Originally Posted by passyunk square

No South Philly old timer who owns their house is poor. Not anymore.

I don't know about you but my property taxes are ridiculously low. The people living in 2 and 3 bedroom houses on small streets are paying around $250 a year in property taxes. So if the value of their house doubles they're going to be paying $500 a year in property taxes, maybe.

It might be a concern for the retired/elderly and there are easy fixes to that problem. Freeze the taxes for seniors until the house changes hands being one example.

Otherwise you're still paying less than $50 a month in property taxes and your house just doubled in value. You're not poor anymore.

Most of my neighbors, black and asian, own their houses and they'll be the first to make fun of their friends and relatives who have been renting in the neighborhood for a decade - back when these houses sold for $12,000.

A lot of my cambodian neighbors are selling out. It's not because they're priced out by $500 a year property taxes. It's because they paid cash for their houses 10 years ago and they're walking away from settlement with checks for $150k. They're going back to Cambodia to live like kings or they're chasing the american dream in the suburbs.

One of my black neighbors told me, only half-jokingly, "yeah, your people tryin' to push us out, i know. " Which is more or less what the italians and greeks that live(d) here were saying 40 years ago.

Cities aren't museums and neighborhoods aren't specimens cast in amber. They change. Especially in an immigrant city in an immigrant country.

Originally Posted by redz812

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I did mean a condo. I want one floor and an elevator. But believe me, you can't find one in Philly for under $250,000. There just isn't any median priced housing. It's either sketchy blocks or overpriced gigantic houses.