MY HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED
In the five years between the time I graduated from college and got married, I lived in row homes in University City, first with a married couple on 43rd Street and then with a bunch of guys on Chestnut. I paid anywhere between $140 and $225 a month for rent. Many of my friends also lived in University City or in the Fairmount section of the city in similar situations. Whether it was an intentional attempt to practice Christian community, a desire for dirt-cheap rent, or similar the inertia of moving to where you were comfortable, we all found ourselves clumped together in these two neighborhoods. Around the time my wife and I bought a house in University City, you could find more than enough house than you needed in either University City or Fairmount for less than $100,000.
Fast-forward five years. I’m reading the paper this morning, and there’s an article about home prices in Philadelphia in 2004. Out of 56 neighborhoods, there are six that have median 2004 prices above $200,000. Four of the six are easy guesses: Center City West (#1), Chestnut Hill (#2), Center City East (#3), and West Mount Airy (#6). Guess who’s #4 and #5? That’s right: Fairmount and University City. The median house in Fairmount sold for $275,000 last year, a 179% jump since 1998; in University City, it was a 116% jump, to $207,500. Both neighborhoods had 30+% jumps in just the past twelve months.
My friends and I reminisce often about those post-college days. I once lived with nine guys, in a three-story house in which we converted two living rooms into bedrooms and still had to double up a couple of rooms. Another friend of mine spent two years living with three women – all platonic, really. A third friend of mine lived in such a low-rent area and with so many people that his monthly rent was $100. And now our old neighborhoods are the flavor of the moment in real estate. My, how times have changed.
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