I think Hazelwood was brought up in this thread. The place is a dump. However, I was driving through there a few weeks ago and noticed an extremely old (early 1900s I'd think) large school being remodeled into apartments. I hope to God these are Section 8 or other affordable apartments because if this developer is doing "luxury apartments" in friggin Hazelwood, we are all doomed. People will spend ANYTHING on housing. I should rent out a tent in my backyard for $5000/month.
For only $869K, you can live on Mexican War Streets
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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I think Hazelwood was brought up in this thread. The place is a dump. However, I was driving through there a few weeks ago and noticed an extremely old (early 1900s I'd think) large school being remodeled into apartments. I hope to God these are Section 8 or other affordable apartments because if this developer is doing "luxury apartments" in friggin Hazelwood, we are all doomed. People will spend ANYTHING on housing. I should rent out a tent in my backyard for $5000/month.
@Sean Miller Fan
2 more.
The Mr. Smalls recording studio on W North is being converted into 2 homes. Roughly 4500 sq/ft $1.1 mil and $1.3 mil.
2 more.
The Mr. Smalls recording studio on W North is being converted into 2 homes. Roughly 4500 sq/ft $1.1 mil and $1.3 mil.
You're drastically oversimplifying things. I'm no genius, but I used to write economic analysis reports for the trading desk of the biggest bank in Pittsburgh. I like being a landlord way, way better.
I'm not talking about the everyday folks like us who got a few checks in the mail. You're not understanding the kind of money I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who got unheard of money from ppp loans, EIDL loans, etc. Heck, even I got a $25,000 EIDL loan for my business.
That money hit the streets in the hood in 2020 and drove up hood housing prices immediately to levels not seen before. I saw a guy who almost lost his house at sheriff sale all of a sudden start up a school transportation business and buy at least 50 vehicles, a transmission shop with a huge parking lot he used for vehicle storage and make tons of home improvements. Funny part was he had some vans with no inspection stickers transporting Pittsburgh public school students. When some neighbors told this to PPS, they were brushed off.
The houses did increase in price that fast. I watched it happen. That's not normal.
I'm in a transitional hood that is now safe and I'm able to draw such tenants as CMU grad students, a Pitt professor, young professionals, etc. Most recently an environmental engineer and a UPMC resident doctor filled my last 2 vacancies. I do high end stuff for rents that are half of, or maybe up to 75% of, what you'd pay in Shadyside for a more beat up place that too many people are fighting over anyway. There's a big market for that. I enjoy it and it gives me freedom. I am very hands on and do a ton of work myself. I also have my real estate license. I just help family and friends at this point. It's good side money.
There's also the massive increase in large corporate home buyers - Blackrock, Vanguard, etc have taken large stakes in single family homes in a short period of time, mostly the last 10 years. They have wreaked havoc on the low end of the market by gobbling up starter homes for rentals.
I'll leave it at that. I could ramble on Zeppelin style with many more points, but I have enough to do.
Hazelwood is indeed a dump. But, if you drive through, stop at the Woods House. I know one of the owners. They dumped a fortune into that building and lot. https://woodshousepgh.com/
I hate when I hear there is no affordable housing. Yes, there is no affordable housing in popular places to live. You might have to suck it up and get a place like this in Clairton for $1. Or slightly more. Save up some money and then move. Its not your divine right to get a 4000 square foot house in a ritzy suburb for 350K like its 2010.
If I were looking to be by the city on a budget, Greenfield would be a good option.
I have a good friend who lives there , it’s a lovely place .
I think Morningside is another of those hidden gems , along with Friendship
If we didn’t have a pre-school aged kid when we moved back , we’d have probably got a cool place in Lawrenceville . But we wanted a yard so we found a house in highland park that checked all of the boxes
But - it did cost more than our new construction home
We built and sold in North Carolina .
So we at least put a good sized down payment and held a chunk for unexpected expenses or an over 100 year old house .
Agree with you about Friendship. Cool neighborhood. I lived there for a couple of years. Plenty of large old homes too for the right kind of guy who appreciates that sort of history and commitment (sounds like you do). I ended up in a similar type of home in the East end.
Greenfield is also a hidden gem. Right on the parkway, close to downtown and Oakland, easy access to a pool, parks and bike trails, but absolutely it's own neighborhood and identity. I lived there too for a couple of years and really liked it. It doesn't have the grand old housing stock like other neighborhoods but a great place to start out, especially with kids.
I'd be fine with banning those large corporate buyers from gobbling up single family homes. They shouldn't be allowed to do that. Especially if they can get better loan rates then an average family.
So you don't want big companies buying homes?? How about cities? Can THEY buy them?
It's not capitalism if a big corp giant can get a favorable rate and makes it harder for everyone else to buy home.
How isnt it? I'm not saying I'm in favor of it or not but why should a corporation be prevented from buying houses to rent? Its a free market. The funny thing is I saw a Charlie Kirk interview and he was very much against these companies buying houses, which floored me. Why should the government interfere with corporate greed?
The government pretty much IS corporate greed at this point.
It’s by definition capitalism.
Supply and demand .
If you can’t afford a home , just rent . Buy a trailer.
It’s that simple .
Buying Here: 'Glenna's House' in the Mexican War Streets listed for $869,000
Glenna’s House at 1301 Sherman Ave. in the Mexican War Streets would not be recognized by the woman it was named for — especially on the...www.post-gazette.com
These housing prices are outrageous and they arent coming down. I guess that's not a bad thing since so many people are paying these prices.
If you are looking for cozy little place on the Northside.
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redf.in
Calling a $1.4M ~850 sq ft rowhome an “investment opportunity” is nuts.
With that being said, I enjoy threads like these because I often took granted the housing stock after moving away. Hard to find lots of brick exteriors like these the further west you get.
Calling a $1.4M ~850 sq ft rowhome an “investment opportunity” is nuts.
With that being said, I enjoy threads like these because I often took granted the housing stock after moving away. Hard to find lots of brick exteriors like these the further west you get.
That's just the carriage house in the back.
Thanks, I missed that. Maybe it’s time for me to log off for the evening… In all seriousness, does that sound about right for that area nowadays?
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It's about right for Allegheny West.
A house across the street from this one turned down $1.65 mil last summer. It is bigger, over 5k sq/ft.
2 streets over (Lincoln), there's a $4 mil renovation in process. The Lincoln and Brighton houses are big (12k-25k sq/ft).
The 2800 sq/ft average flips are usually in the $700-800k range. The nicely finished ones are over $1 mil, they just don't come available very often.
Interesting take on housing inflation. https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/sprinting-toward-2030s-i-own-nothing
That's kind of all over the place and places "blame" in nonsensical places.
Listened to one of largest home builders talk about this topic on Freakonomics last year. Basically, builders needed to restructure their business model after 2008. Every step is now silo'd. The process to build new homes now takes much longer now and a lot of builders won't take on the same level of risk as they previously would have taken prior to 2008. As a result, we are way behind need from population growth.
Another item driving down housing stock this is the boomers not downsizing like previous generations.
Fast raising interest rates, made housing problem worse by locking people into their low interest rate mortgages. 25% of current homeowner would like up change their current home but don't want to pay more for the financing.
So the bottom line is that people are paying and affording these prices. The longer-term effects will be that these folks won't be able to build wealth like previous generations. They will save less and rack up more credit card debt. But, generally, they will still make ends meet but their entire net worth will be their house and they are OK with that.
I feel no sorrow for these folks. There is PLENTY of affirdable housing in crappy school districts and I get that people dont want to raise families in these areas but you can't complain that there's no affordable housing when there's plenty. Just not in the areas you want. Go gentrify Clairton.
The market is still strong. I just listed yesterday a 4/2.5 ranch for $165,000 and the first showing this morning is offering, and agents are asking me if they'll have time to show it this weekend. Well of course you will, I want as many offers as possible. Send the escalation clauses.
My last listing went for $22,500 over ask. Expecting this one to go for at least 10,000 over.
My last listing went for $22,500 over ask. Expecting this one to go for at least 10,000 over.
My buddy sent me this yesterday. Any RE agent could have told you this without seeing this.
Pittsburgh has the LOWEST avg. house cost per avg. earnings. $400K homes here are $500K homes in places like Cinci, Columbus. Hailed as the best deal. The weak schools are a labor issue. We need to fund more options for kids.
Loads of affordable housing in WPA.
The "weak schools" are an income issue. Poverty-stricken areas produce kids who don't score as high on standardized tests. The teachers or curriculums aren't any worse at Clairton than Upper St. Clair.
So it's just bad luck? Are you blaming the kids?? Or just jabbering to sound smart.
It’s about the family support for the kids .
Kids without it backslide more during the summers
It’s a cumulative effect.
Build more middle income housing and stop corporations from buying up homes. Boom. Problem solved.
It's poverty. If there is a town with rampant poverty, test scores will be very low. Is this something you didn't know? Standardized test scores are 100% related to the average income level of that school district.
The corporations buying homes thing is misinformation. It's not really an issue but it gets a lot of play. Home prices are high for several reasons:
- limited supply, which is partially due to Boomers not downgrading or moving to the Florida condos. Also due to people not moving due to not wanting to give up their 3% rate
- People put a very high value on home ownership and are willing to not be able to afford anything else as long as they have an 800K house in a good school district. Inotherwords, the demand is so high that people are paying almost any price because they put such a high value on home ownership. These people don't want to buy a condo, or rent an apartment, or live in Clairton or Bentleyville.
So the schools have failed???
But a decent home in a nice area can be found easily in the suburbs. That study was right.
It’s not bad luck it’s there’s no support at home for the poorest kids to get a good education. It starts at home unfortunately there’s the socioeconomic aspect of this issue that keeps these kids behind.
For every new R. E. Agent 10 drop out. 5% of the agents sell 95% of the market. That leaves 5% of the market for the other 95% of agents to sell. I know because I was in some aspect of real estate for 50 years from selling to development to building houses and building maintenance and commercial management.My buddy sent me this yesterday. Any RE agent could have told you this without seeing this.
No. The education you get at a "poor school" is just as good as anywhere else. The difference is you are sitting next to drug dealers' kids, fast food workers' kids, low-wage laborers' kids so those kids score very low on the standardized test scores and that makes the school look bad. All the rankings are done by standardized test scores. At the rich schools, you are sitting next to doctors' kids, lawyers' kids, wealthy business owners' kids. Guess which kids score higher on standardized tests?
"just as good as anywhere else"??? Then you blame the difference on the other kids there. Obviously there IS a big difference.
Do you recall the failure of busing kids from the cities to the burbs?? And the city families insisted they bring them back?
Sad. The culture needs to be altered in the poor schools.
Yes! How is this so difficult to understand? The reason that standardized test scores are better at rich schools than poor schools are because the kids at rich schools are kids of doctors, lawyers, etc. The kids at poor schools are kids of fast food workers, drug dealers, etc. Not only are the rich kids smarter on the average since they inherited better genes than the poor kids, but the parents of the rich kids stress school more than the poor parents. So, yes, the education itself is no worse in the poor schools. The rankings are of parents' income/education levels.
True, but it's also usually more desirable for a teacher to work at a higher performing school in the burbs than a low performing school in the city.
