Urban blight in some central city neighborhoods has kept a tight lid on home prices in Philadelphia and the surrounding towns.
That has helped to keep breakeven time for homebuyers within city limits to just 2.3 years, a little less than the metro area as a whole.
Buyers who venture out to the stronger housing markets in Philadelphia's wealthy suburbs will have to wait a little longer for their purchase to pay off.
In the fancy towns along the Main Line west of the city, such as Tredyffrin, it takes more than eight years to break even, while in the bucolic far suburbs in New Jersey, like Haddonfield it takes 11 years to break even, according to Zillow.
