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m0nsteramash t1_j7h18v8 wrote

WHY IS THE RENTAL MARKET SO BAD?! Am i being too picky or is it basically impossible to rent an apartment right now? I’ve lived here for a decade & have never struggled so much to find a nice place.

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thefrozendivide t1_j7hivii wrote

I've seen a bunch, but the prices were stratospherically high, like laughably absurd. 2000 for studio/1brs, 2200 for outdated rowhomes in deep south Philly, etc. I'm starting to look around again to buy after a disappointing year of losing out on a cash offer 30k over asking, or the other case of 25k over asking with no inspections. Hopefully sellers start gently removing their heads from their asses.

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Chimpskibot t1_j7h7v5t wrote

Simple supply vs demand. There are just not enough units coming online and vast swaths of the city are underdeveloped. Blame bad land use policy by the city and lack of housing foresight.

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TheBSQ t1_j7j3lvr wrote

The city is still about 500k people below its peak population. In theory, there should be lots of room! (Much has been lost to blight though.)

The main issue is that a lot of people write off large swaths of the city because of crime. They tends to have a very short list of areas they’re actually willing to live in. Much of that is some of the densest residential areas in the country, so it’s hard to argue that land use is that bad. In fact, many places with bad land use often point to parts of Philly as a rare example where it’s not terrible in this country.

Like, there’s lots of areas along the MFL and BSL that, in theory, have good density, Walkability, transit access, good mix of commercial and residential. The land use is actually pretty solid, but it’s a shit show in terms of crime and opioids and it’s that that really limits living options.

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Chimpskibot t1_j7kdkmb wrote

While Philly hasn’t rebounded in population. It has exceeded the amount of households during its peak. That’s why most units constructed are studio/1bd. That is to say, land use is bad in the city, due to backward zoning and overlays the amount and density of housing built will not meet demand in the near or medium term.

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momentums t1_j7haftd wrote

Combo of time of year/bad market I think. I was poking through listings this morning and it seems like April is when a lot of places are going to have their leases up?

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j7hdecq wrote

June and July in Center City have the most turn around due to the universities, but probably more should start to be vacant (for a day or so) starting in May.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j7hbbrw wrote

There are rentals but they are expensive -- all these new constructions have studios and 1 bedrooms for $2000 +

If that's your budget it shouldn't be a problem--I just looked on trullia.com and there are 5393 rentals in Philadelphia.

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m0nsteramash t1_j7i3eub wrote

Im on trulia all dayyy. 2k is a lot for 1br

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courageous_liquid t1_j7ld8za wrote

I see some decent stuff on craigslist - if you look by maps it gets rid of a lot of the stuff from temple and it's pretty easy to filter out garbage/spam posts from there.

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BigStatus8740 t1_j7ko1he wrote

It's impossible if you have a dog. You need to contact the listing in the first week its up or you're too late.

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