Trip to Pittsburgh, Maybe Moving There, Looking for a tour guide and friends~ (Washington: real estate) - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum

userrobin · 03-10-2011, 06:13 AM

Hello all, I've been wanting to move to Pittsburgh for a long time, and am lined up for a job interview with my company as a Mortgage Loan Officer. I am confident that I have a fair shot at the job. My next step is making friends and developing COI's. Does anyone know or have connections in real estate? Also, does anyone have some free time to show me around in the coming weeks? I need to know who are the big players in real estate, and also looking for a neighborhood to live in. I want an urban neighborhood that has relatively low crime. I would be renting at first, until I get a better feel for the city. My job would be located in Wexford, but I want to live in Pittsburgh. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

SteelCityRising · 03-10-2011, 07:06 AM

Good Morning Robin, and welcome in advance to Pittsburgh!

I relocated to this fine city myself several months ago from the suburbs of Washington, DC, and I have never been happier. We may be bleeding residents at an alarming rate, have a plethora of potholes, and have some rather dreary weather, but overall this city offers an amazing "bang for your buck" factor, friendly people, and oozes history and nostalgic appeal from every pore.

Wexford is located in the northern reaches of Allegheny County, just south of Cranberry Twp. in adjacent Butler County. While commuting is generally a breeze from the city to the northern suburbs you will probably want to stay as close as possible to the I-279 Corridor. From I-279 North you'll want to take Exit 73 onto Wexford Bayne Road eastbound into Wexford. You can also take U.S. Route 19 (Perry Highway) or Business Route 19 (McKnight Road) North into Wexford, but each of these routes will have lower speed limits, more traffic, traffic signals, etc.

The nearest city neighborhoods to Wexford are in the North Side. Safety here varies, but some places I'd recommend would be the Mexican War Street/Central North Side and West Allegheny (for an "urban" feel with brick rowhomes and walkability to Downtown), Troy Hill (for a "small town in the city" feel with some great views from certain areas), Brighton Heights, and then further north to the "suburb in the city" areas like Observatory Hill. You may also want to look into the adjacent inner suburbs of Bellevue or Avalon.

You can also live in parts of the East End, but your commute would become a bit more complicated. For example, Highland Park is a nice neighborhood, but your easiest route to work (Highland Park Bridge to Route 28 Southbound to I-279 North) would take you through a nasty construction zone in the evenings on Route 28 Northbound that often backs traffic up for 20 minutes. You could also take back-roads to get yourself from Wexford to Route 8 (crossing into Pittsburgh) or Route 8 to Route 28 to the Highland Park Bridge into the city in the evenings I suppose, but I'm not familiar with how this commute would be.

Technically Mt. Washington could even be feasible. You can take McArdle down the hillside to the Liberty Bridge, which will cross Downtown and give you easy access to I-279. I wouldn't bother with a South Hills (i.e. Beechview, Brookline, Dormont, etc.)-to-Wexford commute.

I would strongly advise the Central North Side/Mexican War Streets to you. There are several on this sub-forum who live in that area who could probably also help you out with apartments/realtors.