"Tiny" Houses in Greater Pittsburgh (Upper St. Clair, St. Clair: apartment, buying a house)

[Love2Golf09]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I suppose for me I'm faced with an odd dilemma:

1.) I really love my existing neighborhood and would prefer to stay. I can walk to work in Oakland and am literally spitting distance to everything I need.

2.) BUYING a home is in my best interest if I eventually want to be free from long-term debt.

3.) My existing neighborhood has a real estate bubble that is pricing out entry-level home-buyers such as myself.

If I want to OWN a home in my current neighborhood, then I need to build.

I'm a little confused because I remember you complaining MANY times about making very little money. I believe you said that one of your jobs was working at a bank for $10 and the other job you're just a delivery boy or bike messenger. Have you been pre-approved for this? Do you have a significant downpayment ready and excellent credit? Banks are taking zero risks nowdays and the majority of their business is in loan modifications and FHAs. A home like you're describing might not fall within FHA guidelines. Perhaps you should take a trip out of your neighborhood, or even out of the city, and see what other options are out there. Have you considered Clairton? McKees Rocks? Port Vue? Tarentum sucks pretty bad I hear. A lot of these places will have some really old, really messed up homes for dirt cheap. That's probably your market, a small, cheap, fixer-upper.

[gg]

It isn't cheap to build no matter what size home. Infrastructure for a home is expensive. Much cheaper to renovate some crap home. Tis fun to dream of some little glass home though. Didn't mean to rain on that dream too fast.

[eschaton]

In general, I think the microhousing movement is bunk. You can see this from the original article, where people want to "downsize" and then move to someplace remote and rural where they need to drive everywhere - or worse, move into a trailer.

That said, I do think Pittsburgh is uniquely suited, given we have so many areas (like the one you noted in Polish Hill) that have an isolated "rural" feel, yet are not only in the city, but very close to walkable urban-style neighborhoods.

I'd say you're going to have problems however. Utility hookups, and land acquisition, are going to have a flat cost no matter the size of the house. There's a reason that the people who do this on the cheap tend to go for trailers. Even if you succeed, you'll probably have a hard time making your money back if/when you sell.

Here's my advice to you if you want to stay in Polish Hill.

1. Walk around every street. Look for the abandoned/unoccupied properties which don't seem in horrible shape externally.

2. Look up the owner on the assessor's site. Send the owner a letter, offering to buy their house.

3. Proceed normally from there.

[Hopes]

There are many little mini houses in the back allies of Lawrenceville. A friend lived in one. Keep your eye out for one of those that need to be fixed up.

[Hopes]

Upper Lawrenceville. A small 2b 2b brick for 44k. 5604 Duncan Street, Pittsburgh PA - Trulia

Larger wood frame home on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. 4b 2b for 49k. Butler #6306, Lawrenceville PA - Trulia

There are a couple more in upper Lawrenceville for 49k. That little brick home is the best. I hate siding.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Upper Lawrenceville. A small 2b 2b brick for 44k. 5604 Duncan Street, Pittsburgh PA - Trulia

That's a weird location. There's a city block of homes hidden up in in the hills with essentially nothing else nearby. It's kinda cool, but if you had bad neighbors, I could see it being very annoying.

[doo dah]

There is an interesting article in the NYT about this:
http://t.co/Xh1fPA2f

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Yesterday CNN profiled various individuals across the country who have consciously chosen to downsize their former American lifestyles of intense consumerism to diminutive homes with just the basics. Those interviewed said they appreciated shedding not only so much of their "stuff" in order to comfortably live in spaces that are often well under 500-square-feet but also relieving themselves of great financial burdens associated with larger housing options.

That article can be located here: Tiny homes hit the big city - CNN.com


While the number of people who are now living in "micro-housing" is growing on a national scale I have not yet seen this trend reach Pittsburgh, despite the fact that recently our housing prices have been appreciating more rapidly than prevailing real wages, pricing more and more prospective entry-level home-buyers, including myself, out of the market. As a prime example here in my beloved Polish Hill there are only two homes on the market, and both are in the high-$200k range---FAR out of my reach---and we're supposedly one of the "cheaper" neighborhoods in the city's East End.

When I was participating in visioning sessions for Polish Hill's newly-revampled long-range comprehensive plan I was very receptive to the notion of transitioning the "hidden" part of our neighborhood (on the other side of the 28th Street Bridge and below Frank Curto Park) to the city's first neighborhood of new micro-housing. The "Great Recession" has also been termed the "Great Reset" because it has caused many Americans, including myself, to ask ourselves "Do I really need all this stuff?" as we seek to cut costs and simplify our lives. I have been briefly pondering buying a run-down fixer-upper in a place like McKees Rocks, Etna, or Braddock, but I know in the long-term I'll miss living in this neighborhood so I've decided to continue renting until I have enough saved to buy a lot in Polish Hill from the Urban Redevelopment Authority and build my own "tiny" house upon it.

Does anyone else on this sub-forum have an interest in micro-housing? Does anyone here know of any local micro-housing communities? Does anyone think it would be a laborious task to receive zoning approval from the city to build a small home on a small city lot?

Interesting, practical, but not for me.

If it was financially necessary (if you lived in NYC or income that necessitated it), or if you lived by yourself it would make sense. If you have a significant other or kids...forget about it, you'll go nuts.

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Upper Lawrenceville. A small 2b 2b brick for 44k. 5604 Duncan Street, Pittsburgh PA - Trulia

Larger wood frame home on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. 4b 2b for 49k. Butler #6306, Lawrenceville PA - Trulia

There are a couple more in upper Lawrenceville for 49k. That little brick home is the best. I hate siding.

Why is it that no one knows how to take pictures of the home they're attempting to sell? Place could be very nice, but they include pics of the rape room/bathroom in the basement and the rusted tin ceilings. Good god just give the place a touch up and THEN take your pictures in a way that demonstrate the size of the room and their potental.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Q-tip motha

Why is it that no one knows how to take pictures of the home they're attempting to sell? Place could be very nice, but they include pics of the rape room/bathroom in the basement and the rusted tin ceilings. Good god just give the place a touch up and THEN take your pictures in a way that demonstrate the size of the room and their potental.

When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I was explaining to friends back home about the Pittsburgh toilet, and several had the exact same response: "What use is that except to handcuff your murder victims to?"