PGH seems like a good match.. But what is it really like? (Pittsburgh: real estate, house)

[Bench Warmer]

Originally Posted by Hopes

There's a neighborhood or township right for you here. There are some townships where that sort of thing is more common. West Deer comes to mind. But there are many townships where it's less common and neighbors are successful in getting the township to motivate the isolated offenders.

Sounds good,


For the record. I'm anti HOA. If pride in your home isn't enough for you to maintain it, than I don't know what is. lol

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I don't know about you, but I think I'd love to get sternly worded letters criticizing how long my garage door was open or that my garbage cans were at the curb for two! hours! more than they should be, or that my front door is painted the wrong shade of green.

Funny!

Let's take my flower garden for an example. I'm an avid perennial gardener. My garden is extravagant and beautiful---a few months a year it looks just like the pictures in the magazines. But right now, it looks like dead weeds. Everything has died and gone to seed. It has looked like that for a while, but it wasn't time to cut back----gardens need to die off naturally. Letting nature take its course is part of what makes the beautiful gardens that are in magazines. An HOA would have required my garden be cut back before everything went to seed. I've read about HOA's defining what plants could be planted. I couldn't imagine someone saying I couldn't plant Coreopsis!

Here's an HOA Landscape Plant List for anyone who thinks I'm making this up: http://www.ccmgatx.org/Design/HOA_Landscape_List_Foundation.pdf (broken link)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Katiana

People like me? Produce a post. I have never been in the market for a home in Pittsburgh.

You posted previously about your parents' opinions on the kitchens during their house hunt.

Originally Posted by Katiana

My father was a native Pittsburgher and my mother lived there most of her life, so I don't get what you're trying to say, esp. in re: to westerners. Though my mom was from Wisconsin, and a lot of people in Beaver Falls thought she was from the great beyond.

We get westerners who post about this after they've looked at houses. Your parents might have cared, but most Pittsburghers don't expect updated kitchens when they are house hunting. Seriously, the very fact your parents ran into this problem is proof that it's the norm for the area. Your parents are in the minority. It they weren't, most Pittsburghers would be updating their houses prior to putting them on the market. The fact is that most houses aren't updated here.

Originally Posted by Katiana

So you DO care! I could have sworn you said earlier that "Pittsburghers" (as if everyone in Pittsburgh thinks alike) don't care.

We don't care to the extent HOA's care! That's my point!

Originally Posted by Katiana

I never expressed my own opinion on HOAs. In fact, I live in a subdivision where the HOA is basically defunct. When someone tried to revive it, the effort failed. It's there on paper only. The city statutes regulate things like non-operative cars, parking campers on the streets, fences (always a contentious issue), and other issues regarding the upkeep of property.

Those are acceptable expectations that are handled by local governments here.

[Fiddlehead]

Interesting thread. So, according to the data Katiana posted, only 4300 or so out of 330k (or 1.3%) are from the West? Hmmm..gasp...does that mean that your homes have relatively few "granite counter tops" "Wolf Gourmet Ranges" "Shintu sunset" exterior designs with gongs and temples in the front yard?

Bench Warmer, a think a possible side issue in Arizona might be cultural. I recall in my visits to New Mexico and elsewhere in the Southwest, the standards are quite different in the hispanic and Native American towns. Front yards with old cars flying faded "Columbus was a Terrorist" bumper stickers, washing machines, toilets as planters, a few stray dogs, and chickens running free are part of the ambiance. Since obviously both cultures were there before the anglos, it comes with the territory. That said, in New Mexico at least, many comparatively wealthy Easterners and Californians have immigrated with different views of what a neighborhood should look like. Namely like a California or "New Southwest" area with a touch of locally-inspired iconography, like coyotes with bandanas,and doubly large homes because "it's so cheap here!" Hence the exclusionary covenents, and the like, are to keep the natives of of Shangri-La. I kind of think the situation is different in Pittsburgh, because society seems less stratified culturally and enonomically. But what do I know?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Interesting thread. So, according to the data Katiana posted, only 4300 or so out of 330k (or 1.3%) are from the West?

Let's be realistic. Katiana only gave you the population for the immediate city proper. Pittsburgh's metro area is 2.5 million.

I'll bet the westerns are likley chosing to live in the suburbs so they wouldn't show up in Katiana's statistics.

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Hmmm..gasp...does that mean that your homes have relatively few "granite counter tops" "Wolf Gourmet Ranges" "Shintu sunset" exterior designs with gongs and temples in the front yard?

Yep! Hate to break it to you!

You'll find granite, but it's not the norm in your price range.

[Copanut]

Tell you what, Hopes, you're from Hampton. Take a drive on East Hardies road to Camberly drive and look at those townhouses. Then go right around the corner to Raintree drive off Apache rd. Tell me where you would rather live and take a guess which plan dissolved the HOA. Hard to believe there is a ghetto in the making in Hampton.

Hard to believe there is such animosity towards people that choose to live in a condo/PUD development. It's simply a life style choice, nothing sinister about from where I'm standing. I'm looking at another 5 hours of leave removal today and probably a few more tomorrow at my lovely detached home. I probably won't be able to get drunk and watch the Steelers n'at.

What was I thinking moving out of my condo?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Tell you what, Hopes, you're from Hampton. Take a drive on East Hardies road to Camberly drive and look at those townhouses. Then go right around the corner to Raintree drive off Apache rd. Tell me where you would rather live and take a guess which plan dissolved the HOA. Hard to believe there is a ghetto in the making in Hampton.

I agree HOA's are needed for townhome developments.

Originally Posted by Copanut

Hard to believe there is such animosity towards people that choose to live in a condo/PUD development. It's simply a life style choice, nothing sinister about from where I'm standing. I'm looking at another 5 hours of leave removal today and probably a few more tomorrow at my lovely detached home. I probably won't be able to get drunk and watch the Steelers n'at.

Personally, I was just teasing you. (I'm a Republican too!)

We can joke about HOA's because there ARE choices in SW PA. That's not the case everywhere.

You and I are both heading out of Allegheny County within the next few years.

You'll pick an HOA neighborhood. I'll pick a house in a rural area where trees and corn fields block my view of the neighbors. It's just a preference.

I think everyone trashing HOA's in this thread are merely saying they wouldn't want that for themselves.

Originally Posted by Copanut

What was I thinking moving out of my condo?

I'm sure I'll end up in a condo someday. My husband won't want to maintain a yard for eternity.

[greg42]

I can't believe this thread. Where the heck did this all or nothing about the HOAs come from? It's ridiculous. A home owner's association is a means to handle certain defined items in a certain group of homes. It does not automatically mean rules about how long you can have your garage open or leave your trash cans out or precise measurements of your grass height or whatever.

I'm all for railing against that kind of nitpicking, but suggesting that's the only purpose for HOAs is stupid.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Hopes

(I'm a Republican too!)

Long time independent, only registered Republican when I moved North to vote for anyone running against Little Ricky Santorum. Now that he's gone, it's Indie time again.

And I voted for Obama, I like how he wants this country to move toward socialism and communism.

He and his wife did live in a Chicago condo.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by greg42

I can't believe this thread. Where the heck did this all or nothing about the HOAs come from? It's ridiculous. A home owner's association is a means to handle certain defined items in a certain group of homes. It does not automatically mean rules about how long you can have your garage open or leave your trash cans out or precise measurements of your grass height or whatever.

I'm all for railing against that kind of nitpicking, but suggesting that's the only purpose for HOAs is stupid.

Trust me, putting garbage out before the designated time was a problem. I was always for bending the rules for certain people. We had a nurse that would sometimes put her garbage out 2 days before pickup since she would crash at her boyfriends or work a double shift. Well, a neighbor got tired of the raccoons going through it and spreading it on his property. He filed a complaint, we wrote a warning letter, no fine, just a warning. She came to the monthly meeting and when given the chance to speak called everyone on the board a holes and how it was the worst thing that ever happened to her, receiving a warning letter. Hey, she was about 33 yrs old and I'm thinking, I'll trade lives if the worst thing that ever happened to me was a warning letter in 32 years on the planet.

So we asked if she had a friend or neighbor that could put it out for her while she was away.

No, I don't have any friends!!!

It took everything I had not to bust out laughing, her not having any friends was a no-brainer. Anyway, one of the guys at the meeting told her to leave it at his house and he would put it out the next day. Problem solved.