Portland to Pittsburgh (Philadelphia, Edgewood, Penn: how much, homes, landscaping)

[fejman]

Thanks for all the responses.

I've been thru both Aspinwall and Oakmont; they have an appeal. I haven't been thru Shadyside or Squirrel Hill yet; we'll get a chance in a couple of weeks.

As for racial diversity, we really don't have that in Portland. We have our token blacks, the token Asian, the token Indian and far too many Hispanics. But those are thought and observations for another forum.

Has anyone felt the taxes are worse than Portland's? Trying to wade thru all the millage is giving me a headache. I don't mind paying my fair share and I don't feel that Multnomah County's taxes are oppressive in the least. How does Pittsburgh compare?

And as to litter in Oregon? We have probably just as much, but we use people in jail to pick it up, kids organize days to pick it up, businesses adopt roads and keep them clean and there's a general attitude that's all our problem. I've seen someone throw a McDonald's bag out the window and another drive pull over, pick it up, chase down the other driver and throw it BACK thru the window!

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by fejman

I've seen someone throw a McDonald's bag out the window and another drive pull over, pick it up, chase down the other driver and throw it BACK thru the window!

Nice!

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by fejman

Thanks for all the responses.


As for racial diversity, we really don't have that in Portland. We have our token blacks, the token Asian, the token Indian and far too many Hispanics. But those are thought and observations for another forum.

???

[aveojohn]

The McDonalds down the street has a huge pile of garbage across the street.I guess people eat in their car then on the way out throw it out the window.McDonalds should be forced to clean it up as far as I'm concerned!

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by fejman

Thanks for all the responses.

I've been thru both Aspinwall and Oakmont; they have an appeal. I haven't been thru Shadyside or Squirrel Hill yet; we'll get a chance in a couple of weeks.

As for racial diversity, we really don't have that in Portland. We have our token blacks, the token Asian, the token Indian and far too many Hispanics. But those are thought and observations for another forum.

What the hell does token even mean?!? And you're in great luck with Hispanics in Pittsburgh if you say you have too many; not many at all here.

[RachelleP]

Originally Posted by fejman

Thanks for all the responses.


As for racial diversity, we really don't have that in Portland. We have our token blacks, the token Asian, the token Indian and far too many Hispanics. But those are thought and observations for another forum.

Don't you just love racism

[PeterRabbit]

Originally Posted by fejman

Has anyone felt the taxes are worse than Portland's? Trying to wade thru all the millage is giving me a headache. I don't mind paying my fair share and I don't feel that Multnomah County's taxes are oppressive in the least. How does Pittsburgh compare?

Pa is the 9th highest state for real estate taxes. Allegheny County is the highest in Pa. You might figure 3% to 4% of assessed value. Currently they are using assessments from 2002. If you pay $200,000 for a house assessed at $100,000 you pay taxes on the $100,000 and not the market value you established with your purchase. Go to the county web site and you can look up various properties and see the taxes that are paid. You will need the name of streets to do this.

Harmarville is 4 miles from the Westmoreland County border. If you were to locate there and stay near Rt. 28, you'd have a straight shot to Harmarville and downtown on a newer highway that probably has a lot less traffic than other areas of Pgh. Using this road from Harmarville you can be downtown, parked and out of your car in 15 minutes, even with a little traffic. I did it last week. If you lived across the river in Oakmont add 5 minutes to this.

Taxes in Westmoreland County would be considerably less, but the farther away you are from the city the less you'll find of what you want. We don't have diversity so I'd forget about it. In Kittanning (West. Co., just off Rt. 28) there may be a fair amount of American Indians. The town hosted an annual Pow Wow of some sort in the fall for years. I don't know if they still do. Another West. Co. consideration is Murrysville. You might be 17 miles from Harmarville, all main highways but lots of traffic until you got to the turnpike which is 9 miles from Harmar. Downtown is a straight shot and you can get on the parkway and still have a traffic hold up at the Squirrel Hill tunnels even during non rush hours. Murrysville is very close to Monroeville which is like the shopping center of the east. You can get anything there and plenty of restaurants, etc.

[fejman]

Originally Posted by RachelleP

Don't you just love racism

Don't you just love people who have to have SOMETHING to find fault in??

DIVERSE is a city like San Francisco, or NYC, or Vancouver BC. Portland, Seattle, Sacramento are NOT diverse. While my use of the term 'token' may not be PC, New-Portlander's calling their adopted city 'diverse' is laughable.

As to my snide comment about Hispanics, as a native Oregon for the past 43 years I've have seen first hand a transformation that I don't see as being positive. When every day you open the paper or listen to the news and see the majority of crimes being committed by people with Hispanic surnames, that's just an observation NOT A RACIAL COMMENT.

[scrapp]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

Pa is the 9th highest state for real estate taxes. Allegheny County is the highest in Pa. You might figure 3% to 4% of assessed value. Currently they are using assessments from 2002. If you pay $200,000 for a house assessed at $100,000 you pay taxes on the $100,000 and not the market value you established with your purchase. Go to the county web site and you can look up various properties and see the taxes that are paid. You will need the name of streets to do this.

While it is true that Allegheny County is using 2002 as the base year for assessments, it is also true that school districts are still using recent purchase prices to appeal 2002 assessments that they think are too low. A couple of my new neighbors have had their assessments raised from the 2002 values due to this. Be careful!

Also, the legality of the base year assessment system is currently being challenged in PA Supreme Court (a ruling is due sometime next year).

[Copanut]

Mr. Scrapp is correct. The school districts are agressively going after new purchases to increase their revenue. Now that home prices are dropping, I wonder if they will adjust accordingly? Oh yeah, they'll just raise the millage.