New homes, stores at ex-Echelon Mall? | Real Estate Newsletter

What used to be the Echelon Mall could be getting new life — again.

Part of the mall was demolished to make way for the rebranded Voorhees Town Center, which celebrated its grand opening in 2008. It has shops, restaurants, and about 400 homes.

But now, Voorhees Township's mayor says the site "is clearly in need of resuscitation." He hopes that a sale of sections of the former mall site will act as a defibrillator. A potential redevelopment could add hundreds more homes.

Keep scrolling for that story and the rest of this week's edition:

We're coming up on Halloween, and I've been enjoying seeing the pumpkins and fake spider webs that Philadelphians have put up outside their homes. Do you decorate your home for Halloween or any other holiday? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

In 1970, an executive at the company that brought us the Cherry Hill Mall and Philly's original Gallery at Market East said the $80 million, 400-acre Echelon Mall development could be a model for "a new kind of downtown" in the suburbs.

But the mall ultimately underperformed. And it's faced the same challenges as other malls across the country. Consumer habits changed, anchor department stores left, and other shops closed.

The Voorhees site has had its ups and downs, renovations and redevelopments. A former owner renovated the property but sold it to a company that the township has had issues with. A promising redevelopment partnership dissolved in 2020 because of the pandemic. Then there was the food court fire that closed the remaining mall portion of the property.

That fire could be complicating the sale of the site — a sale that township officials hope will spark a second rebirth. A potential redevelopment could include about 200 homes and retail in a project like Cherry Hill's Garden State Park.

You can taste when popcorn or chips go stale, but what does it mean when a home listing goes stale?

A few years ago, when mortgage interest rates were at record lows, lots of buyers were fighting lots of other buyers (hopefully not physically) over homes for sale. You may remember that some were even trying to be more attractive to sellers in the super competitive market by skipping home inspections.

Homes were flying off the market then. Now, the most desirable ones still are, since we still don't have enough homes for sale to meet demand. But the market has slowed, and homes are taking weeks instead of days to find a buyer.

Redfin, the online real estate brokerage, took a look at its home listings in August to see how many were still on the market after 30 days — what it called "stale" listings — and how many were still on the market after 60 days — listings it called "extra stale."

In Philadelphia and Delaware County, about half of listings in August were "extra stale."

Keep reading to see how our region compares with other metros and the country as a whole and why some homes sit on the shelf for a while.

The latest news to pay attention to Jim Logue is really into history. So he was excited to learn that the property he and his wife, Beth, bought in Queen Village was once owned by the founder of Germantown.

Francis Daniel Pastorius, a renowned German educator, lawyer and author, arrived in Philly in the 17th century and had nowhere to live. So he and 13 other settlers built a temporary home in a cave along the Delaware River.

It was on that spot that the Logues' home was eventually built in 1978.

The couple's renovation of their 2,000-square-foot house skipped only the kitchen. (They like to eat out.)

But their top renovation priority was to find a way to enjoy their views from the fourth floor's outdoor space without dealing with air and noise pollution.

Peek inside the Logues' home and see the solution they came up with.

Trivia time Philadelphia workers' commutes are shorter now than before the pandemic, but they're longer than the average for the country's 50 biggest cities. Workers in Philly spent about 31 minutes traveling one way to their jobs in 2023, putting the city in the top five for longest commutes.

Question: Workers in which city have shorter commutes than in Philly?

A) New York

B) Chicago

C) Los Angeles

D) Washington

This story has the answer.

The market When will we see more homeowners become home sellers?

That question is top-of-mind for Michael Maerten, chair of the board at Tri-County Suburban Realtors, an association that represents members in Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.

He's closely watching the supply of homes for sale in our region.

"We're still far off from where we would need to be in a balanced market," said Maerten, who also leads a team of real estate agents based in Blue Bell within Keller Williams Real Estate. In a balanced market, the supply of homes can meet demand, and neither buyers nor sellers have the extreme upper hand.

But in the Philly metro area, the supply of homes for sale in September was less than half what it was in 2019, according to the multiple listing service Bright MLS. And low supply is keeping home prices high.

In the Philly metro in September:

The median sale price hit $379,900 — up from $355,000 at the same time last year.

New listings were up slightly compared to last September.

Over 1,100 more homes were on the market compared to last September, when active listings stood at 10,212.

More homes on the market could attract more buyers.

Maerten and his team were feeling good about the fall and winter markets when mortgage rates were headed down — a trend that attracts both buyers and home listings, since sellers often also have to buy. Now that rates have been trending up again this month, Maerten isn't quite as excited about the housing supply picture for the coming months.

We'll see what the fall brings as we get deeper into it.

Photo quiz Do you know the location this photo shows?

If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

Last week's photo was a close-up shot of the Academy of Music. Shout out to Janet P., Terry D., Dennis B., and David P. for getting that right.

David said he and his wife go to the Academy of Music to see every year for their wedding anniversary. They'll be celebrating their 34th this year.

Enjoy the rest of your week.