Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

turp101 t1_j0ifabj wrote

Reply to comment by ballsonthewall in NY Times lists Pittsburgh as having some of the most affordable homes in the country as compared to household income. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/realestate/where-are-the-most-and-least-affordable-homes.html) by Far_Room23

Big money buys in very specific areas. Generally speaking, if you look around the fringes they won't be there.

So they may buy Aspinwall but not Blawnox, or may buy Ingram but not Crafton.

Additionally they have a buy box which is usually 3-4 bedrooms and 1-2 baths and having rehabs less than the purchase price. You just need to move outside their buy box to not compete with them. On the flip side, if you want to do business with them, knowing their buy box will save you lots of effort.

Source: Do it for a living

14

kayimbo t1_j0iq702 wrote

hi, i'm actually going to pittsburg tomorow to look at houses. I'm here on reddit trying to learn about the neighborhoods. what do you think is good neighborhoods to look at?

−9

pioman t1_j0isi8u wrote

City living or suburbs?

1

kayimbo t1_j0it3ny wrote

lean towards house, so i assume suburb, but haven't seen the city yet so not sure. I was checking out crime stats and said 'regent square looks good', then i was looking on the map, and houses right next to regent square were like 40k and i looked up the crime stats for wilksonburg and said what the fuck. How do you got the lowest crime area next to a place with such high murders.

−8

kayimbo t1_j0ivnq7 wrote

lol its so so fucked up when there is like 500k houses 5 minutes from 30k houses. As someone who doesn't know much about the city, or buying houses in general, i hate this.

4

turp101 t1_j0umz6e wrote

Tip:

Take Redfin or one of the other tools. Switch to sold homes for the last year filter. Draw a circle around an area you are interested plus several blocks surrounded. You can see the flow of property values then. This gives you a good idea of if you are a decent area or not.

You will want to see the overall theme of house prices to start. So is it a $100k area, $250k area, or $400k area. If you are seeing prices peak at $100 or $125k with lots of sub-50k sales, and you look at the pictures and there isn't a huge difference, you are probably looking at a rental area, downtrodden area that lost the jobs 4 decades ago, or a crime filled area.

If you are seeing prices consistently in one of the higher brackets, with very few lower price homes, you are probably looking at an established or mostly gentrified community and the benefits that come with that.

If you see an area that has a strong mix, you are probably looking at an area that is gentrifying - especially if the higher price homes appear to be flips or rehabbed and the lower priced ones look to be grandma's house. The ratio of upper priced homes to lower priced homes will tell you how far along in gentrification the place is. Less than 25% of the homes being rehabbed - you are looking at a speculation play that may be on the boarder of a good area. 25-75% and you have an established area on the upswing. North of 75% and you pretty much have completed or are nearing completion of gentrification.

You can take this information and overlay school quality, crime rates, and public transit to get a strong feeling for how a community is.

Personally I like the old camp or mill towns in A/A+ school districts that have development around them. Places like Trafford or Cuddy. You can get a an older home with good bones for under $200k in an area without much crime and an excellent place to raise a family near highways. You won't have much public transit usually, but with work from home that isn't a show stopper.

1

pioman t1_j0iwk6k wrote

Poor city planning in the 70s led to concentrations of poverty. The crime generally stays localized and has some connection to drugs/ gang activity. There are also pockets of wilkensburg that has some really nice old houses.

I’d say try to air b&b any area you are thinking about.

I’m partial to the north side (Allegheny west / Mexican war streets / deutschtown west of 279) for some really cool old historic townhouses.

4

kayimbo t1_j0iy0pp wrote

thanks i'll make sure not not skip those areas

2

turp101 t1_j0ul9f9 wrote

> houses right next to regent square were like 40k and i looked up the crime stats for wilksonburg and

The bus line is a man-made divide. Stay west towards Regent Sq and you should be okay. Go east of it and it is total speculation/slumlord/vacant and boarded houses territory. There are a few pockets of decent, Marlboro isn't horrible. The Blackridge area isn't too bad either near the Penn Hills line.

It is the same thing dividing Point Breeze from Homewood.

1