Help! How is the rental market for East Mt. Airy, Philadelphia?

[Garrett M.]

Hello wise fellow BPers!!

I am considering my first investment in Philadelphia and I am drawn to the East Mt. Airy neighborhood but have concerns about the demand for 3 bed 1 bath houses. What do you all think about the market here? Is it easy to find good tenants and keep them. Does it help or hurt to be close to Germantown Ave? There seems to be a lot of little shops and restaurants where I am looking. 

And while we are at it, what's your view of appreciation in this area? Thanks in advance!

[Paulette Midgette]

Hi @Garrett M.,  as luck would have it I live in East Mt. Airy, well sorta of, I will explain this later.

East Mt. Airy is a well established neighborhood. The vast majority of residents are families.  There is a mix of long-standing residents and young families.  Historically, like West Mt. Airy, East Mt. Airy was designed to have more of an suburban feel (homes with a good amount of outdoor space, larger amounts of green space, singles and twins, are more abundant than row homes here) in and urban environment.  People who want to move from the  fast pace of the Center City area will often find their way to this area.  Another advantage to this area is its proximity to the suburbs of Montgomery county.  There are a number of employers (i.e., Merck, Aetna, and Johnson & Johnson) that employ large numbers of people, within a 20- 30 minute drive. 

Deals in this area do not come up too often and when they do, they don't stay around long as @Rafael Floresta stated.  Houses do rent here.  As I have stated, this is a family neighborhood, and many families are struggling to buy right now.  However, I don't  how quickly they are rented and how often they come up for rent.  My guess is rarely which could be an advantage if the demand is higher than the supply, but  a local realtor would be able to give you a sense of the market.  I do know that the vacancy rate in this area is relatively low.  People tend to stay in the area for a very long time.  I purchased my home here with the intent of staying 5 years...20 years later, I am still here.

That leads me to my comment "I live in East Mt. Airy, sota of."  When I moved to the area the boundary of East Mt. Airy was Germantown at its southeast boarder and Cheltenham Ave. at the northeast boarder.  About 10 years ago or so the East Mt. Airy northeast boarder was moved down to  Stenton Ave. and the area north of Stenton Ave to Cheltenham Ave was  dubbed the Cedarbrook Neighborhood, where I currently live.

I say this to say, also take a look in Cedarbrook.  There are more duplexes here than in East Mt. Airy.  I caution that they rarely hit the market but you might get lucky and deals are far and few between here as well.

Good Luck