Who Moves to Philly?

When I first got here, I was caught flatfooted by Philadelphians asking me the same question: “What brought you to Philly?”

It’s a familiar question to someone from the same kind of city, a city not high on the Dreaminess Spectrum. Nobody aspires to move to St. Louis, so when you meet someone from out of town, you ask. These three answers make up for the lion’s share of transplants in a city like St. Louis:

• I went to college here, then found work and/or spouse. And stayed.
• I got a job / my company moved me here.
• I’m gay and life in my small town in Missouri or southern Illinois is unbearable. I want a gay scene, but I don’t want to be too far away from home.*

* My time in restaurants may cause a sample bias here, but you’d be shocked how many people this applies to.

On the other end of the spectrum from shithole cities like St. Louis, are the dreamy cities such as but not limited to:

• Austin
• California
• Denver
• Florida
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• New York
• Phoenix
• Portland
• Seattle
• Washington DC

I lived for one year each in Denver and Orange County, Calif. Nobody ever asks why you’re there. They may ask where you’re from, but it’s not why. It’s not that people in those places aren’t interested. But you’re not much of a curiosity. Peruvians and Colombians used to ask why in hell I would choose to live there. You’re a curiosity. In Southern California and Denver, not at all. Hell, many of the people you know aren’t from there either.

St. Louis is a city in a long decline. It’s set to be surpassed by previously third-tier cities like Charlotte, San Antonio and Orlando. Given its lack of success in growing, it’s interesting to hear as a St. Louisan from a transplant what the heck led them to St. Louis. School? Work? Gay from a small town?

Philadelphia is closer to the center on the Dreamy Spectrum. It’s not declining, but it’s not a dreamy place seeing breakneck growth. So natives are curious, and they ask what brought me here. I wasn’t ready at first, and stumbled through whichever reason (outlined previously) best fit the situation.

I quickly learned that doesn’t work, particularly the safest response: “walkable.” While Philadelphia is a dense city on American standards, the vast majority of Philadelphians drive cars every day. And you can’t take too long in your answer. You have to spit it out in three seconds. So for a while I struggled. What do I say?

I thought back to how I got interested in Philadelphia. Back in 2020, I had decided I wanted out of St. Louis, and if not now when and why not realize my lifelong dream of living in New York. But with three children and a business with a warehousing operation, prices in New York were prohibitive to say the least. I remember thinking I could afford Staten Island. But then I’d think, what’s the point of that?

I started thinking, what is it I like about New York? Is there somewhere else that could tick most of the boxes for half a quarter of the price? Just a glance at the map, and Philadelphia popped out big, beautiful and probably cheap. I had never been. My wife and I visited in 2020 to see if we liked it, and we fell in love. Three years later, we moved here.

In that little story lies my new three-second answer to the question, what brought me to Philly? I couldn’t afford New York!

Philadelphians understand that immediately. They don’t take offense. More often than not, they chuckle. They’ve heard it before, but not from wannabes like me. They hear it from New Yorkers.

Yes, the same three factors that bring people to St. Louis apply to Philadelphia, although each factor brings more with more, bigger and better schools, companies and gay scenes. But there is a fourth answer almost unique to Philly which you hear a lot, and which I hit on accident.

When you think about the places that saw a pandemic pop, you don’t think of Philadelphia. But it very much did. Our real estate agent told us we would be bidding against New Yorkers. Most people may know that the suburbs outside New York saw a spike when people didn’t have to go to the office anymore. But there was another large group who didn’t want to pay New York prices, but didn’t want to live in the suburbs either. They still want the urban lifestyle of a big city on the East Coast, but they also want to buy a house for under $500,000.

Some New Yorkers aren’t even moving to Pennsylvania for the city. Some are moving to Bucks County, the northern suburbs where they can buy a castle and be in Manhattan via Amtrak in one hour.

Who moves to Philly? People who can’t afford New York! It’s 70% of New York for 30% of the price.