Cute old family towns in the pittsburgh suburbs? (Lebanon, Washington: for sale, houses)

[mumof3kiddos]

I am relocating from the NYC/Philly area. I am currently living in NJ. I want an old victorian home that is in walking distance to town (a town with cute old resturants, boutiques etc.). I am looking for something similar to Doylestown Pa (or Princeton NJ) only on the Pittsburgh side. I do not want to have to put in alot of updates into the home (maybe a bathroom or pulling up a carpet or 2 but no kichen remodeling!!!). My budget is $700,000-$950,0000. I know there is alot out there that I can aford but I really do not want to have the most expensive home in the town or the most expensive house for sale in the area. That being said I am hoping that there will be a few couple million dollar homes for sale in the area. I feel it is better for resale to not have the most expensive home in the area. That is just my personal opinion.

[Copanut]

You could pretty much buy up all of Turtle Creek with that kind of money. You can cut your budget in half out here, easily find what you want in the 400-450K range. Try Sewickley.

[YinzerMama]

With that budget you could find the house of your dream in squirrel hill. Lots of great houses there and lots of stuff to walk to.

And a good school if you get the part that feeds to Colfax. not a suburb though.

Aspinwall also has some nice choices.

i am i glenshaw which has dreamy old houses with yards for not a lot of money but you can't walk anywhere really. not much to walk to, no sidewalks...

[heartchya]

I would suggest Sewickley. It is a cute town, walkable, good schools. If you want to be in a city neighborhood I would suggest Shadyside.

Do you have children? Do you want to be close to downtown?

[Herodotus]

Beaver, Pa.

[hornet67]

Sewickley is, as said previously, perhaps the logical answer, but I will suggest Mt. Lebanon as well.
For exmple, there are a number of very nice homes in the Mission Hills area of Mt. Lebanon, priced nowhere near $750k to $959k, but upwards of $500k or less, many built in the 1920's, and updated since. No victorians, though.
You have an easy walk to the Washington Road business district, with many shops and restaurants and, hopefully a reopened Denis Theatre.
My guess is that you will definitely find som great, updated victorian era homes in Sewickley; just thought one might want to consider Mt. Lebanon
as well.

[escilade18]

For an atmosphere like Doylestown I would definitely recommend Mt. Lebanon. There are houses there easily worth in the millions, and also many houses in your price range. Washington Road(rt. 19) goes through a walkable town center area with many different restaurants and shops as well as having light rail access to the city. Sewickley would be another good idea for the money, but I am less knowledgeable about that area although from the times I have been through there I don't remember seeing an equivalent to Washington Rd.'s business district. Best of luck in your searches

[heartchya]

I am going to assume you weren't actually in the village of Sewickley then. Here is a link that list the shopping and dining that is available.

http://www.sewickleyborough.org/comm...-shopping.html

Click on the Explore Sewickley site.

[Herodotus]

The OP said they would like a Victorian home. Do you guys know what a Victorian home is? If that is really important to the OP, then stop suggesting 20th Century locations like Mt Lebanon. Pittsburgh is not really a great place for Victorians. A large chunk of Victorians are rowhouses, located in places like Manchester, and the Mexican War Streets. Shadyside has the largest collection of detached Victorians in the city. Other than that, the only places that really have a lot of Victorian houses are Beaver, and the string of communities along the north bank of the Ohio River, from Edgeworth, out to Sewickley. As the OP stated a desire to be in a place with a town center, only Shadyside, Sewickley, and Beaver qualify.

[DomerJen]

I will second Mission Hills in Mt. Lebanon. PP is right, though, no victorians there. Plenty of tudor homes w/ stone and slate roofs, though!