The end of American cities? Philadelphia now has San Francisco’s disease – office buildings are on sale for 50% off.

Photo above - this gorgeous 30 story office building at 2000 Market Street Philadelphia just sold for $68 a square foot. There's a glut of vacant office space in America right now.

Attention – due to high crime, falling population, and crappy schools the city of Philadelphia is having a close-out special on office space. Here’s just one example of how you can save big-big-big: How about a 30 story, 665,000 square foot skyscraper for $45 million? That’s only $68 a square foot !!!! (See link below for details.)

In an era where downtown condos can start at $150 a square foot, and go as high as $450, that $68 a foot Philly skyscraper looks like a steal. Let's do a little rehab and turn it into affordable housing, okay? Well, that’s not actually going to happen. Celler dwellers, this is not your moment. The new owners of the 2000 Market Street tower vow to keep it as office space and not spend a dime rehabbing it for residences.

And who can blame them? Philadelphia’s population has plummeted 40% over the past several decades. People are moving to the ‘burbs. Because of the public schools. Philadelphia’s schools are so lamentable they rank behind Washington DC, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. I have a link at bottom ranking urban schools in America, but I’m suspicious. It claims Miami is the number one school district in the nation. No comprende!

Murders in Philadelphia are down 40%, which sounds encouraging, until you remember that population is down 40% as well.

Vacant buildings are becoming a scourge in almost every American city. Middle class migration to the suburbs, and population replacement with undocumented workers and public-school dropouts has become the norm.

Earlier this month I posted a column about the 50% service cutbacks forced on Philadelphia’s Septa transit system. But these cuts also make perfect sense if your office buildings are vacant, and you lose almost half your population.

Raising taxes on Philadelphia's retail and residential survivors is not an option. I doubt if high Trump tariffs are going to entice many businesses to build factories there either. If you want to know what a “cooling economy” looks like, this is it. If you want to know why this is happening, look at the Federal Reserve, which tells us that high interest rates are the only way they know to stop inflation.

If anyone didn’t see vacant buildings and job losses as an outcome, they’re too stupid to be working as a government economist or a business reporter.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Many of Philadelphia’s office buildings are plummeting in value — and it’s costing the city millions

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Roadsterrider · 56-60, M

With 40% of the population gone, I would guess those empty buildings were where the white collar workers who left for the suburbs used to work. Between people trying to get away from the crime and the ones who have worked from home since COVID, there just isn't enough going on to support keeping a large office building up and running. There are lots of factors that lead to businesses and people moving from an area. I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing that the building is empty. When huge shopping malls started being built in the 70s and 80s, there was a scourge of empty buildings in small towns all over the country. I live in a town of 15,000 people, as a child, the streets in town were packed with shoppers and people doing business. After a mall opened up a few miles from town, the downtown area dried up. windows boarded or soaped, businesses folded because there wasn't enough to go around after the mall opened. Today, there are a few businesses that are still there but 75% of the area is empty.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Roadsterrider your theory is a good one, but actual results are unclear. Earlier this month SEPTA (transit) predicted Armageddon because it didn't get billions in new money to fix its trains and busses and had to cancel hundreds of routes. they told the media that the city would be crushed by suburbanites driving cars into the city, only to find zero parking.

that prediction apparently fizzled out.

Work from home is the commuter's best friend, I suppose.

Roadsterrider · 56-60, M

@SusanInFlorida It is unclear. There isn't enough information in the article to determine anything except that the "fall" of Philidelphia isn't imminent because an office building is sold cheap.