Philly’s real estate market has had a very hot year, officially transitioning into a seller’s market. But while housing prices are higher than ever, and inventory low, the good news is that a dollar buys a lot more square footage than other major U.S. cities.
A new report finds that $300,000 buys on average 2,372 square feet of space in Philly. That’s 14 times more space than in Manhattan, and seven times as much as San Francisco.
Point2Homes crunched a lot of numbers to find out how much home $300K—the U.S. median listing price—buys across 50 major U.S. cities. They looked at the average price per square foot data in each city to come up with their results.
Not surprisingly, Philly offers more bang for buck than New York, San Francisco, and Boston, cities where square footage comes at a mind-boggling high price. In Manhattan, for example, $300,000 buys 165 square feet.
Meanwhile, Detroit offers the biggest bang per buck, offering 6,977 square feet of space.
If you hover over this infographic, you can see just how much rents vary across the nation.
Based on this report, Philly seems to lean on the more affordable spectrum. Still, there are some caveats: “Since our data comes from median prices, available properties don’t always match up with the statistics,” the researchers note.
For example, it could be difficult to find a 2,372-square-foot home in Philly that isn’t a luxury condo or stately rowhome, with asking prices much higher than $300K. Our own quick search of $300K listings in Philly revealed 18 homes, three of which are around 2,372 square feet.