Shrinking share of first-time buyers | Real Estate Newsletter

A yearly national survey of recent homebuyers and sellers gives us some insight into what’s happening with the housing market. And the results dropped this week.

So who are recent buyers? What’s happening with cash sales? And why are some homeowners choosing to put their homes on the market?

Unsurprisingly, high home values are driving some of the most interesting market trends.

Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:

📮Are you for or against the construction of more self-storage facilities in your community? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

— Michaelle Bond

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Every year for the last 40+, the National Association of Realtors has surveyed recent homebuyers and sellers to get a sense of who they are and how market trends are changing.

Last year, I made a quiz based on the annual survey so you could test your knowledge of the real estate market.

This year, I pulled out some interesting stats from the report. Some of the most interesting were about homebuyers who are purchasing for the first time.

The percentage of first-time homebuyers is shrinking. This year, it fell to the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors started keeping track in 1981.

And the typical first-time buyer also is getting older.

Blame the lack of housing affordability.

Keep reading for more info about buyers’ incomes, trends in multigenerational home buying, what’s happening with single women, and what record-high percentage of buyers paid cash.

In a newsletter over the summer, I told you about the storage unit my family had when I was a kid that we used while our new house was being built. And how the only thing I remember that I had in there was a giant stuffed Gumby, even though I’m sure the unit was full.

Well, our area has gotten a lot more places where your kid can store her Gumby (or whatever’s popular with kids now).

In recent years, the self-storage business has exploded in Philly. At least two dozen facilities have opened just since 2020.

Similar to my experience, some families store belongings in units while they prepare to move to a bigger home.

But rising mortgage interest rates and home prices have kept families from being able to afford to move when they outgrow their home. So they stay. But they also still need somewhere to keep all their stuff.

Home prices, housing shortages, hoarding, and the pandemic all have had a role in strengthening Philly’s love affair with self-storage.

Keep reading for a map of where these self-storage facilities have popped up, see where developers are looking to build next, and find out why other cities have banned self-storage.

Sure we’ve had temperatures in the high 70s this week, but it’ll get cold eventually … right?

If you could use some help paying your heating bills this winter and live in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, check out this story by my colleague Erin McCarthy. You may be able to get as much as $1,000 off your bills.

This story comes at a good time, because in the Keystone and Garden states, electric bills are rising.

Keep reading to see what you should know about getting help with heating bills this winter.

An online listing for a “unique” century-old home in Abington caught the attention of Tim and Tracy Panella in 2018.

“From the outside, the house looked like a small cottage, but it had these massive rooms inside,” Tim said. “It was deceptive from the street.”

The Panellas moved into the two-story, 2,400-square-foot house and made a few changes.

The dining room became an office. A playroom became the dining room. The couple tore down a decaying two-story deck and built one that has three levels.

But there was plenty about the house that the homeowners wanted to keep.

Peek inside the Panellas’ home and see the basement feature that helped their family through the pandemic.

Investors are moving to seize student housing from a nonprofit community developer. In a civil lawsuit, the investors say the developer owes $1 million in unpaid property taxes and has failed to provide financial reports.

Question: The property at the center of the dispute — Beech International Village — is near which university?

A) West Chester University

B) St. Joseph’s University

C) Drexel University

D) Temple University

This story has the answer.

Do you know where this photo was taken?

📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

Last week’s photo was taken at the Rail Park, a piece of the long-neglected railroad viaduct that runs from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue. Shoutout to Lars W. for getting that right.

Lars told me: “I have a couple of memories of walking the abandoned rail viaduct in the 1990s and early 2000s with a grassroots group of people who were at that time trying to get attention to develop the rail viaduct into a park similar to the High Line in NYC. It was such a cool experience then as it provided a whole new way of seeing the city’s skyline within the Center City area, and made all the more mysterious as it was so wooded with giant weeds and trees that we had to crawl and or hack through to travel along.”

It’s a lot easier to walk through now. At least the part that’s now a park. Stay tuned for a possible extension that would more than double the length of the elevated park system.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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