photo credit: VisitPhilly.com
An increase in rental housing supply in Philadelphia may have helped curb some demand and reduce the cost of rent in the city, a new report showed.
According to the online property renal platform Zumper, the average monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia in December, 2024 was $1,520, a drop of 1.3% from November. Of the nine markets analyzed, only Reading had a steeper drop (3.1%) in the region.
An analysis by RealPage indicated that approximately 13,400 new apartment units were built in Philadelphia in 2024 with 41% of those coming in the Center City area. That construction grew supply by 12% from 2023. With a more competitive marketplace, prices on units were able to stabilize and be more competitive, a boon for would-be renters.
By comparison, most measured towns saw increases in rent this month, with the largest increases coming in Allentown (6.3%), Wilmington, Del. (5.8%), and Trenton, N.J. (4.4%).
Other towns that also saw increases were Princeton, N.J. (3.7%), Atlantic City (3.5%) and Easton (2.5%). West Chester saw no change.
On the whole though, the median rent is up 1.3% year-over-year in Philadelphia. By comparison, Trenton, N.J. ($1,650) has jumped a whopping 26.9% since December, 2023.
The median rent in Pennsylvania is $1,262. Of the nine markets measured in the report, only Reading has a median that comes in below that ($950).
The Zumper Philadelphia Metro Report analyzed active listings that hit the market last month. Listings are aggregated by city to calculate the median asking rents.
