All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / Pennsylvania / Philadelphia
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia merits further investigation for income-focused buyers who can underwrite modest growth and flood exposure; buyers relying on strong employment or household inflow momentum should avoid it.
Median price$395k
Median rent$1,928
Gross yield5.9%
Job growth▲ 0.3%
Composite Market ScoreRank #157 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Philadelphia, PA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,928 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.76% from a year earlier.
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Philadelphia
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia County, PAFIPS 42101 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Montgomery County, PAFIPS 42091 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Bucks County, PAFIPS 42017 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Delaware County, PAFIPS 42045 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| New Castle County, DEFIPS 10003 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Chester County, PAFIPS 42029 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Camden County, NJFIPS 34007 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Burlington County, NJFIPS 34005 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Gloucester County, NJFIPS 34015 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Cecil County, MDFIPS 24015 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
| Salem County, NJFIPS 34033 | $1,397 | $1,520 | $1,810 | $2,170 | $2,423 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Philadelphia merits further investigation for income-focused buyers who can underwrite modest growth and flood exposure; buyers relying on strong employment or household inflow momentum should avoid it. Median asking rent is $1,928 and gross yield is 5.86% on a $394,762 median home value, offering an income case rather than a growth case.
The opportunity is that rents rose 3.76% while home values rose 2.49%. Permitting was 2.28 per thousand residents, a supply signal to examine locally rather than assume is benign. Rent equals 25.35% of median household income, though the 4.32 price-to-income ratio makes acquisition affordability less attractive.
The main risks are weak job growth, net household outflow, and water exposure. CES employment rose only 0.32%, while net migration was -7,607. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, despite a 0.1101% annual climate loss ratio. Underwriting should test neighborhood-level flood costs and demand rather than treat metro averages as uniform.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What income profile do the current price and rent imply?
The median home value is $394,762, median asking rent is $1,928, and published gross yield is 5.86%.
Are migration and mover incomes supportive?
No. Tax filings show 76,350 households moved in and 83,957 moved out, producing net migration of -7,607; incoming movers averaged $81,289 in income versus $91,539 for outgoing movers, a gap of -$10,250.
How much purchase activity is investor-related?
Non-occupants account for 10.87% of purchase mortgages, while total purchases are 58,870.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 5.9%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.76%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 10.9%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Philadelphia as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supplyn/aRedfin unavailable
Median days on marketn/aRedfin unavailable
Listings with price dropsn/aRedfin unavailable
Sale-to-list ration/aRedfin unavailable
Home value growth▲ 2.5%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.76%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.9%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.3%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady59→59
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 55% and rents 36%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
59| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 59 | 30% | 17.70 |
| Rent trend | 58 | 25% | 14.50 |
| Affordability | 44 | 15% | 6.60 |
| Supply pressure | 56 | 15% | 8.40 |
| Climate risk | 77 | 15% | 11.55 |
| Published score | 59 | ||
Philadelphia, PA scoreRank #157
59Job growth59/100
CES job growth of 0.32% -> Employment demand is positive but weak, so the investment case should not depend on rapid tenant growth.
Rent trend58/100
Asking rent rose 3.76% and gross yield is 5.86% -> Income metrics are supportive, but they do not offset migration risk.
Affordability44/100
Rent is 25.35% of median income while price is 4.32 times income -> Tenant affordability looks firmer than buyer affordability.
Supply pressure56/100
Permits total 14,314, or 2.28 per thousand residents -> Permit volume should be mapped against the target submarket before supply is treated as benign.
Climate risk77/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1101% -> Property-level flood exposure remains a necessary check.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$395k
YoY ▲ 2.5%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,928
YoY ▲ 3.76%
Gross Rental Yield
5.9%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,928 × 12 ÷ $394,762
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.3%
CES payrolls
Job signal 59/100
Median Household Income
$91k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
25.4%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.3x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,810
Market rent 106.5% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark5 of 5 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,928Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,761−$167 vs ZORI
2026-05
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
The median advertised rent in Realtor.com's 50-largest-metro rental report; source NAs remain unavailable.
View source release ↗$1,520−$408 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,810−$118 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,480−$448 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Philadelphia as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Philadelphia, PA
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 37980. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,5902026-07 · +1.4% year over year
Rental vacancy5.4%2026-07 · -0.0 percentage points year over year
Time on market27 days2026-07 · -1.7 days year over year
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 5.9%
- Vacancy
- 5.4%
- Effective tax
- 1.5%
- Retained yield
- 4.1%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Philadelphia
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$49,040 median wage
47.2%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$44,740 median wage
51.7%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$34,710 median wage
66.7%
Healthcare Support Occupations$33,030 median wage
70.0%
Management Occupations$131,960 median wage
17.5%
Sales and Related Occupations$37,980 median wage
60.9%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
13,536 units authorised in 2026, 46% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
−7,607
76,350 in vs 83,957 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 10.0% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$10,250
Arriving $81,289 vs leaving $91,539
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
10.9%
6,399 of 58,870 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.110% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Mercer County · Kings County · Middlesex County · Berks County · Atlantic County
✓ 76,350 in − 83,957 out = -7,607 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- New York, NY17,010 arriving
- Trenton, NJ2,828 arriving
- Washington, DC2,416 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- New York, NY10,894 leaving
- Washington, DC2,932 leaving
- Atlantic City, NJ2,909 leaving
Directional moving briefs
Relocation routes involving Philadelphia
Each route begins with a direct IRS tax-return household flow and then tests what changes in housing, income, jobs, regional prices and climate evidence.
New York → Philadelphiahome value · asking rent · household income17,010 householdsPhiladelphia → Washingtonhome value · asking rent · household income2,932 householdsPhiladelphia → Atlantic Cityasking rent · household income · gross yield2,909 householdsTrenton → Philadelphiahome value · asking rent · household income2,828 households
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- CES job growth was only 0.32%, providing little employment momentum in the record.
- Tax filings show 83,957 households moved out and 76,350 moved in, for net migration of -7,607.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the 0.1101% annual climate loss ratio does not describe exposure at an individual property.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
County · PAPhiladelphia County$237k home · 9.2% yieldCounty · PAMontgomery County$504k home · 5.0% yieldCounty · PABucks County$534k home · 5.0% yieldCounty · PADelaware County$374k home · 5.9% yieldCounty · DENew Castle County$375k home · 6.2% yieldCounty · PAChester County$588k home · 4.5% yieldCounty · NJCamden County$360k home · 6.6% yieldCounty · NJBurlington County$429k home · 6.3% yield
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Philadelphia
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia, PA (Target) | 59 | $395k | $1,928 | 5.9% | ▲ 0.3% |
| Atlanta, GA | 46 | $383k | $1,854 | 5.8% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Dallas, TX | 44 | $367k | $1,673 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.8% |
| Houston, TX | 36 | $309k | $1,648 | 6.4% | ▲ 0.6% |
| Phoenix, AZ | 36 | $447k | $1,733 | 4.7% | ▲ 0.2% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |