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Another area to consider may be East Falls or Manayunk. They certainly aren't quite as good for "3) good restaurants, bars and shops within easy walking distance 4) easy access to public transit 5) not required but helpful would be reasonable access to the airport" as are Center City, University City, and South Philadelphia, but they still have great urbanity. The big bonus to these neighborhoods is that they are two of the safest in Philadelphia, with much more affordable prices than other low crime areas. Your $400K could get you a bigger place than elsewhere -- you could probably find a twin within budget. Your husband could take regional rail to 30th street, and either walk a mile (great exercise!), or transfer to the MFL and ride to 40th street.
PS - When considering your budget, I was considering buying. Your rental budget of $3000/mo would make bigger places in some of the other neighborhoods more plausible. But if you plan to stay for 5+ years, buying is likely the better financial move: Philadelphia is said to be one of the few big cities remaining where it is "cheaper" to buy than rent.
Haven't been to Manayunk lately, I guess.
Main Street there is lousy with restaurants, bars (some with live entertainment) and boutique-y shops, not to mention the only q***r-positive craft brewpub in the city (Attic Brewing up my way is also pretty LGBTQ-friendly but not as much as Fat Lady is). Now, whether one would call most of the restuarants "good" is an open question, but I have yet to have a bad experience dining there.
For some time now, Main Street in Manayunk has been the main adult playground for Main Line college students. But it does draw other patrons who manage to make their way there on the (R6) Manayunk/Norristown* Regional Rail line (or the Route 61 bus if they're not in a hurry). SEPTA actually runs later trains on this line on weekends, or ran later trains pre-pandemic, for this reason.
East Falls isn't as good on criterion 3, true, but it does have a few nice places to dine and drink at its central intersection, Ridge and Midvale avenues. East Falls station on the Manayunk/Norristown line is a 5- to 10-minute walk from the intersection up Midvale.
Both neighborhoods are across the Schuylkill from interchanges on the Schuylkill Expressway also. (East Falls is just a little further away from the City Avenue interchange. The Belmont Avenue/Green Lane interchange is on the other side of the bridge that carries Green Lane, at the north end of Main Street, across thew river.)
*This was originally called the Norristown Line. SEPTA added Manayunk to its name precisely because it's such a popular entertainment destination. Its topography reminds me of European hill towns.
Thanks so much for your feedback. I should clarify based on your comment about 4 bedrooms and my pricing comparison that we are looking for a 1-2 bdrm closer to downtown. I started looking much further out from Philly for the 4bdrm homes (West Chester, Glen Mills, Jenkintown, Ambler) and homes were significantly more than what we paid just 2 years ago, and if they were closer in price they needed a lot of work or were significantly smaller.
My previous post thought you wanted WALKABLE to his JOB.
That being said everything else is true.
RENT first.
Decide what if anything you want to buy and where.
He's not in a position for a long commute so your dogs have to become city dogs or he's gonna have SOME commute TBD.
Get a condo or co-op downtown and be done with it. Everything else is going to be allowing an HOUR-ish commute Home to "office" no matter what anybody else tells you. The dogs can adjust as long as they get enrichment and LONG WALKS starting in the morning. (I'm a dog walker)
One of my best clients is an ER DOC because at shift change he'd be convered in blood from gunshot wound and the nurse would call me at 11PM to go over next door and grab Jack.
Not in Phila but Florida lol
I made a LOT of money from that guy and he only worked a half hour away from the condo.
Worst case scenario if the entire city shut down, he could walk over there from anywhere down town. If necessary. That's how I plan my life/ worst case. AND I hate commutes having done them for years. My son hated it more. My dog wouldn't tolerate it.
NOW if he's just a corporate bookeeper or something? Fine move anywhere who cares.
My previous post thought you wanted WALKABLE to his JOB.
That being said everything else is true.
RENT first.
Decide what if anything you want to buy and where.
He's not in a position for a long commute so your dogs have to become city dogs or he's gonna have SOME commute TBD.
Get a condo or co-op downtown and be done with it. Everything else is going to be allowing an HOUR-ish commute Home to "office" no matter what anybody else tells you. The dogs can adjust as long as they get enrichment and LONG WALKS starting in the morning. (I'm a dog walker)
One of my best clients is an ER DOC because at shift change he'd be convered in blood from gunshot wound and the nurse would call me at 11PM to go over next door and grab Jack.
Not in Phila but Florida lol
I made a LOT of money from that guy and he only worked a half hour away from the condo.
um, "hour-ish" only if you're traveling at the peak. And from most city neighborhoods we've mentioned here, less than that, especially by public transportation.
A note on public transportation: SEPTA Regional Rail is similar to Chicago's Metra system, but there are some differences: Trains on most of the lines operate at regular intervals in both directions throughout the day [usually hourly], with additional peak service [it's my understanding that Metra is more directional and peak-oriented], and the system is completely electrified, which means the trains accelerate faster — important because the Regional Rail station network is unusually dense for a US metropolitan suburban rail system. It also serves a good chunk of some outlying city neighborhoods, especially in the northwest and northeast. Some of us who care about the subject have argued that its future depends on it running more like rapid transit, but that's in the future.
(The Schuylkill Expressway, the main freeway into the city from points west and northwest, however, flows like molasses in places for much of the day.)
And given that they're working with a $400k budget, some city neighborhoods will be within their reach, but not Center City if they want a larger house.
If they want a decent-sized yard, however, their options in the city will be very limited. There are outlying neighborhoods (including Cedar Park, which I mentioned in my first post) where twins with front, back and (often small) side yards dominate, but I'm not sure they will be able to score houses in those places for under $400k. They certainly won't find them in Center City. (They would in Germantown, for instance, but I already ruled that neighborhood out for them.)
I think I wear a KICK ME sign on City Data. People LOVE "correcting" me. But you lecturers don't READ before correcting. WHAT is all this? And WHY?
There are 260 homes in 19103 for sale under 500K
Of course they can buy downtown for 400K. Here's a PERFECT historic row house Fitler Square 2/2 $385K with STRONG resale value because of the neighborhood and it's a Trinity. He can literally walk or bike to work. 2 miles 35 minute walk. Unless they can't do the steps or there's allergies.Took me 3 seconds on Realtor dot com.
I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY LONG. The INVENTORY IS ENDLESS.
I'm pretty good at reading. You have her doing a big old relo kids, dogs, yards, trains and that's not what she's doing.
She said:
the postion was hybrid.
we don't not plan a full relocation immediately
1-2 BR
need to have a place that he can stay when he needs to be in Philly or when I can work remotely from there.
She never said they want a larger house.
I said RENT FIRST. I said get a condo. Get a condo or co-op downtown and be done with it. Everything else is going to be allowing an HOUR-ish commute Home to "office",
ALLOWING in English means "don't plan on exactly but just in case". ISH "means give or take." OH PEAK vs OFF PEAK? Well hopefully those coronary care patients will stick to the schedule and wait for off peak.
I don't need the tutorial I was born and raised in Philly. Commuted all over the place between the Northeast, Bucks County, King of Prussia, South Philly. Used cars, busses, trains and highways my whole life and ironically my husband was a Penn Grad systems enginering transportation engineer with Septa and the DVRPC and being FOREIGN I had to write his stuff so I got a U of P Masters and PhD in Phila Transporation by proxy.
You can spend 15 minutes just coming up from the train to walk a couple blocks to a building.
Work Elevator? That's another ten minutes.
At THIS VERY MOMENT the estimated time from that Washington Square DOWNTOWN condo 3,5 MILES AWAY IS 40 MINUTES.
Usually people who UNDERESTIMATE TIME are people who always run late in my experience.
I stand by the condo downtown recommendaton AND A CAR so he's not TIED to busses and trains.
Who ever even heard of that.
So please direct your comments generically to not me.
The grammar and diction... reminds me of someone... Dave??
How fitting of you to show up in a Chicago thread in the Philly subforum.
I think I wear a KICK ME sign on City Data. People LOVE "correcting" me. But you lecturers don't READ before correcting. WHAT is all this? And WHY?
There are 260 homes in 19103 for sale under 500K
WHY in God's name are you guys sending them all over the Delaware Valley. She even SAID CITY.
Of course they can buy downtown for 400K. Here's a PERFECT historic row house Fitler Square 2/2 $385K with STRONG resale value because of the neighborhood and it's a Trinity. He can literally walk or bike to work. 2 miles 35 minute walk. Unless they can't do the steps or there's allergies.Took me 3 seconds on Realtor dot com.
I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY LONG. The INVENTORY IS ENDLESS.
I'm pretty good at reading. You have her doing a big old relo kids, dogs, yards, trains and that's not what she's doing.
She said:
the postion was hybrid.
we do not plan a full relocation immediately
1-2 BR
need to have a place that he can stay when he needs to be in Philly or when I can work remotely from there.
She never said they want a larger house.
I said RENT FIRST. I said get a condo. Get a condo or co-op downtown and be done with it. Everything else is going to be allowing an HOUR-ish commute Home to "office",
ALLOWING in English means "don't plan on exactly but just in case". ISH "means give or take." OH PEAK vs OFF PEAK? Well hopefully those coronary care patients will stick to the schedule and wait for off peak.
I don't need the tutorial I was born and raised in Philly. Commuted all over the place between the Northeast, Bucks County, King of Prussia, South Philly. Used cars, busses, trains and highways my whole life and ironically my husband was a Penn Grad systems enginering transportation engineer with Septa and the DVRPC and being FOREIGN I had to write his stuff so I got a U of P Masters and PhD in Phila Transporation by proxy. I LIVED all over Philly including the 2100 block of Pine. Right down the street from that Trinity.
You can spend 15 minutes just coming up from the train to walk a couple blocks to a building.
Work Elevator? That's another ten minutes.
At THIS VERY MOMENT the estimated time from that Washington Square DOWNTOWN condo 3,5 MILES AWAY IS 40 MINUTES.
Usually people who UNDERESTIMATE TIME are people who always run late in my experience.
I stand by the condo downtown recommendation AND A CAR so he's not TIED to busses and trains.
Who ever even heard of that.
So please direct your comments generically to not me.
OP, The Washington Sq And Society Hill area is probably more conducive and centrally located to your touristy vibe for no. But they are "COMMUTES". The West End of town can be considered "boring".
Me, regarding the sentence above that I boldfaced. I'm not a native, but I've lived here 40 years, and I've never owned a car in any of those 40.
Most of that time I lived in Center City myself, smack in the middle of the Gayborhood (in Wash West), and in my later years there I had three jobs where I reverse-commuted, taking 1:00-1:30 to travel door to door — one hour to Yardley and Widener University in Chester, 1.5 to downtown Wilmington (including a bus trip from the train station to Rodney Square at the Wilmington end). When I worked at Penn, I could walk to my office (in College Hall) from my residence (near 12th and Locust) in 35 minutes (I walked then at a slightly faster pace than many: closer to 4 than 3 mph). My trip on public transit never took me more than 30 minutes, more commonly 20, counting the walks.
Where I now live, on Germantown's west side, taking the bus and the Broad Street Line into town (City Hall or Walnut-Locust) takes about 45 minutes, including the one-block walk to the bus stop at my end. Where I used to live, in East Germantown, the travel time was actually less because the bus ride was shorter (8 minutes vs. 20) and the subway trip longer (15 minutes on the express, 22 on the local vs. 12/16).
Travel times on public transit from Oxford Circle in Northeast Philadelphia to Old City were comparable to those I have now.
If I need a car for errands or work trips to properties beyond easy reach of public transit, I book a car share (and if it's for work, get reimbursed by my employer). This is one of those cities where one can easily live car-free if one plays one's cards right (for instance, don't make the Far Northeast your home). I will allow that, as a single male, I don't have the needs that a parent of two kids would, so living car-free is easier for me. But it's even possible for a family to do so, though they would have to play their cards far more carefully.
Sorry I overlooked what the OP said about what they're looking for right now; I went by Post 10 in the thread. But there's no need to get so combative. I'm also going off what I know.
P.S.: My posting handle here should clue you in to my attitude towards public transportation. I've written fairly extensively about the subject before and will likely do so again, and people know who I am at 1234 Market Street (in fact, I just spoke with Leslie Richards for a blurb for Phillymag's annual "Most Influential Philadelphians" feature, in the November issue).
Main Street there is lousy with restaurants, bars (some with live entertainment) and boutique-y shops, not to mention the only q***r-positive craft brewpub in the city (Attic Brewing up my way is also pretty LGBTQ-friendly but not as much as Fat Lady is). Now, whether one would call most of the restuarants "good" is an open question, but I have yet to have a bad experience dining there.
For some time now, Main Street in Manayunk has been the main adult playground for Main Line college students. But it does draw other patrons who manage to make their way there on the (R6) Manayunk/Norristown* Regional Rail line (or the Route 61 bus if they're not in a hurry). SEPTA actually runs later trains on this line on weekends, or ran later trains pre-pandemic, for this reason.
East Falls isn't as good on criterion 3, true, but it does have a few nice places to dine and drink at its central intersection, Ridge and Midvale avenues. East Falls station on the Manayunk/Norristown line is a 5- to 10-minute walk from the intersection up Midvale.
Both neighborhoods are across the Schuylkill from interchanges on the Schuylkill Expressway also. (East Falls is just a little further away from the City Avenue interchange. The Belmont Avenue/Green Lane interchange is on the other side of the bridge that carries Green Lane, at the north end of Main Street, across thew river.)
*This was originally called the Norristown Line. SEPTA added Manayunk to its name precisely because it's such a popular entertainment destination. Its topography reminds me of European hill towns.
As I said, "not quite as good." Manayunk is great for bars and restaurants within walking distance. Center City, University City, and South Philadelphia are three of the top places in the USA for breadth of restaurants and bars within walking distance. And I think that is an important distinction, even as someone who will stump for the 'yunk.
As I said, "not quite as good." Manayunk is great for bars and restaurants within walking distance. Center City, University City, and South Philadelphia are three of the top places in the USA for breadth of restaurants and bars within walking distance. And I think that is an important distinction, even as someone who will stump for the 'yunk.
I think I'd rate Manayunk above U-City on the breadth-of-restaurants-and-bars scale — Drexel has surprisingly little of either around its campus, and Penn really has just three clumps, though Baltimore Avenue in the upper 4000s compensates, I guess — but otherwise, yeah. I'd say Main Street and East Passyunk Avenue are actually in the same neighborhood now (Manayunk dining has improved of late after fading a bit).
But I was disappointed to learn yesterday afternoon that Lucky's Last Chance no longer offers the Rochester garbage plate special on weekends after 10 pm. Now I will have to go to Rochester to experience one. I guess I could take a photo of it or have it photocopied as proof.
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