The top 10 median home prices in Pennsylvania by Zip code according to Property Shark.

by Brendan Sample

According to a new study by PropertyShark, a real estate website that collects and distributes data for properties across the country, Chestnut Hill has the ninth-highest property value among Zip codes in the state of Pennsylvania. From June 2016 through July of 2017, the median sale price of a home in the neighborhood was $477,500.

In addition to ranking high compared to other Pennsylvania areas, PropertyShark also ranked Chestnut Hill as the highest valued Zip code in Philadelphia. As a whole, Philadelphia featured the highest amount of Zip codes in the site’s top 50 with five overall. The top Zip code in the state belonged to Villanova, which featured a median value of $1,046,925.

This high value comes as no surprise to some of the real estate agents who operate in Chestnut Hill, who have cited a spike in home sales over the past two years as a significant contributing factor.

“Chestnut Hill has had a great couple of years in terms of value increase in real estate,” said Janice Manzi, a Realtor with Elfant Wissahickon and Chestnut Hill resident. “One of the bold indicators of how well CH is doing is in the price range of houses over a million...The average sale price so far this year is $1,982,000, which is a huge jump over last year in terms of high-end properties.”

With overall property values continuing to increase, the going price just to get into a house in Chestnut Hill is currently about $300,000. The diversity in value that these properties offer, from houses that are a few hundred thousand dollars to multi-million residences, is certainly a notable factor in why the housing market in the neighborhood has not slowed down as of late.

“Not every house in Chestnut Hill sells for over a million, but when the top bumps up, the bottom pulls up with it,” Manzi said. “There was an average value of $535,000 for the first two quarters of 2017, which bumped up significantly from last year. It felt like there was no end to the people who wanted to see these homes.”

“The thing that’s so special about Chestnut Hill is that you can buy a house for $250,000 or for $2,000,000,” explained Ellen Goodwin, a Chestnut Hill Realtor with Berkshire, Hathaway, Fox and Roach for more than 40 years. “Because of the diversity of the different sizes and styles of homes, it’s affordable to a larger group of buyers than other areas might be.”

More than any one specific explanation as to why it is happening, this spike in real estate activity can be credited as a testament to the quality of the neighborhood. With the Chestnut Hill real estate market currently featuring more buyers than sellers, it stands to reason that this upward swing may very will continue into next year.

“I’m not surprised that Chestnut Hill is in the top 10,” said Paul Walsh, president of Elfant Wissahickon. “All the benefits that Chestnut Hill has to offer, from the parks to the way the neighborhood lays out geographically and the strong business community and residents, make it a wonderful place to live.”

The full report can be viewed on PropertyShark's website.

Brendan Sample can be reached at brendan@chestnuthilllocal.com