July 06, 2017
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
The Philadelphia skyline as seen from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Eakins Oval.
Philadelphia's real estate is a real bang for your buck, according to one recent report.
SmartAsset, a personal finance website, recently came out with its list of "The Most Undervalued Cities in America" for 2017, and the City of Brotherly Love snagged a top spot.
The list tries to find the cities that offer "the best value" when it comes to housing, finding values based on actual home prices as well as values based on "quality of life metrics," including the unemployment and crime rates, high school graduation rate, nightlife and walkability for 200 cities across the nation.
Essentially, the report aims to find which cities are overpriced and which are a steal to live in.
SmartAsset created a model to "project each city's price per square foot," putting that number side-by-side with the city's actual price per square foot.
While Philadelphia took quite the tumble from its No. 2 spot in 2016, its No. 8 spot this year isn't all that bad.
The report calls Philly "relatively affordable," with much of its high ranking attributed to its livability. Philly has 91 entertainment and dining spots for every 100,000 residents, but its walkability really made the city stand out, according to SmartAsset. In June, Redfin, a real estate site, ranked Philly as the nation's fifth most walkable city.
Philly's value per square foot is $97.50 compared to a projection of $227.20, according to SmartAsset. Pittsburgh scored the report's No. 3 spot, with its value at $82.08 compared to projections of $240.09 per square foot.
Find the top 10 "Most Undervalued Cities in America" from SmartAsset below or find the complete report here.
1. Charleston, South Carolina
2. Augusta, Georgia
3. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
4. Overland Park, Kansas
5. Baltimore, Maryland
6. Plano, Texas
7. Newark, New Jersey
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Fort Collins, Colorado
10. Providence, Rhode Island
