Tell Your Story: Longtime Philly Residents who saw a neighborhood decline, but never moved, now your area is hot again (Philadelphia: mortgage)

[selhars]

I guess it was worth hanging in there, right?

Why did you never move? What was it like living through the "down times?"
Did you ever think about moving? How close did you come to selling and getting out?

For example, I know some people may have paid off houses inherited from parents. Or they've just been able to pay their house off early. So really, unless you have enough money to buy a house elsewhere moving would mean having a mortgage again. They don't really want to live in Philly. But financially is sort of makes no sense to move.

Why move and go back to having a mortgage, when you can live without one, and travel or invest so you can retire early.....right?

Whatever your considerations have been, why did you never moved?....
I ask because sometimes I feel there are just no advantages to living in certain areas of Philly.

In my case I'm used to driving a half hour to get to my preferred shopping areas. Like people in Germantown who may go to Plymouth Meeting or Willow Grove/Jenkintown to shop. I have friends in Cedarbrook and Mt Airy who do just that. It's just tiring sometimes to not have those kinds of things closer.

[Pennsport]

Originally Posted by selhars

I guess it was worth hanging in there, right?

Why did you never move? What was it like living through the "down times?"
Did you ever think about moving? How close did you come to selling and getting out?

For example, I know some people may have paid off houses inherited from parents. Or they've just been able to pay their house off early. So really, unless you have enough money to buy a house elsewhere moving would mean having a mortgage again. They don't really want to live in Philly. But financially is sort of makes no sense to move.

Why move and go back to having a mortgage, when you can live without one, and travel or invest so you can retire early.....right?

Whatever your considerations have been, why did you never moved?....
I ask because sometimes I feel there are just no advantages to living in certain areas of Philly.

In my case I'm used to driving a half hour to get to my preferred shopping areas. Like people in Germantown who may go to Plymouth Meeting or Willow Grove/Jenkintown to shop. I have friends in Cedarbrook and Mt Airy who do just that. It's just tiring sometimes to not have those kinds of things closer.

Good question. Will be curious to read responses. While I can't address it, as I was the reverse (originated in the suburbs and moved into the city 20 years ago and immediately loved it), I can say that you have mentioned shopping malls and stores several times in your posts. It seems that one of your very top priorities is to be in close proximity to shopping. If that is the case, then your are correct, there might not be any advantage to you living in the city. I don't write this in a snarky manner, just being serious. You could probably be much more content in certain areas outside the city.

[selhars]

Yes it will be interesting to see the comments. And I certainly never even thought you were being snarky at all.

There are plenty of second, third -- heck even fourth -- generations in the home their family has always owned. So I know there are plenty of stories out there? In older neighborhoods you could even go back to colonial days and have a house in the hands of the same family. Anyone know or have any numbers on percentage of Philly homes in the hands of original owner's family? I do know there are people in there grandparents' homes. That would make them third generation right there in the same house, same neighborhood.

I have a neighbor, who in the 50 years is this immediate neighborhood -- is either an original owner or darn near close to it (my parents were original owners and I don't remember any one else in his house)....and even as the neighborhood has "changed its hue" he's stayed....when that was definitely a reason others left (if not the main reason still a factor among others)

I suppose it's sort of like any other area of the city that's right on the edge of the suburbs...a sort of suburban feel, no racial issues to speak of, neighbors care about their homes, home values have held (even if not appreciated as some other areas have).

Like the far northeast, decades ago a lot of police and firemen, and other city employees, who had to live in the city bought here, just inside the city line. It was pretty clear they would have lived outside the city if they could have, But they had to be in the city, so bought just inside the city limits. As close as they could be to being out of the city -- without -- being out of the city.

Don't get me wrong I like the area. But I'll put it this way, would I prefer the suburbs I lived next to were more like Merion, Wynnewood, BalaCynwyd, Flourtown, Wynmoor, Lafayette Hill, or Elkins Park....than Darby, Sharon Hill, and Collingdale? You betcha.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by selhars

I guess it was worth hanging in there, right?

Why did you never move? What was it like living through the "down times?"
Did you ever think about moving? How close did you come to selling and getting out?

For example, I know some people may have paid off houses inherited from parents. Or they've just been able to pay their house off early. So really, unless you have enough money to buy a house elsewhere moving would mean having a mortgage again. They don't really want to live in Philly. But financially is sort of makes no sense to move.

Why move and go back to having a mortgage, when you can live without one, and travel or invest so you can retire early.....right?

Whatever your considerations have been, why did you never moved?....
I ask because sometimes I feel there are just no advantages to living in certain areas of Philly.

In my case I'm used to driving a half hour to get to my preferred shopping areas. Like people in Germantown who may go to Plymouth Meeting or Willow Grove/Jenkintown to shop. I have friends in Cedarbrook and Mt Airy who do just that. It's just tiring sometimes to not have those kinds of things closer.

My parents were the only ones (my father's side) who moved out of West Philadelphia and that was in the early 1950s. Speaking of that part of my family there's been a continuous presence of them in W. Phila. for over a century. My aunt( my father's younger sister) , who is 101, has lived in W. Phila. for her entire life( Haddington, Mill Creek, Overbrook, and Wynnefield). She was born at home in Haddington during the 1918 Flu pandemic and now today lives only a five minutes away from where she was born. For her it was worth staying as it has been for her children, grandchildren and great-children since they own the homes they live in.


I grew up in the 'burbs( as my mother did) in one of the best parts of the 'burbs on the Main Line. However from about my mid-teens on I dreamed about getting out of there... so boring, so same-all-the-time, so uninteresting...at least it was for me.
My focus was pretty much on the arts world and being a part of that which didn't seem so apparent. So the city was a draw for me because of that. I enjoy shopping but it's not something that will define or dictate where I live.