As Penn continues to expand in a very physical and institutional way with additions like the new dorm at Hill Field and the 23-acre South Bank Campus, it's is also expanding incentives for employees to find housing of their own near work. For those unfamiliar, Penn has for years offered a buying program, really a forgivable loan, to full-time and staff for up to $7,500 for closing costs, down-payments, or other related costs associated with purchasing a home. The loan is also available for improvements, like carpeting, plumbing, roofing, or radon removal.
This program is limited geographically to areas surrounding Penn and this year, those boundaries expanded a smidge. They now extend westward beyond 52nd Street, the old border, to the east side of 56th Street, from Market to Paschall Avenue. The northern boundary runs along Market until 44th Street when it moves to Haverford Avenue. Interestingly, the new boundaries also include some blocks of the Forgotten Bottom neighborhood, which sits adjacent to the South Bank Campus. This is the first time the program's boundaries have extended outside of West Philly.
It's obvious that decision makers at Penn understand the housing market in West Philly has improved over the years, with wild success along Baltimore Avenue in neighborhoods like Clark Park and Cedar Hill. With large mixed-use projects planned, like at 43rd & Baltimore, and others about completed, like the conversion of a burned out former squatters' paradise at 49th & Locust called The Croydon, developers' eyes have been all over West Philly. It's understandable that Penn would consider more neighborhoods for the faculty home buying program, as the areas around the University continue to improve. In the future, we wonder whether the boundaries will continue to stretch out near the South Bank Campus, further into Grays Ferry- it seems like a real possibility.