Philly Real Estate
Weekly Update

It is the first full week after Labor Day, which in this business means the fall market has officially started. The newest published data, through late August, shows a Philadelphia market that is steady, rational, and quietly competitive. The three-month average sale price in the city is close to $290,000, up about 5 percent year over year, with citywide median estimates ranging from the mid-$260,000s to $285,000. Days on market have drifted out to roughly five to seven weeks, inventory is still lean at about a month and a half to three months of supply, and the typical home draws only a couple of offers. That is not the frenzy of 2021 and it is not a panic. It is a fair market, and fair markets reward the prepared.

Montgomery County is the region's steady engine. Average home values are around $500,000, up about 2 percent year over year, well-priced homes go pending in about a week, and total days on market run in the 26-to-42 range. Months of supply sits between 1.1 and 1.7, so I still call Montco a seller's market, if a courteous one. Bucks County sets the pace: the three-month median sold price is about $548,000, up more than 7 percent year over year, with the shortest days on market in the region at roughly three weeks. Doylestown, New Hope, and Yardley keep leading the way, exactly as they have all year.

And the top of the market keeps moving. Data through mid-2026 shows the luxury segment, roughly $1.1 million and above, selling faster than the rest of the region, which tells me the Main Line and the finest Center City buildings are still drawing a finite pool of serious buyers. Affordability pressure from rates has genuinely cooled the middle of the market, but the trophy tier is still finding its people. The read for the fall: prices stay firm, inventory climbs slowly, and the buyers and sellers who move with a plan beat the ones who wait for a headline.

South Philly is the city's most complete neighborhood this fall, and the numbers back it up. East Passyunk is the standout: average prices on the stretch are up more than 17 percent year over year, and the restaurant-lined Avenue keeps pulling buyers from across the region. At the other end of the district, Packer Park is the new-construction enclave, with gated townhome communities like Renaissance Estates at Packer Place, the same project we toured in Episode 1 of Selling 215, running more than 3,200 square feet with 10-year tax abatements and pricing from about $1.2 million.

The news is not just sales. The long-vacant corner at 9th and Washington moved forward this summer as the Shops at the Italian Market, a roughly 28,000-square-foot ground-up retail complex that would be the first new-construction retail in that district in a generation, and a 51-unit mixed-use building is planned along East Passyunk Avenue. Put that together and you get old and new on the same blocks: the market stalls and water-ice counters of the Italian Market sitting next to the newest construction in the city. If you want a neighborhood with certified character, South Philly is where I send people this month.

Some restaurants are pit stops. Angelo's is a rite of passage. At 736 South 9th Street in Bella Vista, near the Italian Market, the DiGiampietro family runs a cash-only, takeout-only shop where the pizza and the ribeye-and-Cooper Sharp cheesesteaks come on house-baked sesame-seed rolls. The fans have spoken: the shop earned a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand in the 2025 Philadelphia guide and a Reader's Choice nod as the best Philly cheesesteak for 2026.

The 2026 news is growth, in the good sense. In March, owner Danny DiGiampietro announced a second location in the former Federal Donuts & Chicken spot on Wolf Street in South Philadelphia, giving the always-packed storefront at the 9th Street original some breathing room. The formula does not change: cash, no seats, an extraordinary cheesesteak, and a line that tells you everything about the neighborhood. We stopped by in Episode 1 of Selling 215, and it is exactly the kind of place I tell buyers to visit before they commit to a block.