The Kibitz Room

I am excited to say that my latest venture has justopened...The Kibitz Room. A traditional Jewish style deli, something Center City hasn't had for a long time. Located at 1521 Locust, The Kibitz Room serves overstuffed sandwiches, smoked fishes, massive desserts, and anything else you would ever want from a great deli. This article in today's Bulletin says it all. Click here to read it.

Miami

I just spent a couple days in Florida, specifically the corridor between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and in downtown Miami, looking at possible investment properties. While there was a ton of product--I mean empty high rise condo buildings--and units available through foreclosures and short sales, the numbers still didn't work to get a good ROI. At this point, I'd rather invest in more property in Philadelphia. Like everywhere else, prices have softened. However, they need to still be much further reduced in order to wipe out the thousands of units that are on the market.


One realtor who I spent some time with down there is Lucas Lechuga. He has a great blog that is worth checking out, http://www.miamicondoinvestments.com/. He details exactly what is going on in many of Miami's condo buildings. Very informative for anyone interested in buying down there.

Welcome Wharton Students!

We are thrilled to welcome Wharton's MBA Class of 2011 to Philadelphia. In an effort to best serve your housing needs, we will be having open houses over the weekend to showcase our rental properties around Rittenhouse Square.

Saturday 4/18 and Sunday 4/19 from 10AM to 4PM

The Carlyle 2031 Locust Street
The Dorchester 226 W. Rittenhouse Square
Parc Rittenhouse 225 S. 18th Street
The Wanamaker House 2020 Walnut Street

If you would like to speak with a rental agent before the weekend, please call us at (215) 545-1500. Also feel free to check out our listing at www.allandomb.com.

Center City District Releases 2009 Report

The Center City District just releases its 2009 State of Center City report. Overall, the report says that compared to the rest of the country, Center City is doing pretty well. Some key findings relating to the residential market in the report conclude:

• Home prices in Philadelphia declined just 10.1% from the market peak in 2006, compared to drops of 11.9% in New York, 12.8% in Boston, 13.7% in Chicago, 32.2% in Los Angeles, 38.3% in Miami, 39.3% in Las Vegas and 40.6% in Phoenix
• In Center City, where 44% of residents walk to work, average home prices declined by only 1.0% between 2006 and 2008 and are still 34% higher than 2003 averages
• Condo prices were 66% higher than in 2006
• Downtown homes sold by brokers in 2008 were on the market on average only 9 days longer than in 2006.
• So too, foreclosure rates in the city in 2008 were well under 1%, far below struggling areas like Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas; within the boundaries of the CCD, where over 22,000 people now live, there were only eight foreclosures in 2008

The whole report can be downloaded for free from the Center City District website. The Philadelphia Inquirer has a good synopsis of the report as well in today's paper.

American Dream up for Rent?

According to a story from today's Wall Street Journal, the American dream is up for rent. It is a sad story, but a good one. The article talks about people across the country who moved out of cities, past the suburbs, to the exurbs, to buy a decent sized home with backyard. Now, these same people, are forced to give up these homes and rent again, but this time in the exurbs. The article is worth reading.

One item I found particularly interesting in the articles is Christopher B. Leinberger's (a real-estate developer and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution) comments: "What is happening on the urban fringe is similar to the urban decay that plagued cities after World War II...Single-family homes and townhouses in cities were broken into rental units. Now, we're seeing that phenomenon move out to the fringe."

This article clearly indicates that the outer suburbs are getting hit a lot harder than the urban cities....Philadelphia is a great example. The best investments are always in the core neighborhoods (a la Rittenhouse Square, Washington Square, Society Hill)!