Are the days of affordable housing in Pittsburgh numbered? Or even over already?
According to real estate broker Redfin, Pittsburgh has the fastest appreciating housing prices in the country. Home prices nationwide were up 6.4% in the past year — and 22% in Pittsburgh. It’s just one datapoint, sure, but they are starting to pile up. This seems to confirm my own anecdotal observations that inexpensive homes are getting harder and harder to find in Pittsburgh, at least without major flaws.
The value proposition for Pittsburgh was largely based on it being a big-league city without the stratospheric costs of the cities on the coasts. Like, if you wanted the baseline of economic opportunity, culture, and things to do of a decent-sized city but didn’t want to spend every penny you make on housing, well, here’s a place you can do that. Provided you don’t want something impossible — like beachfront property in Crafton or a giant three-garage monster truck of a house for $150K — there’s something for almost everyone here. It’s a pretty low barrier to entry; basically, just form an opinion on the Stillers’ quarterback situation, and you’re in.
Now, perhaps that advantage has eroded. Or, the specific conditions that made Pittsburgh so much cheaper than most American cities — the economic depression that followed the steel industry’s collapse starting in the ‘70s — have run their course. We’ve had a lot of catching up to do, but it might be almost done.
It’s not clear what can be done to halt the trajectory of ever-accelerating cost of living, aside from another economic depression — and let’s not do that again, OK? If the average home price is up to $250,000 in Pittsburgh, and it’s $412,000 nationally, that is still a big gap. There may be time yet to get a piece of Pittsburgh before we arrive at the average.
DOWNTOWN
For sale: 320 Ft. Duquesne Blvd., $200,000. Downtown.
Though certain local media outlets are pretty invested in painting downtown Pittsburgh as a nightmarish “Escape From New York”-like hellscape of warlords and mutants, the prices tell a different story. Somebody wants to live in walking distance of the single biggest cluster of jobs, cultural amenities, and restaurants in the region, and is willing to pay for it. I’ve avoided discussing Downtown for this reason because so little fits into the “affordable” category. However, this mid-century skyscraper, right up against beautiful, underrated Point State Park, has a few units that might qualify. It’s not clear what floor this is on, but my guess is that it’s not high enough to peek inside PNC Park across the river. The listing also notes a $783 monthly HOA fee, which isn’t great.
Alcoa is a name that once carried a lot of weight around here, but the central innovation of their former 31-story Downtown headquarters was how strong, light and very thin (1/8 inch), the walls are, made from its signature product: aluminum. This building has had a few other lives since then, but the latest seems to be the way much of Downtown is moving — to housing, as office space seems to be in terminal decline everywhere. The Residences at the Historic Alcoa Building feature the standard array of big-apartment amenities (full gym, game room, etc.), with one standout: the underrated rustic Italian restaurant Talia on the ground floor. I mean, you could make dinner — or let the pros do it.
NORTH SIDE
For sale: 4 Davis Row, $110,000. Woods Run.
The days of $100,000 houses in Pittsburgh aren’t quite over. They’re out there, but in places that don’t get a lot of visitors. However, this 1900 brick rowhouse in Woods Run is not really a good example of anything; it last sold for $9,800 (!) in 1994. So, it’s gone up 1,000%, if you believe those figures. It still might be an inexpensive house in the grand scheme of things, but that’s a pretty absurd appreciation.
For rent: 1510 Orchlee St., # 2. $1,100/month, Brighton Heights.
Four bright blue doors, behind which are four possible futures. I’m beginning to suspect that Brighton Heights might be a portal to an earlier, cheaper Pittsburgh of a decade ago or so. It’s just a weird little North Side pocket of beautiful, century-old homes and small-scale apartments like this, unaffected by whatever’s going on in the East End/Strip District/wherever. That’s OK. Pittsburgh is a weird place; I’d be shocked if there was only one.
EDGEWOOD
For sale: 228 Oakview Ave., $249,900. Edgewood.
Hey, there’s no rule we can’t have a little inner-ring suburb here, as a treat, and the Edgewood/Swissvale area has an abundance of attractive historic and semi-historic homes that would be twice as much if they were in, say, Point Breeze. This tidy 1905 Tudor-style home in a quasi-forested part of Edgewood has just about everything, from built-in china cabinets, to an updated kitchen, to some very bright interiors via big windows and natural light. It’s even got some useful things to walk to in Regent Square, a walkable main business district full of shops, bars and restaurants, and Edgewood Towne Center, a giant blob of car-centric suburban-style strip malls.
For rent: 436 Elmer St., $1,200/month. Edgewood.
When you gaze upon so many primed-to-sell, bland neutral interiors — it’s kind of fun when you get a glimpse of a place that looks like it has humans living in it. Like, they could easily get rid of the Star Wars bedspread and Pens posters, but why? You probably know a kid (or adult) that thinks that makes a place look comfortable enough to live in, and they’re right. Oh, and this whole Victorian home-turned-duplex is painted bright yellow, which is another eccentric choice that works in this context.
