About and methodology

This is a free tool that estimates how much home you can afford in Philadelphia. Here is how every number is worked out, and where it comes from.

No sign-up. Nothing saved. All of the math runs in your browser. What you type is never sent to us. These are estimates, not financial advice. Talk to a lender before you decide.

Two answers: comfortable and bank max

Comfortable max price. We start from the monthly payment you say is comfortable (by default 28% of your gross monthly income). Then we find the highest price where the whole monthly cost fits under that payment. The whole monthly cost is loan principal and interest, plus property tax, plus homeowners insurance, plus mortgage insurance (PMI) if it applies.

Bank max price. This is our estimate of the most a lender would likely approve. Lenders usually look at two limits: your housing payment should be at most about28% of gross monthly income, and your housing payment plus your other monthly debts should be at most about 43%. We use whichever limit is lower. We call it “likely” because real approval depends on the loan type, your credit and the lender.

The comfortable max is never higher than the bank max. If your comfortable payment is higher than lenders would approve, we show the bank figure instead.

This tool assumes you will take out a mortgage. If you have no income and plan to pay all cash, it will show $0.

Down payment and cash needed

Your down payment is the cash you have saved, minus estimated closing costs and your share of the transfer tax. The smallest down payment we allow is 3%. If your cash cannot cover that plus the costs, we tell you. Under 20%down, we add PMI.

Property tax

In Philadelphia, tax is based on the city’s assessed value of a home, not what you pay for it. Without a specific house, we estimate the assessed value for each neighborhood from the ratio of assessed value to sale price in recent sales. Then we multiply by the current city real estate tax rate, 1.3998% (as of 2026-10-28).

The Homestead Exemption lowers the assessed value that is taxed for owner-occupants. We do not include it in the monthly total. We show it as a separate saving, because you have to apply for it.

Transfer tax

Philadelphia charges a combined city and state realty transfer tax of4.578% of the price. By custom, not by law, buyer and seller split it 50/50, so we count half of it as your cost. Who pays is negotiable in the agreement of sale.

Insurance, closing costs, PMI and your interest rate

• Homeowners insurance is estimated at 0.5%of the price per year.
• Closing costs are estimated at 2% of the price, not counting transfer tax.
• PMI applies only when you put down less than 20%. It is a yearly percentage of the loan that depends on your credit range.
• Interest rate. We start from the latest weekly national average for a 30-year fixed mortgage (7.24%, week of 2026-10-29) and add a small amount for your credit range. You can change the rate yourself.

Insurance, closing costs, PMI and the rate adjustments for each credit range are our estimates. They are not quotes. Your real numbers will differ.

Where the sales data comes from

Neighborhood prices come from City of Philadelphia property records. We keep ordinary sales between unrelated parties and leave out token-price transfers, non-residential properties and extreme outliers. Each property shows only its most recent recorded sale, so a property sold twice in two years counts once, and trend figures can be slightly skewed. The newest sales also lag the “as of” date by a few weeks. A neighborhood with too few sales gets no page.

Every figure, its source and its date

Credits

Neighborhood boundaries © Abaca Labs (formerly Azavea), via OpenDataPhilly, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Boundaries were simplified for display.

Mortgage rates: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed-rate average (FRED series MORTGAGE30US). Source link.

See also the disclaimer.