House report

1520 E Berks St

3 stories · 1,876 sqft · RSA5 · built 1925

Owner-occupied · assessed $423K · sold 1×. On the 1500 block of E Berks St.

Property summary

Assessment$423KCity assessed value Last sale$237KRecorded 2014 Est. annual tax$6K/yearAssessment × 1.3998% Tax delinquency—Snapshot unavailable Permits3Dated events in report ViolationsNone openNone open when assembled

Report assembled Jul 9, 2026 “Open” reflects records available then historical records keep their source dates estimates are labeled

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Street view of 1520 E Berks St — From the street — imagery © Google

From above — imagery © Esri, Maxar

What stands out

From the public record

Finding

Improved

Why it matters

Bought for $237K in 2014. Owner pulled a addition and/or alteration permit in 2020.

View supporting records →

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

Built 1925: lead rules apply

Federal law requires a lead-paint disclosure at sale for any pre-1978 home. If it will be rented, Philadelphia also requires a lead-safe or lead-free certificate before a rental license can issue.

Zoned RSA5: one household by right

Single-family rowhouse (the classic Philly row). Converting to a duplex or apartments needs a use variance the zoning board rarely grants — Pennsylvania courts require a physical hardship of the lot itself, and economics alone do not qualify.

If you own it

$1,399/yr may be unclaimed

This home reads owner-occupied but shows no Homestead Exemption, which removes $100,000 from the taxable assessment (worth up to $1,399/yr). Applying through the City is free and takes minutes.

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 house 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.

Assessed value

$423K

built 1925

Price / sq ft

$225

block $295 · below block

Appreciation

+92%

+6%/yr, city 6.5%

In 5 years (~2031)

~$424K

+6%/yr own pace held 5 yrs — extrapolation, not a forecast

Est. tax / yr

$6K

1.4% effective

Jun 2022 tax snapshot

—

Gross yield

4.7%

≈$2K/mo rent

Times sold

Value vs. the block, over time — sales, permits & L&I events marked on the line

This houseBlock median & rangePermit

The paper trail

Improved

Bought for $237K in 2014. Owner pulled a addition and/or alteration permit in 2020.

2008 2 L&I violationsL&IInspection failedL&I visit
2009 Inspection passedL&I visit
2014 $237KSold
2020 Addition and/or AlterationPermitAlterationsPermitAddition and/or AlterationPermit

Informational only — not investment advice or a consumer report (FCRA).

The house, on paper

The city assessor's field record — the physical spec sheet behind the assessed number.

Stories

Interior

1,876 sqft

livable area

Lot

1,075 sqft

Basement

Full

city code D

Heat

Undetermined

city code H

Central air

Exterior condition

Average

city code 4

Above averageBelow average

Interior condition

Average

city code 4

Above averageBelow average

Quality grade

B-

assessor's grade

ABCDE

Zoning

RSA5

city zoning code

OPA field-assessment attributes. Condition and grade are the assessor's codes, not an inspection.

Run the numbers

What owning 1520 E Berks St takes, at your price and your rate. Taxes start with an annual estimate from the City’s taxable assessment, not a current bill or balance; rent starts at the area median. Assessed value is not an asking price — set the price slider to the real one.

Purchase price$423K

Down payment20%

Mortgage rate6.875%

Monthly rent$2K/mo

When this house last sold (2014) a 30-year mortgage ran about 4.17% — Freddie Mac's average that year.

Mortgage

—

P&I · 30-yr fixed

All-in monthly

—

+ taxes & insurance

Cash to close

—

down + ~4% costs

Cash flow

—

rent − all costs · /mo

Cap rate

—

NOI ÷ price

Cash-on-cash

—

year-1 return on cash in

Estimates for orientation, not advice. Assumes a 30-year fixed loan, $1,400/yr insurance, 1% of price/yr maintenance; taxes from this parcel's record.

Block context

1520 E Berks St sits on the 1500 block of E Berks St. Open the block report to compare its parcels, ownership and public-record history.

See the whole block →

Next door: 1518 E Berks St · 1522 E Berks 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
Tax delinquency snapshot · June 2022 — Real Estate Tax Delinquencies, Dept. of Revenue
Historical tax ledger & liens · through 2016 — Real Estate Tax Balances, Dept. of Revenue
Current property-tax balance — Verify with Philadelphia 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

Methodology & freshness

Available City datasets are queried from OpenDataPhilly (phl.carto.com), then reports are cached and refreshed on a rolling schedule. Source dates vary: the parcel-level tax-delinquency snapshot is June 2022 and the separate detailed tax ledger ends in 2016, so neither establishes today’s balance. Other dossiers re-pull on view once stale, and citywide benchmarks recompute weekly. AI-written passages are generated from these records only and rejected if they state a number the record doesn't hold.

BlockReport AICited sources

Ask about this property across the connected public record. Curated questions are free; ask 3 custom questions per browser. Analyst includes up to 150 custom questions per day.

About this data & fine print

Answers are generated by an AI agent querying available City of Philadelphia open data at the moment you ask: OPA property assessments, Recorder of Deeds transfer records, L&I permits, violations & licenses, dated Dept. of Revenue tax records, Zoning Board appeals, Police incident reports, Philly311 requests, and School District of Philadelphia catchment and school data.

For an explicit web search or a current listing/news question, the agent may also search the public web through OpenRouter and must link every web-derived claim. Public listing pages can be stale and are not direct or comprehensive MLS access.

Property-level tax data is historical: the delinquency snapshot is dated June 2022 and the separate detailed ledger ends in 2016. Neither shows what is owed today; verify a current balance with Philadelphia Revenue.

City data is published as-is and can lag, contain errors, or be corrected later; school performance datasets run years behind and are labeled with their school year. AI answers can contain mistakes — verify anything that matters against the official record (property.phila.gov, atlas.phila.gov) before acting on it.

Informational only. Not legal, financial, or investment advice. Not a consumer report under the FCRA — it may not be used to decide anyone's eligibility for housing, tenancy, employment, credit, or insurance.

Official city record ↗ · L&I history ↗ · See the whole block · Download this record (JSON)