The Philly real estate market is shifting fast and today I'm breaking down what every landlord needs to know to stay ahead of the curve. Welcome back to the Philly Landlord Guy. I'm your host, Yuriy Skripnichenko, the guy with Impossible last name. Just think of me as your Philly landlord guy. I'm a licensed real estate broker and certified property manager here in Philadelphia,  and today I'm going, to bring you the latest market updates and some practical advice that, uh, you can actually use. So we're going to look at January, 2026. And data for 1 9 1 2 0 zip code. Talk about the maintenance nightmare of this recent cold snap that we're still experiencing today, and then zoom out to look at 70 years of housing market predictions that sound exactly like what we're hearing today. Let's look at the numbers first across the entire city of Philadelphia. The average days on the market for January, 2026 was 67 days, which is five days higher than we saw average days on the market for the entire year of 2025. We do not know how 2026 will look like yet, but right now we see that January is already slower than the whole year for the 20 25. And, it's not looking great. Also, this weather is not helping with the snow, with the cold. People are not coming for showings. People don't want to move in the weather like this. So we do not see this market, , getting any better. And it looks like it's, getting slower than it was. Now, if we zoom in on 1 9 1 2 0 zip code, that covers Olney and Fletonville the average days on the market was only 51 days in January, which is, , more than two weeks faster than average in the city, which sounds like a great. Place to have a rental right now. But at the same time, if you, , deep dive in the data, you will see that this 51 days, it's only across four units that were rented , in January, which is not much to compare to the whole city of Philadelphia, but if we look back at year 2025 for the same zip code, 1 9 1 2 0, you will see that average days on the market, for rentals was 49 days and versus the city in whole 62. So it's still two weeks faster. And for tho those of you who were skeptical of the zip code or the area, , it looks like the zip code is performing much better than the city in general. , If you have property in this area. You can account for it to be on the market if it becomes, , available sometime this, , season around 50 days or under 60 days, which is still sounds crazy, but this is the reality of our current market. And, , with all of that, we just survived the brutal cold snap. And if you are a landlord, you probably didn't sleep much,. I did not. I had so many problems, , between record breaking snowfall and extreme colds. The emergency calls have been just popping up nonstop. We had frozen pipes. Cracked lines heaters that were fine just back in December and now they failing during this, crazy cold of single digit temperatures. Remember, in Philly heat season is October 1st through April 30th, so you are legally required to provide room temperature at least 68 degrees during that time. So if your heat breaks, you have to. Fix it for the tenants and if a pipe breaks, it's not just a repair, it's an implied warranty of habitability issue. So here's the part that really hurts because of the snow and the cold. The landlord tenant court was forced to close, and if your hearing was scheduled for one of those days when the court was closed, they rescheduled it. Those hearings were getting pushed a full month ahead. Those hearings were pushed a whole months or more into the future for a landlord waiting to get their property back. A one day storm just turned into a whole month of lost rent. This is why having. Three to six months, of reserves in Philadelphia isn't just a good advice. It's a survival tactic. Make sure that you have enough in reserves to cover for things as evictions that take longer and longer in the city now, and also for the weather events like we're having now, you cannot predict, this brutal cold , or snow, but you can have reserves to make sure that you're able to fix that broken heater when it breaks, or to replace the pipes if they broke frozen and broke, or just to make sure that you get ready for things like this and insulate your pipes, , to avoid issues in the future if we have weather like this again, which happens according to our weather channel every 10 years. , So now interesting fact, lately, all of the headlines that I'm seeing saying the same thing that market is bad, affordability is gone, the bubble is about to burst. And every single outlet where you see, or least what I read or what I get in my feed tells me the same thing, that the prices are not falling down property. Sellers are taking listings of the markets. The market is not affordable. Nobody can afford to buy anything. Interest rates are high. But I wanted to share some point with you. This is just a, not a new script. The mainstream media has been saying this for over 70 years. I recently went to, a real estate, , convention and, , we had one of the real estate guys, , as a keynote speaker, and , he had this great presentation and I. Took a snapshot of one of the slides and he has dates listed with different media outlets the last 70 years. So going back to 1947, time Magazine, the prices of houses seem to have reached the plateau. And there is reasonable expectancy that prices will decline. 1948 Seince Digest Houses cost too much for the mass market. Today's average price is out of reach for two thirds of all buyers. 1969 business week. The goal of Own A Home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans. 1981 Money Magazine, the era of easy profits in real estate may be drawn to a close 1985. If you're looking to buy, be careful. Rising home values are not the sure thing anymore. , And and you get the idea that, , over the years. The mass media keeps telling you the same thing, that the prices are going up, nobody can afford to buy and there is no more money left to make in real estate. And every year is getting more and more complicated. And we keep hearing this all the time. Yes, maybe the price is going up but we're still here. We still. Make money in this business if you know how to run your business.   And if you listen to those experts in, , 1947 to 1985, you missed out on greatest wealth building opportunity in history. If you listen to them, you didn't buy anything during that time, and they were using exactly the same tactic and exactly the same language that we're hearing and seeing now from every media outlet in 2026, Real estate is a long term game, so do not let the short term headlines freeze your progress and stop you from building up your future. Even in a city like Philadelphia where the city creating a lot of problems for the landlords.  This a piece brought to you by TrustArt Realty. Managing rentals and feel is complex, especially when your pipes are frozen or your heat is not working. TrustArt Realty handle the headaches so you don't have to TrustArt Realty is offering all of our listeners a free rental analysis or management advice session. If you have any questions or you want to know. If your property is priced right at today's market, reach out. You can , email us at trustartrealty@phillylandlordguy.com, or click the link in the show notes and, , somebody will get in touch with you shortly.  , so now before we wrap up, I need to bring something urgent to your attention that is happening right here in Philly. Right now. Our city council is back in session and they keep creating this crazy bills that affect all of us landlords and affect the way how we can conduct our business or how much losses we from this business., So they have introduced two new bills two pieces of legislation and, these bills are moving quickly and if past, they will change how you run your rental business in the city. All of the landlords organizations in the city, sound and the alarm, and they are asking every landlord, every housing provider to show up and say no to those proposals at the public hearing at city Hall on February 10th, 2026 at 10:00 AM City Hall room number 400. Here's why. The local landlord community is concerned. These bills add some very heavy mu in teeth to the city of housing code. The main issues, , we're looking at are good cause eviction for everyone. And if you do not know what it is, you can look back into our pieces. We have on pieces talking about, , good eviction protection for, , month to month lease and follow, and why it's not a good idea to have it. But, , again, currently it applies only to leases. Under one year, but this new bill would expand this to cover all residential s making it much harder to non-renew a lease without a specific legal reason. Another one, it's , mandatory rent abatement. If you don't have an active rental license or a certificate of rental suitability, the tenant would be entitled. To a full refund of abatement of rent for that period while it was not active or while you didn't have that certificate. Another one is burden of proof shifts from tenant to you , the bill places the burden of proof to you, the owner, to prove that your actions were not retaliatory. They trying to put a proactive inspection program in place that after ice l and i to inspect every rental unit in the city on a regular cycle. Rather than waiting for a complaint, that means that they will have an inspection done before you can place a tenant in place. And can you imagine how much longer it will take to do that with the city? Your timeline will be extended tremendously without this 67 days on the market that we're seeing in January. Add 67 more days for to inspect your property and you have quarter over a year vacant unit sitting, waiting for a U tenant to move in. And this is not it. They also adding forced, , notices of violations. So if you receive a violation from the city, according to this bill, you would be required to proactively notify your tenants of any violations. Or if your license lapses, essentially, you will need to tell them that. I don't have the license or we have violations. So you may will withhold your rent and do not pay your rent. This is critical that you as a Philadelphia landlord go out there, show up in City Hall and vote no against this bill. Show them that you care about this business and that this will hurt it. As usual we stay on top of what is happening in the local real estate market and what is happening with local real estate laws. So you don't have to, if you like this content, if you like this piece, like it on YouTube or whatever platform you're listening on. Share it, subscribe, and I'll see you next time.