MAybe relocating to Pittsburgh from California (York, Washington: cul-de-sac, apartment, to rent)

[Gotwine?]

Hi! My best freind and I are both in our 40's. Long story short, we want OUT of California for many reason! We visited Pittsburgh in the Spring of 2002 for a week and thought it was a great city! We would like to rent a three bedroom house within an hour's drive of Pittsburgh. WE also would like to live somewhere in the country, away from alot of people. We do like neighbors, don't get me wrong there, BUT we realize it would be quiete, more affordable and would like to grow vegi's and have room to park two vehicles, and a small boat.Any suggestions??

[nuwaver88]

You may want to look into Butler County, maybe Saxonburg and that area. Saxonburg: Weather from Answers.com

[stevo6]

Agree with Saxonburg to the east, or Ligonier , although you'd be pushing the 1 hr limit pretty hard. Look also to the west in Washington County, areas like Cecil, Midway, Hickory, Burgettstown, Macdonald. Beautiful countryside , something like an English landscape. Make no mistake though, these are former mining towns- this is not New England! An hour south on rt. 79 and you're approaching Greene County which is very pretty, but also quite poor. Within Allegheny County there is still some country- look at Clinton to the west, or Gibsonia and beyond to the north. If your going to commute its a bit easier from the north as you can get in without tunnels or bridges. Try to avoid the Rt. 28 corridor though because of the traffic. Steve

[theta_sigma]

You may not even need to move that far out of the city to get what you're looking for (depending on what your definition of "quiet" is).

Pittsburgh is a city of enclaves, with a lot of green space in between. I live 3 miles from downtown in the Stanton Heights neighborhood, in a 2 bedroom Cape Cod. We have a driveway (there are definitely homes in my area that have larger driveways than we, but we only have one car—living in the city we only need one car), a large vegetable garden as well as a large back yard, a view high over the Allegheny river, and acres and acres of forest behind our yard that has never been developed. Most nights, all I hear when I'm working in the garden is the chirping of birds (of which there are many). Our road is a cul-de-sac. We have wild turkeys, deer, rabbits and groundhogs as regular visitors to our yard. One block away from our house is an organic urban farm. The best part? We paid $95K for our home. Our mortgage is less than our rent was before we bought.

Pittsburgh's terrain makes its layout highly unusual, especially for someone coming from the West. So much of our space is not developable, because of the steep hills and cliffs, there is a tremendous amount of green space, even right in the heart of the city. If you're okay with having neighbors—not right on top of you necessarily, but around, you may be able to find what you're looking for right in town.

[DaBurgh]

Originally Posted by Gotwine?

Hi! My best freind and I are both in our 40's. Long story short, we want OUT of California for many reason! We visited Pittsburgh in the Spring of 2002 for a week and thought it was a great city! We would like to rent a three bedroom house within an hour's drive of Pittsburgh. WE also would like to live somewhere in the country, away from alot of people. We do like neighbors, don't get me wrong there, BUT we realize it would be quiete, more affordable and would like to grow vegi's and have room to park two vehicles, and a small boat.Any suggestions??

When you first visited, you came during the Spring for one week. Citypoot has a point about the weather, maybe you should visit for a week in February during winter. I can easily see how the change in weather, culture, and people can potentially have a big impact on you. I moved from GA last December and dealing with the snow and cold was a big adjustment, even though I grew up in the region.

[Katarina Witt]

You could try somewhere in Beaver County for the house in the country an hour from Pittsburgh. Lots of semi-rural properties there.

[Tiger Beer]

This is the second recent 'coming from California' post.

It seems Californians have discovered every other place...is it now the beginning of the 'discovered Pittsburgh' era?

[deathegg88]

Since my previous post was deleted for some reason , I'll ask again:
why are you moving from CA? You say for "many reasons". Well, what are they? I take it that you think whatever it is about CA will be the same in other parts of CA, so you have to leave the state?

Regardless, you have to be prepared for the culture shock, for Pittsburgh is much different than anywhere in CA. Also, yes, the winter weather is something that I can't believe you're prepared for if you are lifetime CA residents. Have you ever shoveled heavy snow? Or driven in it? Not trying to dissuade you from coming, but you have to consider everything, and certainly for most people weather is a big deal.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by deathegg88

Since my previous post was deleted for some reason , I'll ask again:
why are you moving from CA? You say for "many reasons". Well, what are they? I take it that you think whatever it is about CA will be the same in other parts of CA, so you have to leave the state?

Regardless, you have to be prepared for the culture shock, for Pittsburgh is much different than anywhere in CA. Also, yes, the winter weather is something that I can't believe you're prepared for if you are lifetime CA residents. Have you ever shoveled heavy snow? Or driven in it? Not trying to dissuade you from coming, but you have to consider everything, and certainly for most people weather is a big deal.

I can't answer for him personally.

But, I will take a shot at the questions, as I lived in San Francisco California for a year, and will never go back to California again.

For weather, beauty, ocean, etc. CALIFORNIA is amazing.

But HOUSING...just for a tiny little house...one bedroom, you are easily looking at a half a million dollars in L.A., S.F., or S.D. Easily. If you have a family, you're looking at a two bedroom, so probably starting around $600,000 and that is to live in a very dangerous ghetto type area.

While some people actually have great salaries...you have tons of people who are doing the same type of jobs that everyone does everywhere else - i.e. regular type jobs at low wages.

So, if are supporting a family and earn something like $30,000/year. You will never, ever, ever, ever be a homeowner in California. Even rent is sky high, so probably half of your income (or more) will be in rent alone. This is even in for the worst neighborhoods that California has to offer.

So, when you look at a city like Pittsburgh, andhomes in Squirrel Hill, the best of Pittsburgh, are actually much cheaper than the worst homes in the worst parts of L.A., S.D., or S.F....than the math becomes real easy. Then you look at living in an ETNA type of place, SAFETY and homes that you can own in two years for the same price as renting a bad apartment in a bad neighborhood in L.A./S.F. for two years (let's say $2,000 in rent in CA, but that would buy an ETNA house in two years - $48,000).

Actually, these are the kind of reasons I became so interested in Pittsburgh as well, despite never having lived there. I have lived in beautiful San Francisco, briefly in San Diego, and a few years in New York City...and as great as those cities are, they are not so great if you even want to have a little bit of spending money to enjoy it, and particularly not if you don't want to be a rentor someday at 65 trying to someday make your $2,000/month rent payments on social security - (Granted I'm nowhere near that myself, but just saying, economically speaking - home ownership sounds better than renting for 60 years of a persons later lifetime at $2,000/month, when home ownership is simply unachievable there).