Philadelphia rents and rental comps

The median asking rent across Philadelphia, PA sits at $1,778/month, pulled from active rental listings in 22 zip codes. That's down 2.2% from a year ago.

Rents aren't uniform across the city. ZIP 19103 tops the list at $2,325/month. ZIP 19124 comes in lowest at $1,200/month. That's a 94% spread between the top and bottom zip codes, which is wide. City-wide averages won't tell you much about a specific property here.

A 2-bedroom rents for $1,550/month at the median. 1-bedrooms run about $1,298. 3-bedrooms come in around $1,948.

Listings take longer here. The average is 48 days on market, which gives renters more room to negotiate and means landlords should price carefully.

Gross rent-to-value lands around 7.6% ($1,778/month rent on a $282,450 median price). Middle of the pack for cash-flow markets.

HUD's Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in the Philadelphia metro is $2,720/month. Asking rents come in about 35% below the federal benchmark, which can make Section 8 properties competitive here.

Philly is one of the more affordable large East Coast cities, which is part of its appeal for renters and investors both. Healthcare is enormous here, with Penn Medicine, Jefferson, and Temple as anchors. The university system (Penn, Drexel, Temple) brings a constant stream of student and medical resident renters. Center City, Rittenhouse, and Fishtown are premium. West Philly, Kensington, and North Philly are cash flow territory. The Philly wage tax hits both residents and non-residents who work in the city, which affects take-home pay and what renters can afford. Property taxes are lower than you'd expect for a major city, which helps landlord math. Real upside here if you pick the right neighborhoods.

These numbers are city-wide averages. If you're pricing a specific property in Philadelphia, pull comps from the same zip code. The spread is usually bigger than people expect.