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How to find Philadelphia real estate tax and assessment information on-line

  1. Philadelphia’s Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT) (“an independent seven member appointed by the Board of Judges of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court … created by the Pennsylvania Legislature to assess all real estate in the City and County of Philadelphia”) maintains a website at http://brtweb.phila.gov; go to the site, and click on either the “Property Search” or “BRT Property Search Service” link (or go directly to the webpage for the BRT Property Search Service at http://brtweb.phila.gov/brt.apps/Search/Disclaimer/disclaimer.aspx?url=s... ).
  2. Review the terms of use and disclaimer, and, if acceptable, choose to accept the terms and disclaimer and proceed to the search page. You are presented with 4 tabs, each of which presents a different method to use to search BRT’s records (note: there are very good tutorials on each of the search pages with screen shots):
    1. If you have a precise street address, that’s the default tab, so just enter the address into the supplied box;
    2. If you are looking for information on a particular block, click on the “Search by Block” tab and enter the requested information;
    3. If you only have an intersection, click on the “Search by Intersection” tab and enter the requested information; or
    4. If you have the BRT Account Number (usually from a real estate tax bill), then click on the “Search by BRT Account Number” tab and enter the Number.
  3. What public record information is available via the BRT website?
    1. Name of Owner (often truncated)
    2. BRT Account Number
    3. Mailing Address of the Owner
    4. Tax Balances (just click on the “Tax Balances” button) Note: Unlike all other information available via the search function, this information comes up in a pop-up window and I have not been able to print it; the only way I have found to extract the information is by cutting and pasting the info into a word processing document.
    5. Land Area
    6. Improvement Description
    7. Improvement Area
    8. Beginning Point
    9. Certified Market Value for current year: This is determined by the BRT; see the FAQ page on the BRT website
    10. The “Assessed Value” is the product of the Market Value multiplied by the “Predetermined Ratio” (PDR); for 2009, the PDR is .32. This information is presented on the website as follows:
      1. Assessed Land (Taxable)
      2. Assessed Improvement (Taxable)
      3. Assessed Land (Exempt)
      4. Assessed Improvement (Exempt)
      5. Total Assessment
    11. Sale Date (this usually appears only if the sale is relatively recent)
    12. Sale Price (this usually appears only if the sale is relatively recent)
    13. Real Estate Taxes for current year
      1. This is the product of the Assessed Value multiplied by the Tax Rate
    14. Via the “Valuation Details” tab, you can view the last 7 years’ valuation, assessment, and gross tax information