Moving good advice needed on suburbs out towards the airport! (Pittsburgh: condo, chapel)

[easybay]

Ok, so we spent the weekend driving around the Pittsburgh area, and we are definately burbs people.

Yeah, yeah, Squirrel Hill area is very nice, but it's congested, and we don't want a 100 year old house with a single garage (or street parking). The cute boutiques are nice to wander through on a Sunday afternoon - but being honest, I'd like access to the local Target/Macy's/TJ Maxx etc.

Since we only had a couple hours Sat/Sun our time was very limited. We got out north to the Fox Chapel area - which seemed ok, but access to the airport was the big negative as I assume rush hour traffic to the downtown area (around the convention center) would be.

Then we stumbled into the Rosslyn Farms area and found some really nice homes in the $500k range near the Chartiers Country Club. So starting with this area, can you please give me pointers, meaning commute times, schools (only 1 daughter in her Sr year- so we could go private if school district is poor), and access to my kind of shopping! Thanks!

[Tinare]

Hi! I love Rosslyn Farms -- very nice area. I used to live in Crafton which borders it. Rosslyn Farms is part of the Carlynton School district (it's the lyn in Carlynton --CARnegie, rossLYN farms and crafTON). As far as I know -- which isn't much as I don't have kids -- it's neither a tremendously good nor tremendously bad district. Here's their website -- Carlynton School District. I'm sure you can find reports on line somewhere...

Commute is, I think, great as there are many options from the west to downtown. I never took the Parkway. Right now the West End circle is undergoing construction so that is probably making things a bit more difficult, but I grew up in the east end, lived in Crafton and now live in the South Hills and commuting from the west was the best of the three. It may not be as good as the North (I don't know) but it's better if you need access to the airport as you are already on that side of town.

Shopping -- just about every national chain (including all that you mentioned) that has a presence in Pittsburgh has a store either in Robinson Towne Center, the Mall at Robinson, or the Shops at North Fayette which are just a short drive towards the airport from Rosslyn Farms. Ross Park Mall in the North Hills is becoming the "high end" mall here, with a Nordstroms, Tiffany's, etc. and it would not be a difficult trip to get there from Rosslyn Farms. Ditto shopping, restaurants and entertainment at the SouthSide Works. Basically Rosslyn Farms is a pretty good jumping off point for most of the region, it's only about 8 miles or so from downtown so you would be able to get anywhere relatively easily.

[easybay]

Thank you so much - it seems that every post about great neighborhoods say to live in Squirrel Hill. We just are not in that demographic............well, I could be convinced to live there after viewing the $800,000 townhouse development on Beechnut (which have sat there since 2004, and will continue to sit, unless the developer lowers the prices AND the $500/month condo fee).

[robrobrob]

Try Thornburg (very small) or towns in the Quaker Valley School District, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills, Osbourne, Edgeworth, Aleppo. Easy commute to the airport from Sewickley. If you are going to spend 500,000 you have a lot of options in Pittsburgh. FYI - by moving close to the airport you are going to be commuting to downtown through the Fort Pitt tunnel.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

FYI - by moving close to the airport you are going to be commuting to downtown through the Fort Pitt tunnel.

There are ways around the Fort Pitt Tunnel. I lived in the west, worked downtown and NEVER drove the parkway.