This section uses 1990 U.S. Census data and Chester County Tax Assessment data to characterize the resident population, housing tenure, housing types and housing density in the Borough and eight (8) planning sub-areas used in this report.  To facilitate analysis, the Borough was divided into eight “planning areas.” (Identified on Map 2)  The eight planning areas include six mostly residential districts and two mostly non-residential districts.  The residential districts (Planning Areas 1 through 6) represent the general division of the Borough into quadrants defined by the High and Market Street corridors, with the additional identification of two somewhat isolated residential neighborhoods in the east and west ends of the Borough.  With the exception of northwest Planning Area 2 and southwest Planning Area 5, all of these planning areas are within the residential “Neighborhood Conservation” zoning districts.

Population and Growth Trends

Table 2, Population Characteristics, shows that in 1990, West Chester’s total population was 18,041.  Elderly population (over 65 years) accounted for 10.2%.  More than a third (35.1%) of the population was college-aged, between18 to 24.  This age cohort contributed to a younger median age (25 years) for the Borough than for Chester County (34 years).

Table 2:  Population Characteristics

Race and Ethnicity

Table 2 shows that in 1990, a majority (77.2%) of West Chester’s population was white.  In contrast to Chester County’s population profile, the Borough had a much higher minority population. Its African-American population was 2 to 3 times higher than that of the County.  Nearly one-fifth of the Borough population (17.7%) was African-American while in Chester County, African-Americans accounted for only 6.4%.  12.9% of the population was from other minority groups, including Spanish Origin, Asian/Pacific, and Native-American, while the County’s proportion was 4.3%.

Growth Trends

Table 3 illustrates West Chester population growth trends.  Rapid growth took place in the Borough from 1960 to 1970 with a 22.9% increase in the population.  This was a period of considerable apartment development and increased University enrollment.  The subsequent decline in population from 1970 to 1980 resulted from a counting error of the University population.  Population growth since 1980 and the projected growth for the Borough is much more stable, mostly due to the fact that Borough residential land is largely “built out,” with little room left for new development.

In contrast, the West Chester Region and Chester County populations have grown, and are projected to grow considerably.  As shown in Table 5, the West Chester region’s population increased 53.6% between 1960 and 1970, which was 2.3 times that of the Borough. In the subsequent twenty years (1970-1990), the region continued to grow rapidly, increasing by an additional 53%. The projected population growth rate from 2000 (82,470) to 2020 (89,320) suggests that this region will continue growing at the same pace in the coming twenty years.

Table 3:  Population Trends

Household and Per-Capita Income

In 1990, median household income in West Chester was $31,262, compared to $45,642 for the County.  Of the Borough’s 6,110 households, 230 or 3.7% were below the poverty level, which represented a lower percentage than that for the County, which was 4.6% in 1990.  The per capita income in that year was $13,082.  West Chester had a much lower median household income and per capita income than Chester County. The median household income in West Chester in 1990 was only 68.5% of the County median household income and the per capita income was only 63.5% of the County per capita income. A portion of the income gap may partly be attributed to the high percentage of college- aged residents and the higher percentage of households headed by single adults.  The other factor to consider is that Chester County is the wealthiest county in Pennsylvania.

Household Composition

As shown in Table 2, West Chester had a total of 6,110 households in 1990. The average household size was 2.39 people.  Married-couple households only accounted for 32.2% of total households, compared to 63.4% in Chester County, which also helps account for the fact that the average household size is also lower in the Borough.  Among non-married-couple households in West Chester, 20% were female-headed.

Housing Characteristics

Housing information was gathered from several sources:  the 1990 Census (shown in Table 4), 1999 Chester County Assessment data, the West Chester Borough GIS and property records files, and a recent report on moderately priced housing in Chester County published by Chester County 2020 Trust, a non-profit organization formed to promote sound planning policies in the County.

Table 4:  Housing Characteristics

Housing Tenure

Property records and geographic information system (GIS) enable analysis of rental units by location in the Borough, which is reported in Table 5, Housing Tenure, for the eight (8) planning areas and the entire.  Map 8, Rental Units, shows the distribution of rental units in the Borough.  As is apparent from both the map and table, rental housing is found throughout all areas of the Borough – although at much higher densities near the town center.  As expected, the southeast section of the Borough, Planning Area 4, has the most dispersion of rental units through the district, a result of the proximity of West Chester University and its associated demand for rental housing. 

Table 5:  Housing Tenure

The Town Center – Planning Area 7 – has the highest percentage of renter-occupied housing, 83%, and second highest amount of rental units, 725. The southeast has the highest number of renter-occupied units, 792, and second highest rental unit percentage, 67%.  Among residential neighborhoods, Planning Areas 3 (east), 4 (southeast), and 6 (west) have more than the Borough average renter-occupancy rate of 57%, while Planning Areas 1, 2 and 5 are the residential areas with lower than the average rate of renter-occupied units.

A third form of home occupancy in the Borough is rooming houses, such as fraternities, and individual room rentals in existing houses.  The Borough has about 235 rental rooms, not counting the 3,000 university on-campus dormitory units. Most of these room units are located in the southeast Planning Area.

Housing Type and Density

Table 6 shows housing density and housing type for the Borough and each planning area.  The 1999 tax assessment data characterizes dwelling units by type: detached houses, twins, rowhouses (combined here with “townhouses”), condominiums, apartments (structures with 5 or more dwelling units), public housing, and units in mixed use buildings (as found in town center offices and stores).  Since the lot size and dwelling unit count is also given for each tax parcel, total area and density (i.e. dwelling units per acre) can also be calculated for each unit type.

Map 9, Housing Types, shows the distribution of these housing types throughout the Borough and the eight planning areas.  The twin unit, totaling 1,314, is the most predominant housing type in the Borough, followed by the detached and row house types.  Twin units and row houses are spread throughout the southeast Planning Area, and are concentrated near the Town Center. Large apartment complexes are found in the west and northeast Planning Areas.

Table 6:  Housing Types and Density [1]

Overall, apartment units outnumber any other type (1,877 / 28%).  1,608 units are found in twin houses (24% of the Borough total); detached houses account for 1,215 units (18%) and rowhouses account for 823 units (12%).  Another 12% of Borough dwelling units are found in mixed-use buildings, mostly in Town Center.  Since many detached, twin and row houses

frequently contain one or more apartment units, the absolute number of these housing types does not necessarily match the number of dwelling units reported for each type.  On average, each detached, twin and row house has about 1.2 units.

Residential lots in the Borough total 578 acres, and the average housing density is 11.6 units per acre, with an average area per unit of 3,755 square feet.  Average densities range from a high of 30.34 units per acre in Town Center to a low of 7.82 units per acre in the northwest.  The highest housing unit density per residential parcel is for Town Center apartment units at nearly 60 units per acre.

Density calculations show that higher average densities are a function of housing type, with twin and row house units having smaller lots, and the conversion of single family housing to multi-family residences.  Although the number of units of converted single-family residences represents only about 8% (536 units) of total Borough units, they represent 12% (140 units) of housing in the Southeast Planning Area and 14% (184 units) of housing in the Southwest Planning Area.

Housing Affordability

In June 1999, the Chester County 2020 Trust published a study of Chester County housing affordability. The study used Census estimates of median household income and the 1996 County housing reassessment data to estimate affordability throughout Chester County ‘s 73 municipalities.  The study used the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of moderate family income as “representing 80% of the regional median family income.” In 1996, this was $49,300 for the Philadelphia SMSA. The study estimates the number of “moderate income households” and the number of moderately priced for-purchase and rental units based on a household spending 1/3 of its income on housing.

The study defined an “affordable” West Chester for-purchase house as less than $110,449 and an affordable monthly rent as less than $986.  Table 7, Housing Affordability, provides a summary of study results for West Chester and the surrounding seven “West Chester Region” municipalities. It found that 49% of the Borough, 26.6% of the surrounding townships and 30% of County households were “moderate income.”  With regard to housing, the study shows that 94.5% of Borough rental units, 50.1% of for-purchase units and an average of 76.8% of all Borough housing units were affordable.  This contrasts with 92.4% of regional townships and 91% of County rental units being affordable, and only 18.4% of regional townships and 29% of County for-purchase units being affordable. The study indicates that West Chester meets its “fair share” of affordable housing at both the regional and County level.

This section uses 1990 U.S. Census data and Chester County Tax Assessment data to characterize the resident population, housing tenure, housing types and housing density in the Borough and eight (8) planning sub-areas used in this report.  To facilitate analysis, the Borough was divided into eight “planning areas,” identified on Map 11.  The eight planning areas include six mostly residential districts and two mostly non-residential districts.  The residential districts (Planning Areas 1 through 6) represent the general division of the Borough into quadrants defined by the High and Market Street corridors, with the additional identification of two somewhat isolated residential neighborhoods in the east and west ends of the Borough.  With the exception of northwest Planning Area 2 and southwest Planning Area 5, all of these planning areas are within the residential “Neighborhood Conservation” zoning districts.

Table 7:  Housing Affordability