I am so over the "LUXURY apartments for rent and LUXURY condos and homes up for sale." What ever happened to just regular homes to live in? Not Low income, not luxury, just regular housing.
This news is not exciting to me at all. I'm fed up with all the development forcing all the poor people who aren't Section 8 or low income housing, a smaller and smaller amount of choices to live.
I feel like I'm getting backed into a corner. Why are they making Point Breeze houses too expensive for the people who live there to buy? Property taxes are going to be too expensive for them to pay. Does anyone care about the poor folk who try to take of themselves anymore?

Apprently not.
Which is sad, but building houses for poor folk doesn't make money. Which is why its usually left to the government to do.

I predict serious number increases in homelessness in the upcoming years.

They're not only raising house prices but also the rent prices are so darn ridiculous I cannot believe people actually pay those amounts for a little one bedroom apartment.

I want to know, when did everyone else get to be so darn rich? How did I miss that boat?
It seems everyone else is having no problems paying these outrageous prices 'cause they just keep jacking them up and spreading it all over the city.
I work for myself. Maybe I'm just not greedy enough. I think I should start jacking up my prices, also.

You are not alone! A few days ago, the Inquirer listed 8 houses in the SOSNA area for Sheriff's sale.

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"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." Coco Chanel

Only two of them are foreclosure sales, and one of them was mortgaged for $71K, so I'm not sure that the housing prices are related. Foreclosures in Philly are actually down in Philly compared to last year, despite huge increases in much of the country. Personally I think Philly's home prices are still very reasonable, we couldn't have afforded as much house as we bought in Philadelphia anywhere else in the region.

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"I been a prisoner to a white Mr. Coffee
Down here on Christian Street" - Marah

What does SOSNA stand for and what area does it cover?
Also, where is this Frankford Chocolate Factory you speak of?
Lastly, as a side, i love this thread and the conversations and that philly blog enables us to do this! wooooo philly blog

Too many newbolds. Y'all need some different names.

And to clarify, these aren't $350,000 homes, theyll be mid to high $200s

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Boo yah

Go to SOSNA's new website at www.southofsouth.org. The Frankford Chcocolate Factory is on the North side of Washington Ave, at 20th or 21st Street, I believe. The site is huge - you can't miss it.

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"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." Coco Chanel

Can't agree with you here. Most long-term homelessness is a result of mental illness. Chances are that most of the people facing forclosure aren't mentally ill.

Most people who face forclosure will become renters, this is especially true of the current sub-prime mess, as they could afford the original payment, but not the balloon payment after 3-5 years.

Furthermore, the increase in housing prices means an increase in wealth throughtout the cit, which also means increased revenue for the city to spend on emergency housing services; thus, I would think you would see a decline in the homeless population in Philadelphia.

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Boo yah

Agreed. Additionally, gripes about housing prices going up are misplaced. Philadelphia has long been undervalued and is only now catching up with its peer cities.

I agree that not everything that gets built or rehabbed needs to be "luxury," but think about who is doing it. If I were a builder you bet I would throw an extra $10k of improvements into a building if it would net me an extra $30k of sale price.

America is a free market - nobody is out to do anyone a favor, they're doing business.