Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My… Garage

It has all the components of a classic love story: unrequited desire, inflamed passions, and crazed, irrational behavior. I’m talking, of course, about Philadelphians’ relationship with parking. Everyone wants a long-term relationship filled with stability and trust (private parking!), but they often settle on love for sale (paid lots) or, most dangerously, the riskier equivalent of a late-night seedy bar hookup… street parking.

Philly is one of America’s great walking cities, and we’re blessed – kind of – with an extensive public transportation system to pick up the remaining slack. And yet, some folks have cars, and they ultimately need a place to store their two-ton albatross when they aren’t clogging up the Surekill like plaque in the arteries of someone with a three-Big-Mac-a-day eating habit.

Parking in Center City is especially challenging. Unless you have an advanced degree in heraldry to assist in decoding particolored signs with microscopic fonts and a lengthy list of self-contradicting time slots and conditions, you may as well resign yourself to the vigorous chastisement of the Parking Authority and their tickets.

That’s why great parking is one of the most singularly appealing bragging points of any real estate listing. A home with a couple earmarked spaces, or – heaven help us! – a garage can easily trump bigger or more recently renovated comparable properties. After all, you can always spruce up a kitchen, but you can’t magically produce the space for a car!

Have a look at some of Center City’s most eligible parking spots, all of which happen to include really cute houses along with them!

No parking pics with this one, but those built-ins are to die for!

2405 Delancey Street
Fitler Square
$979,000 3 bed/2.5 bath
1,944 square feet
Single garage

Light, bright, and airy, this home is nothing short of adorable.

Much garage, very parking. Wow. This is how you become the envy of all your friends in Philly.

2723-27 Parrish Street
Museum District
$655,000 4 bed /3 bath
3,123 square feet
Garage parking for at least four cars!

I was so distracted by those dreamy cabinets that I almost missed the flooring! Herringbone, j’adore.

A sneaky peek at the garage.

2019-23 Green Street
Museum District
$834,500 3 bed/2 bath
2,406 square feet
Two car garage

This home is beautifully appointed from corner to corner.

Manicured flex space for parking, cooking out, or soaking up some sun.

24 Lombard Mews
Wash. Square West
$575,000 3 bed/2 bath
1,344 square feet
Parking for two cars

I love the spacious, unique layout!

All that gorgeous parking, and it could be all yours!

909 Lombard Street
Wash. Square West
$798,000 3 bed/2.5 bath
2405 square feet
Single garage

You don’t see tons of split-level homes in Center City, and this one is adorable.

I saved the best for last, because it doesn’t get more convenient than this.

502 Addison Court
Society Hill
$950,000 3 bed/2.5 bath
2,000 square feet
Single garage