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As a outsider looking to move to NY, that isn't a good sign. It's what happened to Pittsburgh once it got trendy. A handful of good neighborhoods skyrocketed in price which left the remaining neighborhoods to decline. The thought that millennials would buy old homes and rehab them never materialized. The result is a high COL (with an average economy) and a rich/poor culture. I would be more comfortable if the entire city was seeing an increase in home value.
The problem Pittsburgh has been experiencing is that the newcomers who are moving here either to work at places like UBER, Apple, Google, etc. OR who are moving here to just find a lower cost-of-living/slower pace-of-life generally are much more affluent than the longstanding residents. Landlords see that they can rent their shoddy 1-BR apartment for $700/month to a local who makes <$15/hr. OR a newcomer who makes twice (or more) as much and decide to instead jack up the rent, displacing that long-term tenant in favor of courting a more affluent newbie.
Pittsburgh has become a city of trendy/dense/desirable/walkable neighborhoods that are generally contiguous with Downtown/Oakland (i.e. Shadyside, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Polish Hill, Squirrel Hill, South Side Flats, Mexican War Streets, Lower Manchester, Strip District, Friendship, East Liberty, Greenfield, Highland Park, Point Breeze, Swisshelm Park, Mt. Washington) vs. a ring of higher-crime/semi-blighted/non-walkable neighborhoods that NOBODY---newcomer or native alike---wants anything to do with (i.e. Knoxville, Beltzhoover, Allentown, Carrick, Beechview, Sheraden, Esplen, Marshall-Shadeland, California-Kirkbride, Spring Garden, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, etc.) Then you have only a SELECT FEW neighborhoods left that are affordable, walkable, safe, and palatable for anyone---Brighton Heights, Troy Hill, Brookline. The problem is that this last list used to be much larger, but now neighborhoods are either becoming trendy/expensive or going further into decline, leaving those "middle ground" neighborhoods that lower-middle-class and middle-class urbanists can afford to become rarer and rarer.
Buffalo has some more expensive (by local standards) urban neighborhoods, and it also has some cheap/dangerous neighborhoods. It ALSO has more of those "middle ground" neighborhoods than Pittsburgh has now, though, and if Buffalo can manage to keep a healthy socioeconomic balance, like it has now, then it won't be at risk of emerging into a rich (often white or Asian) vs. poor (often blacks and recent immigrants) city the way Pittsburgh has begun to morph into.
Or, if Buffalo's leaders are visionary, you can have increased density via attempting to direct as much of the new residential construction inside the city limits as possible. We are excited to vacation soon in Buffalo; however, I get the sense from Google Maps that there are a ton of large empty lots in the city proper yet that could (and SHOULD) be transformed into dense mixed-use projects BEFORE more trees are allowed to be felled on the periphery for more sprawl.
One area that should be developed is Colvin Estates, which was designed for 127 homes in 2011, sold all of the first 24 homes built by 2013, yet the infrastructure work on the road/utilities was never completed. As hot as the North Buffalo market is, there are/were potentially over 100 new homes that could have been constructed by now. Not sure if it is a city issue or a developer issue that has delayed construction. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bu...!4d-78.8637428
The problem Pittsburgh has been experiencing is that the newcomers who are moving here either to work at places like UBER, Apple, Google, etc. OR who are moving here to just find a lower cost-of-living/slower pace-of-life generally are much more affluent than the longstanding residents. Landlords see that they can rent their shoddy 1-BR apartment for $700/month to a local who makes <$15/hr. OR a newcomer who makes twice (or more) as much and decide to instead jack up the rent, displacing that long-term tenant in favor of courting a more affluent newbie.
Pittsburgh has become a city of trendy/dense/desirable/walkable neighborhoods that are generally contiguous with Downtown/Oakland (i.e. Shadyside, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Polish Hill, Squirrel Hill, South Side Flats, Mexican War Streets, Lower Manchester, Strip District, Friendship, East Liberty, Greenfield, Highland Park, Point Breeze, Swisshelm Park, Mt. Washington) vs. a ring of higher-crime/semi-blighted/non-walkable neighborhoods that NOBODY---newcomer or native alike---wants anything to do with (i.e. Knoxville, Beltzhoover, Allentown, Carrick, Beechview, Sheraden, Esplen, Marshall-Shadeland, California-Kirkbride, Spring Garden, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, etc.) Then you have only a SELECT FEW neighborhoods left that are affordable, walkable, safe, and palatable for anyone---Brighton Heights, Troy Hill, Brookline. The problem is that this last list used to be much larger, but now neighborhoods are either becoming trendy/expensive or going further into decline, leaving those "middle ground" neighborhoods that lower-middle-class and middle-class urbanists can afford to become rarer and rarer.
Buffalo has some more expensive (by local standards) urban neighborhoods, and it also has some cheap/dangerous neighborhoods. It ALSO has more of those "middle ground" neighborhoods than Pittsburgh has now, though, and if Buffalo can manage to keep a healthy socioeconomic balance, like it has now, then it won't be at risk of emerging into a rich (often white or Asian) vs. poor (often blacks and recent immigrants) city the way Pittsburgh has begun to morph into.
Have there been any major projects to build residences in downtown? Homebuyers for the suburbs aren't exactly the same demographic, but there is likely some overlap and if people with decent incomes but no kids (nor any in the near future) are drawn to downtown, then you'll have less competition to drive up the suburban house prices. However, all I've been seeing is rentals for downtown rather than for purchases.
Our property taxes in the Pittsburgh region aren't that much cheaper and we have insane closing costs. I know it sounds strange but we would take a hit for the lifestyle change.
Taxes can be relative. For instance, a gallon of milk was $1.97 in NY this weekend and in PA it's close to $4.00. Our gas taxes are the highest in the country.
The problem Pittsburgh has been experiencing is that the newcomers who are moving here either to work at places like UBER, Apple, Google, etc. OR who are moving here to just find a lower cost-of-living/slower pace-of-life generally are much more affluent than the longstanding residents. Landlords see that they can rent their shoddy 1-BR apartment for $700/month to a local who makes <$15/hr. OR a newcomer who makes twice (or more) as much and decide to instead jack up the rent, displacing that long-term tenant in favor of courting a more affluent newbie.
Pittsburgh has become a city of trendy/dense/desirable/walkable neighborhoods that are generally contiguous with Downtown/Oakland (i.e. Shadyside, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Polish Hill, Squirrel Hill, South Side Flats, Mexican War Streets, Lower Manchester, Strip District, Friendship, East Liberty, Greenfield, Highland Park, Point Breeze, Swisshelm Park, Mt. Washington) vs. a ring of higher-crime/semi-blighted/non-walkable neighborhoods that NOBODY---newcomer or native alike---wants anything to do with (i.e. Knoxville, Beltzhoover, Allentown, Carrick, Beechview, Sheraden, Esplen, Marshall-Shadeland, California-Kirkbride, Spring Garden, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, etc.) Then you have only a SELECT FEW neighborhoods left that are affordable, walkable, safe, and palatable for anyone---Brighton Heights, Troy Hill, Brookline. The problem is that this last list used to be much larger, but now neighborhoods are either becoming trendy/expensive or going further into decline, leaving those "middle ground" neighborhoods that lower-middle-class and middle-class urbanists can afford to become rarer and rarer.
Buffalo has some more expensive (by local standards) urban neighborhoods, and it also has some cheap/dangerous neighborhoods. It ALSO has more of those "middle ground" neighborhoods than Pittsburgh has now, though, and if Buffalo can manage to keep a healthy socioeconomic balance, like it has now, then it won't be at risk of emerging into a rich (often white or Asian) vs. poor (often blacks and recent immigrants) city the way Pittsburgh has begun to morph into.
I couldn't agree more. It is a fine line to walk between Revitalization and Gentrification.
What offsets that are the housing prices. It just may be a matter of what you are looking for and where in the area.
Not when your property and school taxes go up every year $300 to $400. Last night several
Town's approved budget's with significant property taxes increases.
Not when your property and school taxes go up every year $300 to $400. Last night several
Town's approved budget's with significant property taxes increases.
This posting style looks familiar. Anyway, you are overlooking the median home prices of different areas. Take a look at what median home prices are, even in many Southern areas. You'll notice that they are quite a bit higher than the Buffalo area median home price.
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