Pittsburgh added about 450 new residents between 2023 and 2024. While I’ve been in lines longer than that for hot dogs at PNC Park, those are pretty good numbers for Pittsburgh. With very few anomalous exceptions, Pittsburgh has been losing population for my entire lifetime, and quite a bit before that, as the dying steel industry bled out last century.
Why do I think this is good news? Well, you’re either growing or you’re shrinking; there’s no secret third thing. Shrinking/dying cities don’t leave more for the rest of us, they leave less. Less in tax to fix roads, fewer staff at schools, fewer people to patronize your favorite restaurants and shops, fewer weird little houses, which will gradually be lost to the elements, copper thieves, and general neglect.
New people aren’t here to take your stuff, park in your spot (that’s what the chairs are for!), or make you care about pro basketball or whatever. They simply want a good life in a place that’s safe, that they can afford. For the most part, we’ve got that.
Pittsburgh isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If you hate hills or winter or old houses, you probably should look somewhere else. But if you’re intrigued by Pittsburgh, we’ve got room for you.
For sale: 112 McNary Way, Mexican War Streets, $279,000..
The Mexican War Streets rarely feature anything remotely affordable, unless you’re willing and able to rehab a 100-year-old house. But every once in a while, something nice pops up. There’s something about a bright red coat of paint — it makes a sports car seem faster, and a house seem, uh, also faster? At least, that pop of color distracts you from the sad beige bomb that dropped on the 900-square-foot interior. But if you require up-to-date contemporary in a historic shell, this is it.
For rent: 1528 Superior Ave., Apt. 1. Marshall-Shadeland., $770/month.
A yellow-brick, multi-unit triple-decker for $770 a month; no, they aren’t making any more of these, which is bad for everyone. This is the “missing middle” of housing that has been difficult (or impossible) to build since grandpa came home from the war. Why? Well, at some point, it was decided that big, single-family homes should be the standard, at the expense of everything else. Plus, you could jump through all the right hoops with the zoning laws, and then just one nebby neighbor with nothing to do starts screeching about their hereditary right to a parking space — and who the hell wants to listen to that?
For sale: 2738 Woodstock St., Swissvale, $185,000.
I’ve looked at so many low-end Pittsburgh houses for sale that I don’t even know what normal is supposed to look like anymore. And yet, this space oddity looks like it landed in Swissvale and thought, well, I’ll just try to blend in and study these strange beings and no one will even notice. Yes, there’s a big blank wall facing the street, punctuated by a bright red door shoved off to one side. But inside is pretty cozy, with beautiful 1900-vintage wooden floors and black brick walls for some reason.
For rent: Amberson Gardens, 1 Bayard Rd., Shadyside, $1,195-1,925.
If Shadyside were just boutiques and mansions and other rich-people nonsense, it would be extremely dull, and there would be no reason to visit. But it’s not, and here’s why — there’s a dense concentration of people living in Shadyside because it has a wide range of housing that appeals to them, from gigantic single-family Victorian splendor to massive apartment complexes like Amberson Gardens. That attracts lots of different kinds of people, who attract lots of different kinds of restaurants and retail, which are interesting to look at and pretty useful. It’s a recipe for vibrancy that shouldn’t be that hard to duplicate, and yet, we rarely do.
For sale: 114 Oakland Ct., Oakland, $259,000.
Every home for sale looks pretty much the same on the inside nowadays, and that’s kind of boring. So, the last stand of defiant weirdness is usually on the exterior; it’s just too much work to de-weird many of these houses. Though, to be fair, getting rid of the aluminum awning is low-hanging-fruit. Oakland’s location needs no introduction; in tumultuous times, universities, and hospitals are close to recession-proof. Though, nowadays, who knows? A year from now, attending college could be reclassified as a felony and no one would be surprised.
For rent: 7616 Kelly St., Apt. 2. Homewood, $850/month.
Here’s where the modern-greige aesthetic can be a good thing – when a rental looks off-putting on the outside, but bright and clean and uncluttered on the inside. Maybe it was done on the cheap, maybe it’s not so great in person, but the fact that somebody made the effort gives the renter some hope that this place will be all right. I’ve certainly rented enough places where landlords obviously didn’t care enough to try, and that’s not a great feeling.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2025.
