Real Estate

  Philadelphia's 10 biggest commercial taxpayers, including Center City office towers, Franklin Mills Mall, and the shipyard in South Philadelphia, could pay a total of $17.5 million, or 45 percent, less in property tax next year under Mayor Nutter's tax reform. The reform is designed to base taxes on the properties' actual value rather than on outdated figures used for years by the city. Commercial properties, particularly in Center City, have long been assessed based on values closer to real market values than most residential properties, which, experts said, meant that commercial-property owners paid more than their fair share of real estate taxes.

IS THIS CITY for real? I just viewed my new 2014 tax rates that are now posted on the city website, along with dozens of other homes in my neighborhood, and I'm absolutely amazed by the sheer ignorance and stupidity of this flawed program. First, is there or should there be any way that next-door neighbors with the same "approved homestead exemption" be paying varying amounts of $450? Second, how should a house just one block away that lists for $20-$50K more than mine, based on the factors of a driveway with a personal parking spot, a garage, a deck (all of which are non-optional up my street)

City residents have had the long weekend to absorb and ponder the results of a citywide reassessment, and the first reviews from areas facing some of the biggest tax increases have been mixed. Matt Ruben, president of Northern Liberties Neighbors Association, on Monday put property owners in his area into three categories by reaction to the new numbers: Those who saw their assessments rise but think they are "in the ballpark. " Those who believe that their assessments are fair but that the likely tax increase will be "ruinous.

The city began mailing new real estate assessments Friday to more than half a million Philadelphia property owners, based on a massive two-year revaluation effort that is supposed to place an accurate market value on every lot and building. Mayor Nutter said the new values would replace "a broken system that unfairly undervalued or over-assessed property values in Philadelphia for decades. " The new assessments do not affect city real estate bills mailed in December and now falling due. But they will be the basis of the bills sent out next December, payable in early 2014.

Evelyn Bass let little get in her way, least of all panty hose and heels. For 30 years, she was a real estate agent in Cherry Hill - the full-steam-ahead sort who would grab a shovel and claw hammer, dig up a misplaced six-foot sale sign, lug it across a busy intersection, sink its four-by-four posts in the right spot, then patch the heretofore damaged lawn. She did that on Greentree Road in a two-piece suit and unsensible shoes. She also was the sort who, in her 70s, drove daily into Camden to be a volunteer aide in a classroom of kindergartners who vied to hold her hand.

J OHN NJOKU, 31, of Southwest Center City, is co-founder and chief executive of Kwelia. The start-up has developed software for property managers to price their apartments using real-time market data. Njoku, who has practiced law in New York and worked in real estate in New York and Connecticut, works with co-founder Chris Connell and "data guy" Greg Phillips from an office on Walnut Street near 17th. Q: What does Kwelia do? A: Kwelia is a data-analytics platform for residential real estate.

Hundreds of thousands of property owners in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties are getting something they probably don't want in the new year - higher real estate taxes. Countywide increases, approved in December, affect the owners of all 382,304 real estate parcels in Chester and Delaware Counties. Some people are taking a double hit, as at least 27 towns in those counties also have increased taxes. Bucks and Montgomery Counties kept their rates the same, but at least 28 municipalities raised real estate levies.

One in a continuing series spotlighting the real estate market in this region's communities. All the signs heading into town, and the ones on the school district buildings and on the Fire Department's headquarters on Main Street, clearly say Evesham Township . However, when you announce that you're going to the Apple Store, or REI, or scores of other locations within Evesham Township's boundaries, the destination is Marlton ...

Joseph J. D'Amico, 94, of Drexel Hill, who rose from humble beginnings to become a Realtor and insurance broker, died Monday, Jan. 21, of prostate cancer at his home. Mr. D'Amico, the eldest of seven children, was the son of a seamstress and a Sicilian shoemaker in Philadelphia. He worked alongside his father as a young man. He graduated from Overbrook High School in 1936. His first job out of school was laying steel track for the Pennsylvania Railroad; it was the hardest work he ever did, he later told family.