Living in Germantown, Philadelphia

Stone Colonial-era homes sit alongside newer infill throughout Germantown, a Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood with some of the deepest history in the city, leafy blocks with pockets of green space breaking up the rowhomes, and rents that undercut most of Center City by a wide margin for anyone willing to look further from downtown. Germantown Avenue carries a mix of longtime shops and newer storefronts through the neighborhood's core, with larger lots and freestanding homes on some of the surrounding streets.

Revitalization has moved unevenly across the neighborhood: some corridors have new businesses and renovated homes, while others are still waiting their turn, and getting around still leans on a bus or a car for most errands beyond the immediate blocks, with bus schedules setting the pace for most trips out of the neighborhood.

Germantown fits someone drawn to historic architecture, green space, and lower rent who's willing to drive or bus for most errands and doesn't need every block to already be finished, comfortable with a neighborhood still filling in its gaps over time rather than a fully polished one from end to end.