February 14, 2023

By Jake Blumgart and Kasturi Pananjady

Few municipal policies have done more to transform Philadelphia in the 21st century than the 10-year property tax abatement for residential development. And few have proven as controversial.

New data made available to The Inquirer allow us to map the shifting geographies of the property tax break over its 20-year life span, before it was curtailed last year.

City officials created the policy in 2000 to stanch five decades of population loss by exempting the value of significant real estate improvements from property taxes. For a new building, that meant every brick and board was tax-free for a decade: Owners needed to pay only for the assessed value of the land on which their home sits.

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