it was originally a sheriff's sale kind of deal. However, you may still be able to get a deal on the 1200 block - there's been some recent rehabs there and I see that block being the next one to "turn."

It looks like what I have mostly been looking at is East Passyunk Crossing, lots of affordable homes for sale in that area. I have seen some trinities for sale in Bella Vista for under 300k, and some condos. But my preference I think is Prassyunk Square and Crossing.

Thanks for all the great information.

You can do well in Passyunk Square. We bought a 4 bdr/2.5 bath in October for just a smidege over 300K and it only really needed hardwood flrs/new carpet, new paint, and a real good cleaning. 7th/8th still borders some shady blocks, but 9th-13th streets and Tasker to Ellsworth are generally pretty decent.