House report

5039 Greene St

4 bd · 1 ba · 2 stories · 1,640 sqft · RSA3 · built 1900

Owner-occupied · assessed $194K · sold 2×. On the 5000 block of Greene St.

Street view of 5039 Greene St
From the street — imagery © Google
From above — imagery © Esri, Maxar

Property summary

What stands out

From the public record
Finding

Improved

Why it matters

Bought for $30K in 2002. Owner pulled a roof covering replacement permit in 2022.

View supporting records →
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.

Zoned RSA3: one household by right

Single-family attached. 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

2 open violations: the clock matters

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.

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
$194K
built 1900
Price / sq ft
$118
block $118 · in line w/ block
Appreciation
+114%
+7%/yr, city 6.5%
In 5 years (~2031)
~$194K
+7%/yr own pace held 5 yrs — extrapolation, not a forecast
Est. tax / yr
$1K
0.68% effective
Gross yield
-4127967%
≈$-667M/mo rent
Times sold
2
kept in the family

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

$0$250K$500KBefore this chart — 2002: Sold $30K 2002: Sold $75K2019: Plumbing2022: Alterations 2022: Alterations 2022: Roof Covering Replacement2025: 2 L&I violations 2025: Inspection failed ×2$194K201620222027
This houseBlock median & rangeL&I violationPermit

The paper trail

Bought for $30K in 2002. Owner pulled a roof covering replacement permit in 2022.

  1. 2002 $30KSold$75KSold
  2. 2019 PlumbingPermit
  3. 2022 AlterationsPermitAlterationsPermitRoof Covering ReplacementPermit
  4. 2025 2 L&I violationsL&IInspection failed ×2L&I visit

Flags: 2 open L&I violations · 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.

Bedrooms
4
Bathrooms
1
Stories
2
Interior
1,640 sqft
livable area
Lot
1,480 sqft
Exterior condition
Average
city code 4
Interior condition
Average
city code 4
Quality grade
C+
assessor's grade
Zoning
RSA3
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 5039 Greene 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.

$194K
20%
6.875%
$700/mo

When this house last sold (2002) a 30-year mortgage ran about 6.54% — 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

5039 Greene St sits on the 5000 block of Greene St. Open the block report to compare its parcels, ownership and public-record history.

See the whole block →

Next door: 5037 Greene St  ·  5041 Greene 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)