Amazon is looking for a second HQ. Why not, Pittsburgh? (York: asbestos, home inspector)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Mtl-Cns

There are varying definitions of "old" as well. Look at how many houses there are in Pittsburgh in many different neighborhoods built in the mid-to-late 19th century. They were built before electricity or plumbing let alone before automobiles were ever thought of to require building a garage. So I highly doubt eschaton would consider something like the installation of electricity and plumbing in my house "remuddling" even though that must've been one hell of a remodeling job whenever it happened. It's just certain things befefit and add value to a house (like the refrigerator your dad put in the kitchen) and certain things do not.

I see eschaton did reply but I missed it somehow before I wrote my post in reply to you. See below:

Originally Posted by eschaton

Yep. This isn't just a subjective matter too. One of the reasons the Design Center of Pittsburgh began offering low cost (and initially free) architectural consultation to Pittsburgh residents was because a study found that this remuddling was actually lowering the market value of homes. Residents thought they were improving the salability of their houses by "modernizing them" but they either had false ideas about what other people desired or were being sold a bad bill of goods by shady contractors (who, for example, might want to just patch in the windows they have on the back of their truck).

I would like to see some documentation of that.

Back to Mtl-Cns: I can't find exactly when Pittsburgh got indoor plumbing, but NYC got it in 1842, and I would suspect Pittsburgh got it shortly thereafter. The only thing I can find about Pittsburgh's housing is that 53% was built before 1940, 62% before 1950, 75% before 1960. I would presume most of these houses were built since 1850.
https://www.plumbingsupply.com/pmamerica.html
Cities with Oldest Homes: Age of Housing Stock Data

Re: electricity- I recall another person, not eschaton, on this forum once defending "knob and tube" electrical wiring. I asked my husband who has a PhD in physics and works in IT, therefore knows a lot about electrical things, about that and he laughed out loud, literally. That's very substandard, yet apparently found in a lot of Pittsburgh houses.

eschaton has 47 posts about "remuddling". Some of these are probably posts by someone else that quoted him. I didn't read every one of them, but the ones I saw were all negative. He even started a thread on it at one time. Pittsburgh "remuddling"...

[guy2073]

Knob and tube is some of the safest wiring possible until the insulation is removed and it gets incased in insulation, eaten or covered in dust and debris. Most of the problems come from when an old circuit is maxed out and heat is generated because of it.

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Pittsburgh doesn’t have a lot of quaint, walkable, urbanized suburbs. It also has a paucity of highly-developed upscale suburbs. What it does have is lots of old mill towns, and drab towns/villages/boroughs that peaked in the 60s. Add in bad, windy roads, pinch points at bridges and tunnels, and you can get some pretty bad commutes from underwhelming areas.

Wouldn't a lot of the north hills at least be considered reasonably well developed and middle-upper class?

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Sewickely. The rest kind of suck.

Sewickley,Oakmont,and Mt.Lebo are the only walkable towns in Allegheny County that could compete with others on a national level.

[KimberlyAnn53]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

Sewickley,Oakmont,and Mt.Lebo are the only walkable towns in Allegheny County that could compete with others on a national level.

You forgot Fox Chapel and Aspinwall.

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by KimberlyAnn53

You forgot Fox Chapel and Aspinwall.

It might not be what people typically think of as walkable but thousands of residents, employees, and students can walk to McCandless Crossing.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by KimberlyAnn53

You forgot Fox Chapel and Aspinwall.

Fox Chapel is not a walkable suburb. Aspinwall isn't as nice as Oakmont, Sewickley, and Mt. Lebo. The downside to Aspinwall is the location next to Sharpsburg and the Walmart complex.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by PGH423

It might not be what people typically think of as walkable but thousands of residents, employees, and students can walk to McCandless Crossing.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by PGH423

It might not be what people typically think of as walkable but thousands of residents, employees, and students can walk to McCandless Crossing.

Exactly

[krogerDisco]

One bit of good news. Zillow listed it's top 10 most affordable markets and Pittsburgh was #2

https://www.zillow.com/research/most...bility_herocta

Oklahoma City was #1 but not in the running.

However, one competitor Indianapolis was #3.