House report
1634 E Hewson St
3 bd · 2 ba · 2 stories · 1,088 sqft · RSA5 · built 1920
Owner-occupied · assessed $219K · sold 2×. On the 1600 block of E Hewson 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
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.
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.
The most recent recorded deed moved for nominal consideration, within one family. That is where tangled-title problems live — budget a real title search. (Occupants untangling an inherited deed can get help from the city's Tangled Title Fund.)
If you own it
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.
L&I appeals must be filed within 30 days — just 6 days if a property is designated UNSAFE or IMMINENTLY DANGEROUS. Left unresolved, the city can do the work itself, bill the owner (routinely $50,000+ on a rowhouse), lien the property, and add court fines of $300+/day.
Interest and penalties keep compounding until a Revenue payment agreement is in place, and a lien is already filed — an owner-occupant agreement also stops the sheriff-sale track.
Excavation deeper than 5 feet, or within 10 feet of an adjacent structure, legally requires the developer to survey neighboring homes first and give owners 10 days' written notice. Insist on the pre-construction survey — it is your evidence if cracks appear.
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 analyst below to dig into any number.
Value vs. the block, over time — sales, permits & L&I events marked on the line
Bought for $8K in 2014. Owner pulled a plumbing permit in 2015.
- 2014 $8KSold$23KSoldMajor alterationPermitElectricalPermitMajor alterationPermit
- 2015 MechanicalPermitPlumbingPermit
- 2019 6 L&I violationsL&I
- 2020 L&I violationL&I
- 2021 6 L&I violationsL&I
- 2025 5 L&I violationsL&I
Flags: 6 open L&I violations · $1K back taxes (2016, $24 of it interest & penalties, lien filed) · long-held within one family. 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.
OPA field-assessment attributes. Condition and grade are the assessor's codes, not an inspection.
Run the numbers
What owning 1634 E Hewson St takes, at your price and your rate. Taxes are this house's actual bill from the city record; rent starts at the area median. Assessed value is not an asking price — set the price slider to the real one.
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.
Next door: 1632 E Hewson St · 1636 E Hewson 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 1634 E Hewson St,
on paper.
Built 1920. 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.
Who owns what, what they paid, what they built, what they owe. Scroll and it's all here — the paid part is not the data.
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)