Could Amazon’s Arrival Send Philly Real Estate Skyrocketing?

A lot of people in Philadelphia are pretty geeked right now about the possibility of Amazon making the city home to its second American headquarters. While Philadelphia is only one of several cities bidding for the position, experts believe that the City of Brotherly Love has a well-rounded plan that could make it a serious contender. What’s not to be excited about re: Amazon? Jobs, prestige, increased development… all are good things. But if you take a look at Seattle, home to Amazon’s main campus, there is something that could give Philadelphia some hesitation.

Seattle is one of the tech capitals of the U.S. If Philadelphia snares Amazon, will real estate prices rise?

Seattle is a national tech hotspot, but being the site of what Philly.com calls “an unprecedented tech boom” has left them with skyrocketing rents and median home prices, development spreading like wildfire, and construction cranes everywhere. There are 40,000 Amazon employees in Seattle. The company has built or rented 8.1 million square feet of real estate, accounting for 19 percent of Seattle’s office space. It’s estimated that Amazon has dumped some $37 billion into the local economy. They’ve even managed to attract other up-and-coming tech companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Zillow to make a home in Seattle. But all of this has come at a price for Seattle’s residents.

According to Philly.com: “By some measures, Seattle has become the fifth-most expensive U.S. city and the ninth-priciest worldwide. The median price of a single-family home or condo in Seattle was $522,000 in August, according to real estate company Redfin, a 67 percent spike from April 2010, when Amazon opened its headquarters. Last month, the median rent for a one-bedroom jumped to $1,380, according to Apartment List.”

Right now, Philadelphia is one of the cheapest big cities in the country in terms of places to live. In the second quarter of 2017, the median price for a single-family home was $158,000. That number, however, is already rising, and Amazon’s arrival would almost certainly cause it to burgeon. With all progress comes change, of course. It’s just up to interpretation whether those changes are for the better.