House report
5956 Chester Ave
1,500 sqft · CMX1 · built 1920
Owner-occupied · assessed $87K · sold 2×. On the 5900 block of Chester Ave.
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
Today's $609/yr reflects a 10-year abatement. It steps up every year and reaches about $1,218/yr in 2034 — $609/yr more. Price the full bill, not the current one.
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
An abated home cannot also take the Homestead Exemption. From 2034 it can — knocking about $1,400/yr off the full bill.
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 $75K in 2006, built new under a 2007 permit (tax-abated), sold for $70K in 2018.
- 2006 $75KSold
- 2007 ElectricalPermitSuppressionPermit
- 2010 L&I violationL&I
- 2016 L&I violationL&I
- 2017 5 L&I violationsL&I
- 2018 $70KSold11 L&I violationsL&IUsePermitMajor alterationPermitElectricalPermitPlumbingPermit
Flags: tax-abated — the bill lags real value. Informational only — not investment advice or a consumer report (FCRA).
The abatement clock
This house pays about $609/yr under a 10-year tax abatement that steps down every year. In 2034 the bill reaches its full ~$1,218/yr — a step up of $609/yr, 7 assessment years out. Drag the slider.
now: ($87,000 assessed − $43,494 abated) × 1.3998% ≈ $609/yr
2034: $87,000 assessed × 1.3998% ≈ $1,218/yr
The abated slice shrinks ~10% a year (post-2022 program, started 2024) — reassessments move both lines. After expiry an owner-occupant can claim the Homestead Exemption (~$1,400/yr off); an abated home can't hold both.
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 5956 Chester Ave 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 (2018) a 30-year mortgage ran about 4.54% — Freddie Mac's average that year.
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 (with the abatement toggle above).
Next door: 5954 Chester Ave · 5952 Chester Ave
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 5956 Chester Ave,
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)