Neighborhood Information

[gren]

Hey everyone,

I recently came across some townhomes that look really nice (online) one is located on S. 13th Street (19147 area code) and the other on Spring Garden Street (19104). I'm not sure what part of Philly they are located (North, East, South, West, etc) but was wondering if anyone know if these were decent areas. The names of them are Martin Luther King I &III and the other is Spencer's Place seen on Pennrose Property management website, they seem to be affordable but I need more info about the areas they are located.

Thank you in advance

If I were renting I probably wouldn't choose the MLK Homes unless they're dirt cheap. If you're buying it's probably a good idea. They're selling big homes with parking for $285,000. If you try getting that 2-3 blocks East in Bella Vista it will cost you quite a bit more. It takes you 10 years to get full equity so you should plan on staying longer if it's an investment. You need to meet the $62-77k income requirements and you only need a pittance for a down payment. There's definitely more to the selection process that I don't know about.

Hawthorne is a nice enough area. It's not as middle class as Bella Vista or Queen Village but I don't think it has too many crime issues. Your school will be Andrew Jackson at 12th and Federal which seems to be up and coming. Some blocks are still messy. The new park should be nice if well maintained.

[Dave]

Are you shopping for subsidized housing?

You couldn't tell from the list of neighborhoods in the original post?

As for S 13th and Spring Garden, S 13th/19147 is in Hawthorne and Spring Garden/19104 is on the border of Mantua and Powelton.

Now that I know for sure it's what you're looking at, I'll say that, generally speaking, subsidized housing in Philly is abysmally run, and full of drugs and guns. I wouldn't want to raise my kids in them and it's bad enough that I live as close as I do to the MLK rentals (not to condemn everyone who lives there, as there are definitely some decent people, but the number of "incidents" that seem related to their proximity is too high for comfort). I imagine the Philadelphia Housing Authority is having trouble finding low income people in the city who want public housing and don't have criminal records, so they let them live there anyway in order to not lose HUD funding (they all want to keep their jobs, after all, and they certainly aren't spending said funding on providing security and maintenance to the rental properties they fund/manage).

I'm not sure what your situation is where you live now, but I think it's at least highly questionable that it would improve significantly by moving to subsidized rental housing in Philadelphia. The only reason you might consider it is if you have a job offer here that you can't refuse, or some family-related reason to move here. You might also want to consider looking for affordable rentals that aren't funded/managed by PHA, or even Section 8, first.

[bahaar_26]

I don't know which neighborhoods are "ghetto" full of crime. I currently reside in SC. I on here trying to get some info on the city and just asking questions about different neighborhoods.

[annie]

PHA has a waitlist of 100,000 families for housing or federal rent subsidies. If you're looking for housing that is subsidized, there maybe a substantial wait.

Also, recommend www.spotcrime.com for the crime information of an area.

[thoth]

I don't know which neighborhoods are "ghetto" full of crime. I currently reside in SC. I on here trying to get some info on the city and just asking questions about different neighborhoods.

yeah but you ARE specifically asking about public housing developments, right?

[bahaar_26]

@thoth I didn't know they were public housing