What’s In A Name? Sacrificing Neighborhood Identity Doesn’t Always Pay - Redfin Real Estate News

What’s In A Name? Sacrificing Neighborhood Identity Doesn’t Always Pay

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Updated on October 5th, 2020

Neighborhood rebranding can be a form of  rebirth, a chance to shed an old reputation or negative stereotype and start anew. But as American cities gentrify, the name game also is changing our urban landscapes and how we think of places.

The practice isn’t new. In 1962, Hell’s Hundred Acres, an industrial section of Manhattan, became SoHo as developers began marketing the area to artists and other hip residents. The rest is history, but recently the SoHo Effect is being called into question.

Rebranding might increase home values in the short run, but is it worth the loss of cultural identity? Maybe not. Redfin looked at three Philadelphia neighborhoods to see what effect rebranding had on property values. We found a mixed bag of results. Cutting a neighborhood’s ties to its history might not be worth it.

Newbold

In 2002, a developer began buying and rehabbing properties in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood. A year later, with the support of a new civic association, he rebranded the community as Newbold.

Between 2000 and 2009, Newbold home values more than doubled, outpacing median price gains in the rest of the city. Between 2009 and 2014, as the housing market collapsed and began its slow recovery, the community’s property values rose 14 percent, compared to a citywide increase of just 1%. In 2014, Redfin named Newbold the fourth-hottest neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Did Newbold’s rebranding deserve credit for the growth? Maybe not. From 2000 to 2009, median home values in nearby Grays Ferry rose faster than they did in Newbold, rising 121 percent. After the economic crisis, though, things changed. While Newbold homes were able to sustain their price growth, values in Grays Ferry fell 10 percent.

neighborhood rebranding
Source: American Community Survey

Passyunk Square

The community around Columbus Square Park in South Philadelphia was working class when a civic organization stepped in to carve out a new neighborhood identity distinct from the rest of greater South Philadelphia. In 2003, they changed the name of the park–and the neighborhood–to Passyunk Square.

Between 2000 and 2009, Passyunk Square home values rose by 146 percent, more than double the citywide increase. Between 2009 and 2014, growth in home values outpaced the rest of the city by 17 percent.

Not far away, the similar neighborhood of Devil’s Pocket saw prices nearly triple between 2000 and 2009, even without rebranding. But while Passyunk home prices kept rising after the recession, they fell 2 percent in Devil’s Pocket.  

neighborhood rebranding
Source: American Community Survey

Midtown Village

Business leaders rebranded Midtown Village in 2006 to create a new identity for a community once known as the Gayborhood. By 2009, rents had skyrocketed 27 percent, more than twice as fast as in the rest of Philadelphia, as the tightly knit community absorbed new arrivals.

Home values took longer to benefit from the new name, rising only 25 percent between 2000 and 2009, less than the citywide increase of 70%. From 2009 to 2014 Midtown Village home values fell 70 percent and rents were flat.

Unlike Newbold and Passyunk Square, where residents adopted new names with the intent of creating community, Midtown Village was rebranded in an effort to boost business and create a thriving commercial district.

neighborhood rebranding
Source: American Community Survey

Creating Livability

Philadelphia recently topped our list of cities where developers are building homes within walking distance of shopping, nightlife and services.

But it takes more than walkable construction to build livability. A place isn’t truly livable without community engagement and identity. A neighborhood name represents a collective memory and narrative that its residents take part in. To change its name for economic purposes reduces the neighborhood to a commodity and erases the ties that hold residents together.

Methodology: Home value data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the Minnesota Population Center.

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Callie Monroe

Callie Monroe is a rising senior at Wesleyan University, where she studies mathematics. In her free time she likes to horseback ride and play Frisbee. She's originally from Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.

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