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Open thread: How much did you pay for your first Philly home?

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With talks of Philly’s hot housing market, let’s see how much real estate has changed over time

A series of brick rowhomes in Philadelphia with a view of the Center City skyline in the background.
How much did you pay for your first Philly home?
Courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Welcome to Friday Open Threads, wherein we’ll pass the mic to readers to speak up about topics of interest, distress, horror, and more. This week’s topic: How much did you pay for your first home in Philly?

This week, word spread like wildfire that after decades of being touted as an affordable major U.S. city, potential homebuyers in Philly were finally feeling the pinch, getting priced out of neighborhoods that have long been considered inexpensive.

An article in the Wall Street Journal brought national attention to Philly’s affordable housing crisis, focusing on a young professional who expressed her difficulties in finding affordable homes in gentrifying neighborhoods like Fishtown.

Philly’s home values have been on the rise for more than a year now, though, with inventory—i.e. the number of homes for sale—at an all-time low, thereby pushing prices up and up. Still, relief is expected to be on the way and there’s no denying that there are still bargain homes to be found all throughout the city.

All this talk of Philly’s changing real estate had us thinking: In a majority homeowners city, how much has the housing market evolved?

That brings us to this week’s Open Thread question: How much did you pay for your first home in Philly?

Tell us the price tag, and to get a better scope of the land, the neighborhood where you first put down roots. If you care to share more details like number of bedrooms and square footage, please do! Sound off in the comments below.