House report
1600 W Girard Ave
5 stories · 120,000 sqft · CMX3 · built 1927
Absentee individual · assessed $19M · sold 2×. On the 1600 block of W Girard Ave.
1600 W Girard is not a house but a 120,000-square-foot commercial block caught mid-transformation: purchased in 2021 when 30-year money averaged 2.96%, it sat quietly through the abatement years, then saw four alteration permits in 2023 followed by two lawful-occupancy permits in 2024. Now the zoning appeals and L&I violations are stacking up, twenty violations in 2025, eight more in 2026, suggesting that whatever the building was reconfigured into, the neighborhood or the city is pushing back hard against the result.
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 $118,096/yr reflects a 10-year abatement. It jumps to about $268,253/yr in 2030 — $150,157/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
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 — an owner-occupant agreement also stops the sheriff-sale track.
If you’re the landlord
If this property is rented, Philadelphia requires a Rental License (via eCLIPSE) — without it a landlord cannot legally collect rent or evict, and tenants can withhold. Licensing needs tax clearance and no open violations.
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
built new under a 2023 permit (tax-abated).
- 2023 Addition and/or AlterationPermitAddition and/or AlterationsPermitAddition and/or AlterationsPermitAddition and/or AlterationsPermitAlterationsPermit
- 2024 Lawful Occupancy (LO) ONLYPermitLawful Occupancy (LO) ONLYPermitAppeal completeZoning
- 2025 20 L&I violationsL&IAppeal filedZoning
- 2026 Appeal continuedZoning8 L&I violationsL&I
Flags: tax-abated — the bill lags real value · 13 open L&I violations · $315K back taxes · 4 zoning/board appeals on record · long-held within one family. Informational only — not investment advice or a consumer report (FCRA).
The abatement clock
This house pays about $118,096/yr under a 10-year tax abatement. In 2030 the bill reaches its full ~$268,253/yr — a step up of $150,157/yr, 3 assessment years out. Drag the slider.
now: ($19,163,700 assessed − $10,727,066 abated) × 1.3998% ≈ $118,096/yr
2030: $19,163,700 assessed × 1.3998% ≈ $268,253/yr
Flat 100% exemption (pre-2022 program, started 2020), then the cliff — 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 1600 W Girard 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 (2021) a 30-year mortgage ran about 2.96% — 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: 1650 W Girard Ave · 1601-07 W Girard 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 1600 W Girard Ave,
on paper.
Built 1927. 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)