relcoating to Pittsburgh and concerns (California, Denver: credit rating, movie theater, high school)

[Katiana]

LOL! So let the young ones think it's hip. Maybe we just know better!

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Drover

Finally, you may think it strange to rehab a house on the inside while leaving the outside in less-than-pristine condition, but that's actually pretty common when a neighborhood is just starting to gentrify, for a couple of reasons:

There's a fourth reason: to keep the county assessors from raising taxes. It wasn't too long ago that taxes were raised simply from an assessor driving by the house. They only recently started coming inside to check for improvements. They caught on that Pittsburghers purposely make it look like they live in dumps to save money on taxes.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

LOL! So let the young ones think it's hip. Maybe we just know better!

That is what I was implying when I said you didn't know what you were looking at, looking for.

We're close enough in age for me to know that too!

See, it had nothing to do with your brain cells!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Hopes

There's a fourth reason: to keep the county assessors from raising taxes. It wasn't too long ago that taxes were raised simply from an assessor driving by the house. They only recently started coming inside to check for improvements. They caught on that Pittsburghers purposely make it look like they live in dumps to save money on taxes.

Maybe that worked in Pittsburgh but not around here. A building permit triggers an automatic reassessment, and the nature of the permit tells the assessor what improvements to look for. Of course, there's the issue of people making improvements without getting a permit... that got one of my friends out of her lease. "Say, do you have a permit for the rehab you're doing on the building at the other end of the block? So I will get my entire security deposit back, right?"

I have often speculated, but have not seen any evidence, that one reason so many homes in Pittsburgh sit unimproved is the disincentive created by the high property taxes.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Drover

A building permit triggers an automatic reassessment, and the nature of the permit tells the assessor what improvements to look for.

Building permit? What's a building permit?

Originally Posted by Drover

Of course, there's the issue of people making improvements without getting a permit... that got one of my friends out of her lease. "Say, do you have a permit for the rehab you're doing on the building at the other end of the block? So I will get my entire security deposit back, right?"

Most Pittsburghers aren't likely to turn in their neighbors.

Originally Posted by Drover

I have often speculated, but have not seen any evidence, that one reason so many homes in Pittsburgh sit unimproved is the disincentive created by the high property taxes.

Sort of kind of. It actually worked in the reverse with the most recent county wide reassessements. People avoided improving the outside of their houses for even minor increases. (Most working class Pittsburghers are not into appearances.) When the county reassessed properties by going inside the homes, some people finally decided to improve the outside since the county raised their taxes anyway.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70
LOL! So let the young ones think it's hip. Maybe we just know better!

That is what I was implying when I said you didn't know what you were looking at, looking for.

Hopes: So you're actually saying I'm right about something? Wow! It didn't sound like that, though.

And Drover: that's how building permits work here in Colorado, too. You'd never get away with a total rehab of the interior w/o one. Especially if you hire some of the work done. The contractors don't want to go to jail, b/c they can't make any money that way! And I wouldn't be so sure that most Pittsburghers wouldn't turn in their neighbors. That's just human nature.
The asking prices of the homes on Hopes' link were pretty high by Pittsburgh standards. Which squares with what I have always thought and what my niece said two weeks ago: the homes you want to live in will cost you.

And I still think the South Side is over-rated. At best.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Hopes: So you're actually saying I'm right about something? Wow! It didn't sound like that, though.

Yes and no. You were right from your place in time. You're not right about what is hip. That's for the youngsters to define. Eventually, Southside will be completely gentrified, and more affluent people will make the area more like what you consider hip. The truly hip people will move on to make another neighborhood hip. It's a process.

[Katiana]

I think I am truly hip! LOL!

[bboy36win]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I think I am truly hip! LOL!

... so did I ... but then the cute young twenty-somethings started calling me 'sir'.

[PPG]

I think by the time you hit 40 you are automatically "unhip"