613 Whitney Ave. as a potential new home........ (Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg: sale, foreclose) - Pennsylvania (PA) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

mossman40 · 02-21-2013, 06:54 AM

Thanks groar,

Have an agent we are working with. We realize the tax situation is a pain. I've looked at Fox Chapel homes prior to this and I refuse to pay upwards of $1000.00 in taxes per month. I know that some home around Whitney are probably that high also.

I'd appreciate a PM with the information you've offered. I can pass it along to my wife as she is doing research about the area. I'm originally from the Wash. D.C. area and I know and have dealt with working/living in undesirable areas, parking your cars, walking down the street with a brief case in hand etc. etc. So not a total ding dong to self preservation.

sealie · 02-21-2013, 07:05 AM

Taxes are also such a crapshoot here for a number of reasons. Taking another $400k home in Wilkinsburg, 15221 Real Estate & 15221 Homes for Sale - Zillow we've got the place assessed at $126k (!) and the taxes are $7100. Closer to where the OP was talking about, we've got a $271k house "in need of repair", foreclosed in 2009, assessed at $65000, taxes at $3600. The sale price is nowhere near the assessment, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.
Zillow is useless for home estimates, but one thing it does do is tell you what the recently sold houses on the map last sold for. The closest recently sold place to that house is on 615 Hampton and sold for $172k, which is basically in line with my memory of the general market. Of course, I have no idea what condition these $180k houses are in.

Retiredcoach · 02-21-2013, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mossman40

Haven't purchased anything yet. Appreciate the feedback though. Not sure what the size of the house has to do with the issues though I do understand the question of price, location and future taxes. Precisely why I've come here for input.

Just my wife and I and a wonderful weimaraner who loves to run with my wife. Our children are grown and on their own. Do we need a large house ? Certainly not. Wants and needs often don't make any sense.

So many on this board seem to try to sell their houses/neighborhoods without honestly looking at the big picture for the person inquiring. They/we will sometimes take a very narrow view of the things we like about our communities and downplay the (sometimes severe) drawbacks. To my line of thinking, Wilkinsburg is a borough with such issues that if you ever needed to sell your home, for example a personal health issue, you would be very hard-pressed to find a buyer. The potential buyer of your home would probably be a family (why else, seven bedrooms?) that would be willing to buy the best house in a distressed community at the highest price of any home nearby. For this, he/she would need to willing to pay property taxes in the annual range of $14000 for a school district that is among the state's worst. He/she must be willing to accept the extensive poverty, the depressed/boarded up business district, and crime that is nearly double the national average.

No question that this home could be grandiose, and if it was located in just about any other area than Wilkinsburg, it might be worth some serious consideration. Sorry, but regardless of what others may say, I would personally pass. Good luck in your decision.

groar · 02-21-2013, 07:19 AM

oh so first we were unreliable because we haven't really been to wilkinsburg, now we're unreliable because we live here. gotcha.

i don't think anyone is downplaying the negatives of wilkinsburg and the op seems to be fully aware of them coming into this. it's up to him and his wife to make their own decision, of course. there's only one person here offering one-sided information, and it's not the op or anyone who lives in the area.

Retiredcoach · 02-21-2013, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sealie

Taxes are also such a crapshoot here for a number of reasons. Taking another $400k home in Wilkinsburg, 15221 Real Estate & 15221 Homes for Sale - Zillow we've got the place assessed at $126k (!) and the taxes are $7100. Closer to where the OP was talking about, we've got a $271k house "in need of repair", foreclosed in 2009, assessed at $65000, taxes at $3600. The sale price is nowhere near the assessment, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.
Zillow is useless for home estimates, but one thing it does do is tell you what the recently sold houses on the map last sold for. The closest recently sold place to that house is on 615 Hampton and sold for $172k, which is basically in line with my memory of the general market. Of course, I have no idea what condition these $180k houses are in.

Because the assessment process has not caught up with these under-assessed properties, it does not mean that it will not soon happen. The financially distressed Wilkinsburg borough and school district could challenge (and will win its appeal) of this home based purely on its sales price. Like many of the suburban school districts challenging under-assessed home values, and winning appeals with actual sales prices, Wilkinsburg will eventually cash in upon these oversights. The taxman cometh!!

groar · 02-21-2013, 07:30 AM

i've never known of wilkinsburg sd challenging an under-assessed property, and believe me, i know a lot of people who own under-assessed homes.

actually i've seen the reverse happening more often - i know several people who have challenged over-assessments (in some cases, with frankly ridiculous claims, like bringing a habitable house down from a $60k assessment to $15k based on recent sales of long-vacant homes) and won easily.

a friend of mine who decided to run for council made an appeal to UP the value of his home, which he bought when it was abandoned and fixed up very nicely, because he didn't want the issue of him not paying taxes on the fair value of his home coming up in an election. i think it went from under $10k to $40k. and he still had an opponent say he was underpaying his taxes on his fancy home.

that's all anecdotal but still.

also, the whole borough just got re-assessed as of this year (along with the rest of the county). so the numbers on the assessment site are pretty much what they're going to be. the assessment of my house actually went down a smidge, to less than what i paid for it. meanwhile it's been appraised at 1.5-2 times what i paid for it. don't get me wrong, there are also places that are over-assessed, but the appeals process is a lot easier here than it is in the city.

Goodjules · 02-21-2013, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mossman40

Just my wife and I and a wonderful weimaraner who loves to run with my wife. Our children are grown and on their own. Do we need a large house ? Certainly not. Wants and needs often don't make any sense.

I'm single with grown children. I just bought a 4 bdr, 2.5 ba historic home in Crafton. I wanted to restore and live in a big old house with period detail while I was still physically able to manage stairs, upkeep, etc. I wish I could have had a house like this when my kids were growing up.

I say go for it! BTW, if you decide to restore the woodwork, George Starz is good. I plan to have him do my woodowrk in a few months after the major reno work is done. I haven't used him before, but h he comes highly recommended.

sealie · 02-21-2013, 07:33 AM

Well, the thing of it is, it's not necessarily even the "best house in a distressed community" - Whitney Park is full of nice Victorians that look similar - Google maps will show you this from the comfort of your chair - so it's not even like it's a mansion surrounded by blight. I'd take the house but I don't yet know that I'd pay $400k for it. What I'd do, if I were the OP, is come some evening, have a cup of coffee at Biddle's Escape, and walk through the area on foot, and -see if they feel safe-. I'd find an agent that knows the area and I'd get them to give me comps. Resale is a concern, but again, Zillow can tell you what comps sold for and how long they were on the market. My concern is really mostly the $400k sticker price.

sealie · 02-21-2013, 07:40 AM

Also, a couple years back, they started offering ten-year tax abatements of commercial properties, probably because the boro is well aware that they live and die based on what happens to Regent Square, Whitney Park, and Hamnett Place. They were making noises about doing this for residential properties that were rehabbed, and I don't know what the final outcome of this was. But a realtor would know.

groar · 02-21-2013, 07:40 AM

yeah, the area that the house in is super nice, safe, and quiet. i don't feel uncomfortable at all walking around there but that's very personal matter that everyone has to decide on their own. trust your gut.

yes, it's next to a pretty bad area but so is shadyside. that's just not in itself a good argument against a place when you're in an urban environment. the schools and taxes are a much bigger issue.