Readers sometimes tell me about the first thing they flip to when a new issue of TheBurg drops.
For some, it’s our event calendars. Others have said that their immediate go-to is my monthly “City View” column (thanks!) or our puzzle page (no judgment).
Over the years, many people have said that they head straight to “Changing Hands,” our regular feature where we list recent property sales in Harrisburg. They’re often interested in purchases in their neighborhoods or in general pricing trends (or both). Sometimes, they’re prospective buyers or sellers who want information on recent transactions.
Well, I’m the person who compiles that data each month, been doing it for more than 17 years. As such, I’ve noticed a few trends:
- There has been considerable home price appreciation in Harrisburg over the past five or six years. This is especially noteworthy because prices were largely flat for the first decade or so of “Changing Hands,” a long-time market stagnation that dates back even farther.
- This substantial price appreciation includes every neighborhood in the city. In fact, on a relative basis, prices seem to have risen more in neighborhoods with lower-priced properties.
- “Investors,” ranging from responsible owners to notorious slumlords, continue to dominate Harrisburg’s housing market, as they have seemingly forever. However, in recent years, I have noticed more of a trend towards homeownership, including some long-time rentals acquired by owner-occupants. Fingers crossed that this trend continues and helps boost Harrisburg’s low homeownership rate.
I mention this topic here because April is our “Home and Garden” issue. Long-time readers know that we often feature housing-related stories in our monthly magazine, but we beef it up each April, putting our own unique spin on it.
Of course, in this issue, we still have everything else you love about TheBurg: community news, features, events, columns, etc. Recently, someone described TheBurg to me as “content heavy.” In these days of wafer-thin newspapers and product “shrinkflation,” I took that as a major compliment.
Lawrance Binda
Publisher/Editor
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