Fellow Philly area investors! As promised from my last stats post (although it took me a while to find the time), below is an analysis of Philadelphia county multiunit/multifamily sales activity from 2004-2018.

I analyzed Units (Transaction Units), Median Sale Price, Total Volume each year and Median Days on Market. This was strictly for multiunit properties in Philadelphia County. All data came straight from our local MLS. Note the average (not plotted) and median sale price on an annual basis varied quite extensively, demonstrating the economic diversity of our beloved Philadelphia region. For example, the minimum sale price in 2014 was $3690 and the maximum was 3 million. The median sale price in this dataset was 160k and the average was just over 212k, a 60k difference.

The following table summarizes the data I pulled.

Graphically:
# of Units (Properties) Settled was at its lowest point in 2011, similar to Delaware county, with 713 total units settled (Just under 2 per day). To clarify, this is 713 multiunit properties transacted, not 713 “doors”.

Median sale price remained relatively stable throughout this period outside of 2004 and 2018, with an “average” median sale price (confused yet?) of approximately 158k for the 14 year time period.

Volume is the total sum of transacted unit purchase prices. In 2005 nearly 340 million dollars in multifamily property was transacted, a number that hadn’t been surpassed until just last year in 2017, when over 370 million dollars in multifamily sales transacted.

Last but not least, Days on Market (DOM) shows how quickly inventory is "flying off the shelf" and is usually a good indicator of how hot the market is (lower DOM = hotter market). Note how the low data point for this was in 2004 at 20 DOM, and a sharp spike in 2008 up to 57 DOM (Delaware county followed a similar trend in 2008 at 58 DOM). We are trending back down towards 2004 levels for median DOM, suggesting that the market is heating up again! Note the 2018 values spike up but keep in mind we are only a quarter of the way through the year.

There are a lot of conclusions can be drawn from this data. One of the strongest conclusions I draw from this data is that the multifamily market in Philly is definitely hot in comparison to previous years, with Units, Volume and Median Sale Price up and DOM down, this is exactly what you’d expect to see when the market is humming! It also seems like 2011 was the year to buy the best deal, with Volume, Median Sale Price and Units at their low points.

Because the city is so economically diverse, I’d be very interested to see this data broken down by neighborhood/zip code (multifamily or otherwise). If anyone has any requests for that analysis, let me know!

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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