I'm Moving Back! Any advice appreciated. (Pittsburgh, Bethel Park: apartment complex, rentals, townhouses)

[back2burgh]

Hello everyone!
I've lurked these forums for awhile and decided it was finally time to post and get everyone's opinion since similar posts I have read seem to get some truly helpful advice.

My wife and I will be moving into the Pittsburgh area sometime in the next 1-2.5 months. She has accepted a job as a Physician's Assistant with an Orthopedic doctor/surgeon that works at a few different hospitals in the area:
Mt. Lebanon Hospital, St. Clair Hospital, Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Mon-Valley Hospital, and Uniontown Hospital (on occasion). She could be at any of those locations on a given day, but there is no travel between them during the work day.

We are looking to rent for now, I am finishing up my schooling to become a CPA and would like to not be completely tied to an area in case my job in a year or two requires us to move (but still in the Pittsburgh area).

Her future employer mentioned that a lot of employees live in Pleasant Hills, Peters Township, Belle Vernon, and South Park.

From my own research and experience (location wise), we are also looking at Jefferson Hills, Mt. Lebanon, and Upper St. Clair (although with USC, her drives to UTown & Mon Valley would be a bit on the long side).

We are young professionals (both 26) who are easy to get along with. No children at the moment (but not too far off), and would like to find an area that is safe, as convenient of a commute as possible, and if possible has a community feel to it with friendly people.

Any suggestions/advice you could offer as far as opinions on these locations and/or suggestions of other locations to possibly consider. Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the novel-sized post I just put you through.

[IAmAngieBowie]

If you want suburbs, definitely try Dormont, Bethel Park, Baldwin and Whitehall. They are close to town, close to those hospitals, and the housing is reasonable. Rents are quite low, as is the case with most Pittsburgh suburbs. I am assuming you both drive. Transit service to those areas is okay, though, if you do need to take it. A house by the 'T' is a great move.

These are not very diverse communities, though. They are very white.

[Chuckles1821]

I agree with what IAmAngieBowie said.
Also, Greentree is nice...it's pretty close to St. Clair Hospital and close to highways for travel across the city.

[back2burgh]

Thanks to both of you.
Yes we both drive. The option to take public transportation would be a nice addition, but by no means required.
I'll check out some of those areas.

Also curious, what or where is the best place to look for rental listings? Just check the post-gazette? or are there listings in other places I should look? I've only had to look for our current townhouse, and it sort of fell into our lap.

[fleetiebelle]

Craigslist always has lots of rentals.

pittsburgh apts/housing for rent classifieds - craigslist

[By~Tor]

ALOT of great advice given to me in THIS thread:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/pitts...ittsburgh.html

[raubre]

Brentwood is a good place too

[back2burgh]

thanks. i've checked out a lot of the areas and i am having a LOT of trouble finding a house to rent.
my wife and i prefer to rent a house, mainly for space concerns. we both have computers, and a lot of stuff to store since we are relatively newlyweds.
craigslist is polluted with some guy that likes to post in all caps with posts like 'OMG THESE PRICES IN <INSERT CITY HERE> TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE' and then never showing any pictures of the place (usually apartments).
also, it is littered with 1br places, which is fine for just the wife and i, but kids arent far off.
any other suggestions for places to look are appreciated.

[ExPit]

I might have missed it, but my first question to you would be where are you from, what are you used to? I grew up in Pittsburgh, I'm now in California, and I know the city pretty well. 'Course you said your wife will be working in one of several hospitals that all seem to be south of the city, which is ok, 'cause the other three directions aren't as nice. If you don't mind the suburbs, Mt. Lebanon is nice, and kind of hip, but the farther you go out 19, the less cosmopolitan it is. I went to Duquesne, which is in the city, where are you going to go to school? That's another consideration. If you want to be close to the city there's a sprawling apartment complex in the Greentree city area called Hyland Hills, which is nice, about five to ten minutes from Mt. Lebanon and downtown. Pittsburgh's a great little town, once you figure it out. Good luck.

[back2burgh]

Well, originally I am from Bentleyville, PA. Most people haven't heard of it, but it has it's own exit off of 70 Anyway, its about halfway between Washington and Belle Vernon on 70 (being from Cali, I'm sure you know where it is). But this last year we moved to Frostburg, MD for a new job for my wife thinking that as a math teacher, I would have no trouble finding work.
As luck would have it, the county we moved into consolidated three high schools into one brand new one and thus, they didn't need as many teachers to fill the spots of the three that retired. So, I am going back to school to get a Masters.
I will be going to Chatham. The commute to the school isn't a huge deal as I will only make the trip about two times per week for class. I am mainly concerned with finding as central of a place as possible for my wife's commute, while maintaining a good/safe neighborhood and not paying 1000/mo. on rent.

We are currently looking to rent a house b/c
1) The move was a sort of recent decision and we didn't have a lot of time to save for a down payment/hidden costs of buying. With us both working we will be able to save up for that in a year easily. Also, once I graduate who knows where work will take me...but we are going to stay wherever we go for at least two years.
2) We found a steal of a place where we live now and have filled up the place with a lot of stuff. We need a place large enough to accomodate. Pref 2+BR with either a clean basement or garage for storage. Most apartments don't fit that description, so we've been looking at houses/townhouses.

And, thanks for your suggestion. I'll check it out.