Multi-family report
1518 Dickinson St
5 bd · 5 ba · 3 stories · 3,168 sqft · RSA5 · built 2019
Absentee individual · assessed $692K · 3 licensed units · sold 3×. On the 1500 block of Dickinson St.
Reading this house's deeds, permits and assessments…
What to do with this
The record, translated into moves — what a buyer, the owner, and a landlord would each want to check next under Philadelphia's actual rules.
If you’re buying
Today's $1,936/yr reflects a 10-year abatement. It jumps to about $9,682/yr in 2031 — $7,746/yr more. Price the full bill, not the current one.
The building's use almost certainly predates today's code — a "legal nonconforming" use. That status survives a sale but can lapse if the use is abandoned or the building sits vacant; verify the registered use with L&I before pricing it as 3 rents.
If you’re the landlord
Renewal requires city tax clearance and zero open L&I violations on the property. A lapsed license suspends the right to collect rent or evict.
Derived from this house's public records and the city's rules as of 2026 (abatement ordinance, Homestead, rental licensing, lead certification, L&I process, excavation protections). Informational only — not legal, tax, or investment advice.
The investment read
How this building has moved and where it's pointed: the city's assessed value (not a listing price) over 12 years, charted against its block; appreciation is that history's pace, and the 5-year figure simply extends it. Yield estimates rent-vs-price from area rents. Ask the record to dig into any number.
Value vs. the block, over time — sales, permits & L&I events marked on the line
Bought for $2K in 2009, built new under a 2017 permit (tax-abated), sold for $660K in 2019.
- 2009 $2KLand buy
- 2015 $80KLand buy
- 2016 Appeal grantedZoning
- 2017 PlumbingPermitMechanicalPermitSuppressionPermit
- 2018 PlumbingPermitElectricalPermitZoning/usePermitAdministrativePermitMajor alterationPermit
- 2019 $660KSold
Flags: tax-abated — the bill lags real value · active rental license · 1 zoning/board appeal on record. Informational only — not investment advice or a consumer report (FCRA).
The abatement clock
This house pays about $1,936/yr under a 10-year tax abatement. In 2031 the bill reaches its full ~$9,682/yr — a step up of $7,746/yr, 4 assessment years out. Drag the slider.
now: ($691,700 assessed − $553,395 abated) × 1.3998% ≈ $1,936/yr
2031: $691,700 assessed × 1.3998% ≈ $9,682/yr
Flat 100% exemption (pre-2022 program, started 2021), then the cliff — reassessments move both lines. After expiry an owner-occupant can claim the Homestead Exemption (~$1,400/yr off); an abated home can't hold both.
The house, on paper
The city assessor's field record — the physical spec sheet behind the assessed number.
OPA field-assessment attributes. Condition and grade are the assessor's codes, not an inspection.
Run the numbers
What owning 1518 Dickinson St takes, at your price and your rate. Taxes are this building's actual bill from the city record; rent starts at 3 licensed units × ~85% of the area's median unit rent — the whole building's income, not one unit's. Assessed value is not an asking price — set the price slider to the real one.
When this house last sold (2019) a 30-year mortgage ran about 3.94% — Freddie Mac's average that year.
Estimates for orientation, not advice. Assumes a 30-year fixed loan, $2,100/yr insurance, 1% of price/yr maintenance; taxes from this parcel's record (with the abatement toggle above).
Next door: 1516 Dickinson St · 1520 Dickinson St
Where this comes from
- Assessment, spec sheet & owner — OPA Property Assessments, Office of Property Assessment
- Sales & deed history — Realty Transfer Tax records, Recorder of Deeds
- Permits, violations & inspections — L&I Property History · Atlas
- Back taxes & liens — Real Estate Tax Balances, Dept. of Revenue
- Zoning appeals — L&I & Zoning Board appeals
- Neighborhood income & rents — US Census ACS 5-year estimates
- Historical mortgage rates — Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, annual averages
- Imagery — Street photo © Google · Aerial © Esri, Maxar
City datasets are fetched live from OpenDataPhilly (phl.carto.com) and cached briefly. Dossiers re-pull automatically — on view once they're a few weeks old, plus a nightly rolling sweep — and citywide benchmarks recompute weekly; the masthead date is when this page's records were last pulled. AI-written passages are generated from these records only and rejected if they state a number the record doesn't hold.
First time here?
This is 1518 Dickinson St,
on paper.
Built 2019. Every deed, permit, L&I visit, tax bill and sale for this house — plus its whole block.
No signup, no teaser
The whole record is free.
Permits, violations, taxes, deeds, ownership, and block context are all here. The public record is free to read; membership is for deeper research.
Three taps, you're oriented
What to catch on the way down.
On the way down: the story of the house, its paper trail drawn on the value chart, and run-the-numbers, a calculator seeded with this house's actual tax bill.
Official city record ↗ · L&I history ↗ · See the whole block · Download this record (JSON)