When shopping around for the Philadelphia houses for sale, you’ll be doing a lot of research into housing costs and other pricing information. If Philly isn’t your only option, then you’ll also be looking at housing and living prices in other areas.
Every city is different when it comes to the price of living. Between housing costs, taxes, taking care of children, etc…, you’ll find very different values depending on where you want to settle down.
Here’s 4 ways the cost of living differs in Philadelphia.
1.) Housing
Living in any major city will be expensive and the City of Brotherly Love is no exception. According to Zillow, the average price of Philadelphia homes are a little over $200,000 and average monthly rent is around $1,700.
Right away these numbers sound crazy expensive, but it is important to keep in mind that this is an estimate of the average meaning they all won’t be this high and that you should also compare these prices to others in big cities.
2.) Averages Compared
As I mentioned above, living in a big city is expensive no matter where you are. Even so, these major cities all have different prices for housing and rent so it’s important to see how your preferred city to live in stacks up.
Believe it or not, even though it is still above the national living cost average, Philly is surprisingly cheap for a major city.
Compared to others, such as Chicago and New York City, the average housing and rent cost for Philly is a lot lower, and in some cases by about $400,000 for housing and $3,000 for rent!
3.) Food Shopping
A cost of living that is usually overlooked is your grocery store bill. What store you go to, how much you get and how the items are taxed will all affect your final subtotal.
Luckily for you, if you happen to move to Philly, the grocery stores are tax free! This along with clothing are products you can buy tax free in the city of Philadelphia.
While this lack of taxes on groceries is nice, the prices of food items are slightly higher than in some other cities. Still Philadelphia manages to remain below most major cities in terms of how expensive their groceries are.
4.) Taxes
To finish off this list, we have everyone’s favorite topic: taxes. Unfortunately, residents of the city of brotherly love pay about $3,000 in taxes each year, and this is higher than most cities.
Your tax rate in philly will be 3.8712% which is still lower than other major cities, but is still a high amount. Don’t worry though, Philadelphia can still be an affordable home thanks to the money you’ll save on other items previously mentioned on this list.
Barry Lachey is a Professional Editor at Zobuz. Previously He has also worked for Moxly Sports and Network Resources “Joe Joe.” He is a graduate of the Kings College at the University of Thames Valley London. You can reach Barry via email or by phone.
