It all started with a property listing sent to the group chat as a joke.
A 3,000-square-foot garage in South Philly was listed for sale for $380,000.
Three longtime friends and self-described “motorheads” dreamed about what they could do with that much space.
And that could have been it. But the friends couldn’t stop thinking about the property. So they decided to stop dreaming and actually buy it.
We have the story of how these classic vehicle enthusiasts came to be the owners of a South Philly garage.
Keep scrolling for that piece and more in this week’s edition:
- Church conversion: Learn about a developer’s plan to turn a Strawberry Mansion church into below-market-rate housing.
- Spacious home or a shoebox?: See what $1,500 in rent gets you in Philly versus other cities across the country.
- Kid-friendly yard: Peek inside this Spring Garden home with a transformed backyard.
- Market update: Learn what the housing market was up to in June.
— Michaelle Bond
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A garage dream realized
In January, we told you about three friends who bought a communal house together in Mount Airy.
Now, we’re bringing you the story of three friends who bought a property not to house themselves, but to be a home for the vintage vehicles they’re restoring.
The men had been doing what they could to continue their passion projects, but none of the space workarounds they found were ideal for their collection of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles.
Last spring, they found their slice of heaven: a windowless garage with no heating or air conditioning, a rusted beer fridge, and a bathroom with no walls.
The garage is within a mile and a half of each of their homes, which means the friends are over there all the time.
Keep reading to see the vehicles they’re working on and learn how they made their garage dream a reality.
📮Have you ever gone in on a piece of property with a friend? Tell us about it.
A church will become apartments
A century-old building in Strawberry Mansion was originally a synagogue. Until recently, the property was a Baptist church. Now, it’s getting ready for its latest transformation.
The former Cornerstone Baptist Church on the edge of Fairmount Park has joined the growing list of Philly religious sites that are being turned into homes.
After the congregation shrank and the church couldn’t keep up with repairs, the building was sold for $1.9 million to a Philly-based developer. The company plans to build apartments and offer them only to renters making below certain incomes.
A company official says Strawberry Mansion has been underappreciated by the real estate industry.
“Obviously [Strawberry Mansion] had some economic disinvestment over the second half of the 20th century, but a lot of people are waking up to the sense that neighborhoods like this are not being made every day anymore,” he said.
The redevelopment project will be partially funded by TD Bank as part of federal requirements that banks invest in neighborhoods that historically have been subjected to redlining and other systemic discrimination.
Keep reading to learn more about the redevelopment plans for the former church and see why residents have some concerns.
The latest news to pay attention to
- Here’s what $1,500 in rent can get you in Philly, Miami, Boston, and other cities across the country.
- The Post Brothers are planning another large apartment building for Northern Liberties.
- A Chester County judge has reversed a township’s denial of luxury homes on the 246-acre Rock Hill Farm.
- Take a look inside an Abington house that’s thought to have ties to a famous shoe heir and is for sale for $1.2 million.
- Philadelphia has paused the redevelopment of historically protected below-market-rate housing on Mole Street. What happens next?
- This homebuyer thought purchasing a house meant leaving Philly. He was proven wrong in East Falls.
- The city’s Planning Commission is considering how — and if — data centers should be built in Philly.
- A real estate developer has sued a South Jersey township for hundreds of millions of dollars over its data center ban.
- House of the week: For $645,000 in Fairmount, a three-bedroom rowhouse that has an electric fireplace and a private back patio with decking and a pergola.
Home tour: Kid-friendly in Spring Garden
We’re adding a dose of cuteness to your day with our latest home tour. This week’s piece features the home of Lana Shapiro, who is “almost 3″ and was making a pretend meal in the backyard when we came to visit.
When her parents, Maddy and Andrew, bought their rowhouse in Spring Garden in 2022, the yard was not kid-friendly. The Shapiros removed the brick that was everywhere and added a cement patio and synthetic grass.
The space is filled with furniture and colorful plants. Andrew repaired and power-washed the fence that surrounds the yard.
A cement dividing wall still has some stubborn white paint that refused to be be power-washed away. So the Shapiros embraced the wall as it is, and it’s become a focal point of the yard.
Inside the home, one of the Shapiros’ renovations was to add a vestibule, the classic rowhouse feature we highlighted this spring.
Peek inside the family’s home and learn about its toddler-specific features.
📊 The market
Across the Philadelphia region in June, the number of home sales grew from last year. And so did the typical sale price.
The supply of homes for sale was up too, but not enough for us to escape a yearslong truth: there’s more demand than supply in many areas across our region.
According to the multiple listing service Bright MLS, in the Philadelphia metro area in June:
🔺The number of closed home sales was 4% higher than at the same time last year.
🔺The number of pending sales was up roughly 7% from last year.
🔺The median sale price hit a new record high for June for the region — $430,000.
🔺The number of active home listings at the end of the month was more than 12% higher than last year. But home supply is still only about half what it was before the pandemic.
Our limited inventory means we won’t see home prices drop in any kind of meaningful way anytime soon.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back.
Last week’s quiz featured a photo of the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park.
A few readers recognized the site. Shout-out to Bruce H. for being the first to answer.
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Did you know that the Delaware River has roughly 123 islands? They’re owned by governments, corporations, and private individuals.
Some are pretty much just a sandbar, but others span hundreds of acres. Some are used for camping or birding, but most aren’t being used at all.
Take a flight up the Delaware and learn about the river’s islands in this fascinating interactive story.
And enjoy the rest of your week.
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