In Philadelphia, it costs more on average to send two children to daycare than it does to rent a home, writes Lizzy McLellan Ravitch for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to a new Redfin report, the average cost of childcare for a Philly region child is $961, with two children coming out to about $1,922. That is about $37 more than the area’s median monthly rent, which was $1,885 as of March 2025.
Prices for both are also expected to increase.
The report also found that the combined cost of rent and daycare for two children equals 61 percent of the median income in Philly.
This is a problem.
“When rent and childcare take up half of a family’s income, and you add the cost of other essentials like groceries and bills, there’s not much left for anything else,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “That makes the decision to have children a huge financial sacrifice, where families are forced to live on the financial edge, without much disposable income or money to put into savings, until their kids are older.”
Beyond that, childcare costs outpaced inflation between 2019 and 2023 while pandemic challenges and staff shortages has led to many closures.
Read more about how childcare and rent are trending in the region in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
_____
