In various cities across the nation, especially those like Philadelphia, homeowners are struggling to maintain and repair their aging homes, writes Tim Craig for The Washington Post.
With many of these aging houses crumbling and withering, many homeowners are being forced to live in nearly unlivable conditions.
To make matters more challenging, repair costs are rising.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, homeowners are facing $100 billion in needed maintenance.
Philadelphia is a key city in the debate about whether the government can or should step in. About 40 percent of houses in Philadelphia were built prior to 1939, and nearly two-thirds were built before 1954, according to City records.
In addition, Philadelphia’s homeownership rate far outranks most other major cities on the East Coast and is a city where about one in five residents are living below the poverty rate.
“It’s the perfect chaos for a storm for upkeep” of properties, said Angela D. Brooks, Philadelphia’s chief housing and urban development officer. “You have people who have the benefit of being able to afford a house, or maybe they inherited it, but they don’t quite have the money to do even basic systems repair.”
Read more about the city and nation’s aging homes and the challenges in repairing them in The Washington Post.
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Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on PHILADELPHIA Today in October 2025.
