For another year, a growing population of residents has been a bright spot in the story of Philadelphia’s downtown, according to Center City District. The number of people in and around Center City on a given day has dropped 8% over the past four years, but the population living there has grown by 3%, the business improvement district said in its annual Center City housing report. For the past decade, the area’s population growth has kept up with new home construction “and hopefully will continue to do so,” said Prema Katari Gupta, Center City District’s president and chief executive officer. Greater Center City’s population grew by 26% from 2011 to 2022. The number of housing units there grew by 24%. Philadelphia as a whole had much slower growth, and the number of housing units grew faster than the population. From 2011 to 2022, the number of homes in the city grew by 9%, while the city’s population grew by 5%. The number of new homes in greater Center City, which has remained the fastest growing residential area in Philadelphia for the past two decades, has continued to grow. Roughly 2,840 housing units were completed there in 2023 — more than in any of the past five years. Gupta said the large number of homes coming on line is “something that we’re watching really closely” to see how supply matches up with demand in the future. But, she said, Center City District is “pleasantly surprised” that the growth of housing supply and population increases have kept up with each other thus far. Center City District points to Philadelphia’s downtown as a destination for affluent young professionals who graduate from local schools or relocate from other cities and surrounding counties. Greater Center City — defined by the Center City District as Girard Avenue to Tasker Street and between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers — has an outsized share of the city’s hew housing. Although the area is roughly 6% of Philadelphia, 37% of the city’s new homes last year were there. Read more here.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer; 2/27/2024