See how high Philly ranked among the best renting destinations in the country

Shaina Levin’s clients fell in love a few months back with a charming South Philadelphia house that featured beautiful built-ins, wallpapered accent walls, and attractive fixtures. It was the offseason for rentals, and her clients applied before anyone else.

But by the end of the weekend, the landlord had six applications. So “we had to get creative,” said Levin, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Realty’s Old City office.

Even though the two young women had wanted a yearlong lease, they offered 18 months. They emphasized their flexibility on the move-in date. And they added $150 a month to the roughly $2,000 advertised rent.

“They didn’t think this would come into play for a rental,” Levin said. “I’ve been in multiple multi-application scenarios this year.”

Philly may be known for its high rates of home ownership, but it remains a destination for renters. Last month, the city ranked No. 7 out of the 150 largest U.S. cities in attracting interest from renters, according to the nationwide apartment search website RentCafe’s analysis of its data. It’s the first time in 11 months that Philadelphia has broken into the top 10 list of most desirable places for renters, climbing 42 spots compared to January.

Website visits and saved searches for Philly rental property listings were up, and the share of available apartments listed for rent was down.

Compared to other major cities, Philadelphia continues to have a reputation as a more affordable place, where tenants can get more space for less rent. Center City is doing better than other cities’ downtowns. And Philadelphia’s restaurants, entertainment, and arts and culture draw residents.

“You can get so many of the amenities people flock to New York or D.C. for, but you get them for a fraction of the price,” Levin said.

RentCafe found that in addition to locals, residents of New York and Boston make up a lot of the rental interest Philadelphia is seeing.

When it comes to rentals here, “if they’re in a good location, and they have something in the way of square footage and walkability, they’re flying off the market,” Levin said.

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Kristie Bergey, an associate broker at Coldwell Banker Realty’s Old City office, said she’s seeing an uptick in home sales, but the for-sale market is still a little soft.

“From a rental standpoint,” she said, “100% it’s on fire.”

She said she’s seen the young adult demographic flocking back to the city, partly because they’re expected to be back in the office more often. And they’re renting longer because they can’t afford to purchase homes.

Developers have been chasing demand and hoping for more. The city is gaining thousands of rental units this year and next.

Increases in saved searches and views of rental listings in Philadelphia show that renters “are looking at a lot of different properties,” said Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, a sister division of RentCafe. “That equals to me that there’s a lot of product out there that is competing for these renters.”

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And that competition means more and better amenities and perks such as a month or two of free rent.

“It’s good that people have choice,” Gianni Parente, director of multifamily investment for the Northeast at EQT Exeter, said last month during a developer panel hosted by the Central Philadelphia Development Corp. “It’s good for renters and good for our competitive advantage as a city that our rents have stayed somewhat affordable compared to, like, Boston or New York.”

Center City District, downtown’s business improvement district, said in its annual Center City housing report in February that “while the amount of forthcoming supply is unprecedented and therefore creates some uncertainty as to future absorption rates, the overall trend even through the pandemic has been that absorption has accelerated as new supply has come online.”

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But if the city wants to continue to be a rental destination, it has to focus on the basics, said Briana Wilkins, vice president of development at the Parkway Corp., at the Central Philadelphia Development Corp.’s panel.

“You can’t fill these apartments if people don’t want to move here,” she said. “People don’t want to move here if your city’s dirty, if there’s a perception that it’s unsafe, if it’s not a good place to live. So pick up the trash, turn on the lights, control the crime. And I think we’re really excited by the new administration, what Mayor Parker’s already doing and the people that she’s putting into place.”

Wilkins said she’d like the city to set big goals to compete with other cities.

“Once we execute on the basics and expect more, I’m really interested to see what happens in drawing more people in here to fill those apartments that we’re building and continuing to keep up that positive momentum,” she said.

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According to RentCafe’s report, out of the major urban areas of the Northeast, only Queens, N.Y., beat Philadelphia for rental activity last month.

Wilkins said that “maybe sometimes we’re underselling how good the city is.”

“You ever talk to anybody who moves here from New York City, it’s the same consistent thing over and over again,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Quality of life is better. I can breathe here. There’s just as good restaurants. I can go for a walk and not feel like there’s 30,000 people on the sidewalk.’ [Philadelphia] is just a good place to live.”

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The city has a “very diverse social culture,” Ressler said. “I don’t care what people say about New York City or wherever else, I still think Philly’s got the best.”

The city’s reputation as a place with premier universities and medical institutions helps, too. Match Day, when medical students learn where they’ll be training during their residency, was this month. “That’s a huge boost to our rental market,” Levin at Coldwell Banker Realty said. When students find out they’re headed to Philly, she said, they want to sign a lease as soon as possible.

And Philadelphia is adding rentals in a way that other cities are not, Parente of EQT Exeter said. Places such as Boston, he said, are “begging for supply.”