The Home step of our booking form asks a question most people cannot answer from memory: how many square feet is your home? You pick Cozy, Spacious, Large or Luxury, and the pick adds a line to your quote. This guide uses the City of Philadelphia’s own property records to show where Philadelphia rowhomes actually fall, how to look up the number for your own house, and what a wrong pick does to the price.
The City figures below come from the open assessment table the City publishes, queried on October 25, 2026. The prices come from our published catalog and the same pricing function the booking form charges with, as of the same date.
The short answer
By the City’s records, the typical Philadelphia rowhome is small. The median is 1,182 square feet, and 98.4% of rowhomes are recorded at 2,500 square feet or less, which is the Cozy range on our booking form. The step up to Spacious adds $30 to a visit. Read that as a distribution, not a verdict on your house: you know your home, the City’s record may not, and the sections below show how to look yours up.
What the booking form asks
The Home step lists four bands by size. The ranges below are the labels on the form. The dollar figures are the size line in our published catalog, which is added on top of the base price and the bedroom and bathroom lines.
| Band | Range on the booking form | Size line |
|---|---|---|
| Cozy | Up to 2,500 sq ft | $0 |
| Spacious | Up to 3,000 sq ft | +$30 |
| Large | Up to 3,500 sq ft | +$60 |
| Luxury | Up to 4,000 sq ft | +$90 |
The form describes Cozy as “Most homes.” and lists “Studios, lofts, townhouses, 2–3 BR family homes.” under it. For the whole receipt, line by line, see our price breakdown. We do not publish hours per square foot; the visit estimates we do publish are by tier, in how long a house cleaning takes.
What the City’s records say
The City’s Office of Property Assessment keeps a record for every parcel in Philadelphia, including a recorded living-area figure. We queried the single-family properties whose building description begins “ROW” and whose recorded area is over 300 square feet.
| Rowhomes in the City’s records | Homes | Median | 90th percentile | Recorded at 2,500 or less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All rowhomes | 329,398 | 1,182 sq ft | 1,650 sq ft | 324,167 (98.4%) |
| Three-bedroom rowhomes | 253,346 | 1,168 sq ft | 1,446 sq ft | 252,065 (99.5%) |
Half of all rowhomes are recorded at 1,182 square feet or less, and nine in ten at 1,650 or less. Only 5,231 rowhomes, 1.6% of the total, are recorded above 2,500 square feet, and 1,914 of those are above 3,000.
Size varies by neighborhood. Here are the median recorded areas for rowhomes in nine ZIP codes we picked to show the spread, with the number of rowhomes behind each. It is not a ranking of every ZIP code.
| ZIP code | Rowhomes | Median recorded area |
|---|---|---|
| 19103 | 1,319 | 2,130 sq ft |
| 19125 | 8,800 | 1,224 sq ft |
| 19130 | 4,648 | 1,466 sq ft |
| 19134 | 19,379 | 1,064 sq ft |
| 19143 | 17,556 | 1,176 sq ft |
| 19145 | 15,334 | 1,120 sq ft |
| 19146 | 13,808 | 1,232 sq ft |
| 19147 | 10,736 | 1,440 sq ft |
| 19148 | 18,198 | 1,084 sq ft |
The rowhomes recorded above 2,500 square feet sit mostly in six ZIP codes: 19147 (902), 19103 (479), 19130 (434), 19146 (416), 19106 (400) and 19145 (340). Together that is 2,971 of the 5,231. The data does not say why those houses are larger, so we will not guess.
Method: the table is opa_properties_public, “Philadelphia Properties and Assessment History” on OpenDataPhilly, read through the City’s open SQL interface on October 25, 2026. The newest assessment date in the table that day was October 23, 2026. The filters were category_code_description = SINGLE FAMILY, building_code_description beginning ROW and total_livable_area over 300, plus number_of_bedrooms = 3 for the second row. It is the City’s recorded value, not a survey.
Find your own number
- Open the City’s property page at property.phila.gov and search your address.
- Under Property Details, find “Improvement Area”, shown in square feet. In the City’s open data the same figure is the field
total_livable_area; we compared one record on October 25, 2026 and the two matched. - Read the City’s note on the page before you rely on it: “Property characteristics described below are included for convenience, but may not reflect the most recent conditions at the property.”
That note matters here. An addition, a converted attic or a finished basement may not be in the record. The page lists the basement separately under Features (for example, “Full Unfinished basement”), and we did not find a written definition saying whether basement area counts toward the Improvement Area figure, so do not assume it does or does not. If the record disagrees with a floor plan or a listing you trust, go with the number you can defend.
What the wrong pick costs
Take a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath rowhome booked as a one-time Standard clean. The base price is $170, three bedrooms add $45 and one and a half baths add $30. The size line decides the rest.
| Band you pick | Standard, one-time visit | Difference from Cozy |
|---|---|---|
| Cozy | $245 | $0 |
| Spacious | $275 | +$30 |
| Large | $305 | +$60 |
| Luxury | $335 | +$90 |
These are before sales tax and before any first-cleaning offer; see sales tax on house cleaning in Philadelphia for the tax and our cost guide for the other tiers.
Picking a band smaller than your home is not a saving. Section 2.3 of our Terms says the final charge “may be adjusted for actual time/scope if different from the estimate,” and Section 4.2 lists “Misrepresented Scope” among the reasons we may adjust or refuse service: “If the condition of the home is substantially different from what was described at booking, requiring work far beyond the agreed scope and timeframe.” We have not published a rule for what happens when a home is booked in the wrong size band, so we do not guess at one. Picking a larger band than you need simply adds its line. Either way, choose honestly. The gap between neighboring bands is $30.
When to look at a bigger band
- Your City record shows more than 2,500 square feet. That is about 1.6% of Philadelphia rowhomes.
- The house was combined from two rowhomes, or has an addition the record may not show.
- You know the house is larger than the record says.
If your number lands between two bands, take the band whose range contains it: Spacious covers anything above 2,500 up to 3,000. Our guide to cleaning a Philadelphia rowhome covers what else is different about these houses, from stairs to basements.
Questions
Do I pick by bedrooms or by square feet?
Both. Bedrooms and bathrooms are separate lines on the same receipt, and the size band is a third line, so the band does not replace either of them.
Does my number have to match the City’s?
No. The City’s record is a starting point you can check against your own plans. The booking form takes the band you choose.
Book and see your total
When you have your number, start a booking, pick the band on the Home step and read the total before you confirm. Nothing is charged at booking; your card is saved when you book. We currently clean in Philadelphia. Our Philadelphia cost page prices three example homes live.