Moving from New York to Philadelphia

IRS SOI migration for 2022-2023 counted 17,010 tax-return households moving from New York to Philadelphia and 27,695 associated exemptions. The corridor represented 6.52% of New York’s outbound returns and 22.28% of Philadelphia’s inbound returns, with $89,284.30 of adjusted gross income per return. That provides a defined filing-household corridor, not a count of renter households. The broader IRS readings also complicate a demand narrative: New York recorded a net IRS outflow of 78,287 returns, while Philadelphia recorded a net IRS outflow of 7,607 returns.

The ACS 2024 five-year release places median household income at $99,155 in New York and $91,289 in Philadelphia. Separately, CES payroll employment through June 2026 was up 0.06% year over year in New York and 0.32% in Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s payroll reading was higher, while its household-income benchmark was lower. Payroll change does not establish property vacancy or collections, and the ACS income measure is not the income profile of a particular building’s applicants. The next tenant-side question is whether verified applicant incomes, employer concentrations and commute patterns fit the proposed rent in the exact Philadelphia submarket.

The Zillow ZORI asking-rent measure places New York at $3,573 and Philadelphia at $1,928, a monthly difference of $1,645. Year-over-year asking-rent growth was 4.53% in New York and 3.76% in Philadelphia. HUD’s FY2026 Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom was $2,616.50 in New York and $1,810 in Philadelphia. Fair Market Rent is a HUD program standard, not a Zillow market-rent observation or a quote for any specific unit. Both measures show a lower destination benchmark, but they answer different questions.

The metro Zillow home-value benchmark was $735,003 in New York and $394,762 in Philadelphia, with a difference of $340,241. ZHVI is not an acquisition basis, transaction price or comparable-sale record. The gross-yield screen was 5.83% in New York and 5.86% in Philadelphia, so the much lower Philadelphia rent and home-value levels coincide with nearly the same top-line yield relationship. The next diligence question is the bridge from that screen to property-level net income: actual achievable rent, current leases, taxes, insurance, owner-paid utilities, repairs, management, capital needs, concessions, vacancy and collections.

BEA’s 2024 Regional Price Parities place the all-items index at 112.563 in New York and 102.554 in Philadelphia, with the United States equal to 100. The housing components were 148.616 and 113.141, respectively. These are broad regional price-level contrasts, not property operating statements. FEMA’s NRI counties release through FEMA ArcGIS shows a modeled climate/hazard loss ratio of 0.1085% for New York and 0.1101% for Philadelphia; inland flood is the top identified hazard in both markets. Philadelphia’s lower regional price setting therefore sits beside a slightly higher modeled hazard ratio, warranting address-level flood, insurance and resilience review.

HMDA’s 2024 purchase-originations release shows investor shares of 11.39% in New York and 10.87% in Philadelphia. That is a descriptive financing screen, not proof of buyer competition. A separate permits-per-thousand-residents screen combines BPS 2026 year to date through June with ACS 2024 population: New York registered 2.94 permitted units per thousand residents and Philadelphia 2.28. This is a cross-period descriptive screen, not a same-period supply rate, and it does not establish deliveries, vacancy or rent pressure. The next market-risk question is what the property’s immediate pipeline, tax trajectory, insurance quote and hazard exposure look like at its actual address.