Improved
Why it mattersOwner pulled a mechanical permit in 2011.
View supporting records →House report
421 Chestnut St
2 bd · 2 ba · 1 story · 2,070 sqft · CMX4 · built 1900
Owner-occupied · assessed $1.1M. On the 400 block of Chestnut St.
Property summary
Assessment$1.1MCity assessed value
Last sale$988KRecorded 2016
Est. taxes$14K/yearAnnual city record
Permits8Shown in this report
ViolationsNone openNo open L&I cases
What stands out
From the public record"Built 1900" is usually a placeholder
Why it mattersPhiladelphia 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 →Homestead exemption, mail goes elsewhere
Why it mattersThe parcel claims the homestead exemption (owner lives here) while the tax bill mails to 3680 Mcconnell Rd, Hermitage Pa, 16148. Those two facts sit in tension on the record — there can be innocent reasons, but one of them is usually out of date.
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.
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
$1.1M
built 1900
Price / sq ft
$542
block $543 · in line w/ block
Appreciation
+31%
+3%/yr, city 6.5%
In 5 years (~2031)
~$1.1M
+3%/yr own pace held 5 yrs — extrapolation, not a forecast
Est. tax / yr
$14K
1.27% effective
Gross yield
-713584.9%
≈$-667M/mo rent
Times sold
0
Value vs. the block, over time — sales, permits & L&I events marked on the line
This houseBlock median & rangePermit
The paper trail
ImprovedOwner pulled a mechanical permit in 2011.
- 2008 Major alterationPermitMajor alterationPermitPlumbingPermit
- 2011 Major alterationPermitElectricalPermitSuppressionPermitPlumbingPermitMechanicalPermit
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.
Bedrooms
2
Bathrooms
2
Stories
1
Interior
2,070 sqft
livable area
Central air
Yes
Exterior condition
Above average
city code 3
Above averageBelow average
Interior condition
Above average
city code 3
Above averageBelow average
Quality grade
B+
assessor's grade
ABCDE
Zoning
CMX4
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.
Homestead exemption, mail goes elsewhere
The parcel claims the homestead exemption (owner lives here) while the tax bill mails to 3680 Mcconnell Rd, Hermitage Pa, 16148. Those two facts sit in tension on the record — there can be innocent reasons, but one of them is usually out of date.
Run the numbers
What owning 421 Chestnut 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.
When this house last sold (2016) a 30-year mortgage ran about 3.65% — 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
421 Chestnut St sits on the 400 block of Chestnut St. Open the block report to compare its parcels, ownership and public-record history.
See the whole block →Next door: 421 Chestnut St · 421 Chestnut 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
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.
First time here?
This is 421 Chestnut St,
on paper.
Built 1900. 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)