The Block Report

House report

216 E Ashmead St

2 stories · 1,095 sqft · RM1 · built 1900

Investor / LLC · assessed $141K · sold 1×. On the 200 block of E Ashmead St.

Street view of 216 E Ashmead St
From the street — imagery © Google
From above — imagery © Esri, Maxar

Property summary

Assessment$141KCity assessed value Last sale$20KRecorded 2019 Est. taxes$2K/yearAnnual city record Permits0Shown in this report ViolationsNone openNo open L&I cases

What stands out

From the public record
Finding

"Built 1900" is usually a placeholder

Why it matters

Philadelphia records use 1900 as a stand-in when the real construction year was never documented. Treat the age as unknown, not as 120+ years.

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 1900: 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.

If you own it

$2,571 in back taxes on record

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.

Construction next door (217 E Ashmead St, 2026)

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.

If you’re the landlord

Lead certificate is not optional

Built 1900: every rental unit needs a lead-safe or lead-free certificate on file with the City. Without one: fines up to $2,000/day per unit, tenants may withhold rent, courts can order rent refunded — and no eviction will stand.

Licensed rental — keep it that way

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.

Who's behind it

Towerlevy Realty LLC · corporate / LLC owner

• Owns 27 properties across Philadelphia under this name, assessed at $3.3M combined
• Tax bills mail to Po Box 3541, New York NY, 10008 — outside Philadelphia
• Holds an active rental license for this address

PA corporate registry ↗OpenCorporates ↗City record ↗

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
$141K
built 1900
Price / sq ft
$129
block $114 · above block
Appreciation
+61%
+4%/yr, city 6.5%
In 5 years (~2031)
~$141K
+4%/yr own pace held 5 yrs — extrapolation, not a forecast
Est. tax / yr
$2K
1.4% effective
Gross yield
6.7%
≈$787/mo rent
Times sold
1
licensed rental

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

$0$100K$200K2017: 3 L&I violations 2017: Inspection failed ×22019: Sold $20K$141K201620222027
This houseBlock median & rangeSaleL&I violation

The paper trail

History

3 L&I violations (2017); Inspection failed ×2 (2017); sold $20K (2019).

  1. 2017 3 L&I violationsL&IInspection failed ×2L&I visit
  2. 2019 $20KSold

Flags: active rental license · $3K back taxes (2015–2016, $156 of it interest & penalties, lien filed). 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
2
Interior
1,095 sqft
livable area
Lot
1,958 sqft
Exterior condition
Average
city code 4
Interior condition
Average
city code 4
Quality grade
C
assessor's grade
Zoning
RM1
city zoning code

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

Where the record looks off

Places where the city's own paperwork disagrees with itself. These are flags on the data — not problems with the property.

"Built 1900" is usually a placeholder

Philadelphia records use 1900 as a stand-in when the real construction year was never documented. Treat the age as unknown, not as 120+ years.

Run the numbers

What owning 216 E Ashmead 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.

$141K
20%
6.875%
$775/mo

When this house last sold (2019) a 30-year mortgage ran about 3.94% — 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

216 E Ashmead St sits on the 200 block of E Ashmead St. Open the block report to compare its parcels, ownership and public-record history.

See the whole block →

Next door: 218 E Ashmead St  ·  220 E Ashmead St

Where this comes from

Methodology & freshness

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. AI-written passages are generated from these records only and rejected if they state a number the record doesn't hold.

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