What do you think of Friendship? (Liberty, Highland Park: rentals, crimes, loan)

[FreightTrainRunning]

I'm amazed at how the Friendship area has come up in the last decade or so. I lived on S. Graham for almost all of the 90's and while I loved living there, it was definitely on the ragged edge of being a "transitional" neighborhood. Now when I go back there, it feels like a totally different place. And $185K may seem low to you but back in '90, we bought our six bedroom house in Friendship for $43K so you can see how far things have come since then.

[YinzerMama]

If it weren't for the schools, we would probably have jumped on a house in Friendship. (Although another thing against it was rentals galore - nothing against renters per say but I want families, playmates, stability... college students might make for baby sitters but not good playmates)

The Waldorf school mentioned is quite pricey. Catholic school isn't too pricey if you are Catholic (or fake it, as I suspect many do, for the schools). The Montessori school is a magnet and there may be some weight to living in the neighborhood, to get in, but I was really afraid of moving somewhere and hoping to get picked for a good school and then not.

We looked at some AWESOME houses there... we have a friend who lives there and LOVES it - but has no kids... the school thing made it a no go, though.

It is a gorgeous neighborhood, though - would love to know more of its history, what kind of people lived there way back when -houses are huge and fancy.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Nice to see all the love for Friendship. I will jump on the dog pile. Friendship is one of my favorite neighborhoods too, although, I just lump it in with Bloomfield.

Pittsburgh seems to have a new "neighborhood" every three and half streets, hahaha.

[FreightTrainRunning]

Originally Posted by CaptainPittsburgh

Pittsburgh seems to have a new "neighborhood" every three and half streets, hahaha.

You should stop by my current neighborhood, Allegheny West, sometime. Our entire neighborhood is only four blocks by two blocks wide.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by GeneW

You should stop by my current neighborhood, Allegheny West, sometime. Our entire neighborhood is only four blocks by two blocks wide.

Haha, I just walked through there this morning! Oh wait, never mind, I went from Brighton to North Ave and then through the park, so I guess I missed Allegheny West. Point illustrated.

[SammyKhalifa]

The thread title makes me think of a Disney movie, and that everyone in this post is going to burst into song.

[TechieTransplant]

Although I love our location to Frick Park, we've spent some time recently in Bloomfield and it reminds me how much I would love living in Friendship and being able to walk to Bloomfield, Shadyside, and East Liberty (Sharper Edge).

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by YinzerMama

If it weren't for the schools, we would probably have jumped on a house in Friendship. (Although another thing against it was rentals galore - nothing against renters per say but I want families, playmates, stability... college students might make for baby sitters but not good playmates)

The Waldorf school mentioned is quite pricey. Catholic school isn't too pricey if you are Catholic (or fake it, as I suspect many do, for the schools). The Montessori school is a magnet and there may be some weight to living in the neighborhood, to get in, but I was really afraid of moving somewhere and hoping to get picked for a good school and then not.

We looked at some AWESOME houses there... we have a friend who lives there and LOVES it - but has no kids... the school thing made it a no go, though.

It is a gorgeous neighborhood, though - would love to know more of its history, what kind of people lived there way back when -houses are huge and fancy.

I think Yinzer nailed it. Some blocks have a lot of rentals. My mother grew up on South Graham Street so I have a soft spot for Friendship.
Some blocks are full of apartment buidings. The houses that are more modest have most likely returned to single family but the huge houses are still apartments in many cases.

[YinzerMama]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

There's no such thing as a rough area of Friendship. Directly on Penn is as close as it gets. No idea why such an elegant house sold so (relatively) cheaply. It's a very specific style, maybe there's fewer people into that style than you'd think?

I would have to disagree... with the caveat that my main knowledge of Friendship would be from my college years, late 90s. I do know people who rented there and had families on one side and crack houses on the other. And I know people who lived there and while nothing "bad" was going on on their block it was a definite college rental type of block. (I can't remember if they were on atlantic or pacific... but there is a 7-11 there, or was, and it was near that) Not what I would call family friendly. When we began house hunting again a year ago we looked at some houses over near the montessori school and it seems some families are moving in now - but one house we looked at was a family of kids who were leaving, and a friend who lives there now and doesn't have kids has a neighbor who does and is leaving... I feel like Friendship WANTS to become a family community again but it has a lot going against it. It's very much become a college rental area of town and I just don't see that changing. It's not exactly dangerous (not that I hear of much?) but it's not really family territory, either. Maybe that will change, maybe not. It just felt too much in flux, to us, to move there.

[Uptown kid]

Friendship is one of the city's nicer neighborhoods, although if your afriad of black people don't move there because it's very diverse...