Houses as cute as a button--and very historic, too! (Pittsburgh: sales, mortgage)

[PreservationPioneer]

I still kick myself for not buying 1201 Yetta (Spring Hill) when I had the opportunity years ago. That was the ideal house for me.

[Uptown kid]

Safety level from a non-Northside resident's perceptive (no facts)
seedy enough- not attractive to everyone:
East Deutschtown
Lower Spring Garden Valley

spill over issue/seedy- but the bark is worse than the bite...
Southern Brighton Heights

seedy looking at worse- but the way bark is worse than the bite...
Troy Hill
Spring Hill City-View

safe enough due to lack of population- safe especially for a City neighborhood:
Upper Spring Garden Valley

almost Mayberry/comparable to near by suburbs:
Northern Brighton Heights

This is something nobody wants to say but I'll say it... The main difference between Spring Hill-City View & S Brighton Heights is that hypothetically in Spring Hill for every four drug dealers three are white and one is black; while in S BH its 3 blacks & 1 white. Neither neighborhoods are unsafe, but Spring Hill is not apart of Glamorized Pittsburgh.
I ok Spring Hill just like/TBH even more than I approve Brighton Heights south of Davis... Again they're both safe just areas not Allgheny West's kin, but there's nothing wrong with the that.

[PreservationPioneer]

While Brighton Heights is in better condition than Spring Hill and Troy Hill now, and has more upscale housing, the location on the outer edge of the city limits will hurt it more than help it. Since the trend seems to be that neighborhoods closer to the core are being gentrified, Troy Hill, Spring Hill, Spring Garden, East Deutshtown, etc. are poised to absorb most of the benefits of that, whereas BH may fall in line with the plight of the disinvested, older inner suburbs. That remains to be seen.

[The King of Um]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I still kick myself for not buying 1201 Yetta (Spring Hill) when I had the opportunity years ago. That was the ideal house for me.

I feel the very same way about 843 Vista St. in East Deutschtown. That was a really cool house. Now I'm stuck renting, with no home to call my own, when I could have had a 140-year-old charming row house with period detailing. (Well, at least I'm renting in an area I like; that's a positive.) The problem was, as tall as I am, I couldn't stand up completely in the basement, and the home's only bathroom was in the basement (along with the laundry room). The ceiling down there must have been less than 6'. (But I could have had a second bathroom put in on the first floor for, I imagine, around $5,000-6,000.)

Waiting for the right house to come along is certainly going to test my patience. I find myself surrounded by historic houses--they're all over this part of Pittsburgh--yet so few of them are for sale! It's probably best for me not to jump on these two homes; I just need to wait, remain patient, and hopefully, the right house will eventually come to the market.

[PreservationPioneer]

Back when I was looking at the house on Yetta, I remember falling in love with it (and I never got over it!). The problem was I was young and didn't have a ton in savings, and didn't have any credit then. My option was an FHA mortgage, and because the house had so much peeling paint and other issues, it wouldn't have been approved. The realtor tried talking me into hiring someone to paint it (even though it belonged to someone else). Yeah, no.

[SteelCityRising]

Hindsight is always 20/20. I was absolutely in love with 840 Blossom Way in East Deutschtown. I toured it, and the home was perfectly-sized for me and my partner. I fantasized about adding an additional switchback staircase from the second floor up to the flat roof and turning it into an urban garden of sorts (likely with a skyline view) due to the lack of a rear yard. I wanted so much to become close friends with our neighbors and have them up there for cookouts.

It sold for $30,000---well within my target budget. I still cry sometimes thinking about losing it.

[The King of Um]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Hindsight is always 20/20. I was absolutely in love with 840 Blossom Way in East Deutschtown. I toured it, and the home was perfectly-sized for me and my partner. I fantasized about adding an additional switchback staircase from the second floor up to the flat roof and turning it into an urban garden of sorts (likely with a skyline view) due to the lack of a rear yard. I wanted so much to become close friends with our neighbors and have them up there for cookouts.

It sold for $30,000---well within my target budget. I still cry sometimes thinking about losing it.

840 Blossom Way was a lovely property. I toured it in April. Someday, I don't know when, but someday, the entire area (East Deutschtown, lower Spring Hill, and lower Spring Garden) is going to make a comeback, almost certainly as a unit. Just wondering, but when do you think people will realize the area's potential? 5 years? 10 years?

[eschaton]

If all three of you buy houses in the same area, you just might form enough of a critical mass (gay men are common first-wave gentrifiers after all) to turn the area around.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

840 Blossom Way was a lovely property. I toured it in April. Someday, I don't know when, but someday, the entire area (East Deutschtown, lower Spring Hill, and lower Spring Garden) is going to make a comeback, almost certainly as a unit. Just wondering, but when do you think people will realize the area's potential? 5 years? 10 years?

I think it's just starting to happen now. The area seems to be on every Pittsburgh preservationist's radar. I take credit for some of that, because I have spotlighted those neighborhoods countless times on my blog, hoping that people would take notice!

East Deutschtown/Spring Garden/Spring Hill is one of my targeted areas for buying my next property. However, I am still very interested in Esplen, West End / Elliott, Woods Run, and McKees Rocks, which all have numerous affordable 19th century homes, and are in desperate need of preservation efforts. I also have a thing for McKeesport lately.

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

Well -- I guess this means I'm old. Let me practice here.... GET OFF MY LAWN! Yeah... I'm old.

Sorry -- those places look ghastly to me -- there's nothing historic about them. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's worth saving.

And yeah -- I'm a bit biased. We're doing the urban pioneer stuff out here, and frankly -- it's very over rated. You can pour tons of money and sweat into a house and you still have a little crappy house sans the amenities that people really want in a house in a crappy neighborhood that isn't going to change.

Depends on what you do with them. I'm familiar with where you're coming from, but it will get better. There are times when I hate our home because I'm tired of working on it, but I'll never move because ever inch of this place is mine. Its also left its mark on me as I went from an idealistic and enthusiastic young man when we bought the place in 2010 to a slightly jaded "jerk of all trades" (my wife's words as I do a little bit of everything, and none of it with an abundance of skill) who can do just about anything. All in all I think I prefer having the adventure and the stress that it brings to the alternative (still renting an apt and not knowing how to do any of this).

I could see either of those places becoming quite cute, but they will require a good amount of renovation. What it comes down to is whether the OP feels that the location and the structure suit what they need, and what kind of vision they have for the property.