Philadelphia, PA

The affordability dashboard for Philadelphia, PA aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 48 ZIP codes covering 1,526,206 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of D (41/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $62,381, median home value of $257,147, median rent of $1,371 per month, and 33.1% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. These four metrics alone explain most of the variance between city dashboards.

Cross-agency feeds widen the picture beyond Census demographics. HUD publishes a Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in this county at $1,810 per month (studio $1,397, 1BR $1,520, 3BR $2,170, 4BR $2,423).

Reading the overall grade requires reading all seven dimensions together. The score weights Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, and Childcare 10%, with each sub-score benchmarked against national percentiles rather than state averages — so the grade is genuinely comparable across any city in the country. Pressure points are housing, commute, rent. Unemployment currently reads 8.6% and poverty 21.8% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.