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Old 08-30-2015, 08:50 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,362 posts, read 16,918,642 times
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I've always like Observatory Hill in theory due to the truly amazing quality grand old houses you can find up there at affordable prices. However, I've been noticing lately that the houses seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper. Houses like this and this, for example, obviously need a lot of work, but given the character remaining seem really under-priced. Those are more the prices I'd expect houses to sell for in Carrick, or maybe even Sheraden or Knoxville, rather than what I'd consider to be a relatively stable Pittsburgh neighborhood. I have noticed most of the unusually cheap houses seem to be in the upper part of the neighborhood around Perry HS - the portion closer to Perry Hilltop seems to have pretty "normal" priced houses for the area still.

Anyway, someone with more knowledge of that portion of the North Side might be able to tell me more.
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Old 08-30-2015, 11:20 AM
 
Location: Kittanning
4,692 posts, read 9,001,682 times
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I've lived in Pittsburgh for about eight years, and Observatory Hill has always had cheap old houses. I think it has more to do with the still large number of deteriorated homes in the neighborhood, rather than the quality of the neighborhood. Although I'm sure there are people in the North Hills who wouldn't even think of buying there, people who like urban neighborhoods tend to love the big old houses in Observatory Hill.
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Old 08-30-2015, 11:53 AM
 
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Observatory Hill has changed very little IMO. A lot of the families I knew growing up moved upstream in the 80's and 90's. About the only decline I've seen is population decline.
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Old 08-30-2015, 05:06 PM
 
Location: Manchester
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Wow, that 2nd house is a rare find. Just finished up this summer's renovation project today, and was happy to be done for a while but that house would be a fun project. It’s not even close to the normal style I like, but hate to see it fall into the hands of someone who wouldn’t respect it.
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Old 08-30-2015, 05:49 PM
 
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We haven't spent a ton of time there, but my GF and I having a pending sale on a house in Observatory Hill. We really love the houses, close access to the park, close access to downtown, and from what I've read around, a pretty diverse population.

The house we are most likely buying (fingers crossed) is on Perrysville and right near the high school. Really nice arts and crafts style home, ~1.8k sq ft, ~$130k.

It does seem a little bit deserted at times... there's really no business district. We can literally ride our bikes though to a Pirates game though. Looking forward to that next season!

I would love to hear more opinions on the area as we are soon to be residents.
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Old 08-30-2015, 06:25 PM
 
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I think PP is definitely right that supply and demand comes into play with how many grand old homes there are in OH. It seems to me like OH might be stuck in a weird middle ground right now. It's not profitable enough for pro flippers to come in and do these homes justice but they are too much of a project for the average weekend warrior.

That Waldorf house is something else! I wonder if there's some major problems not obvious in the listing, like roof or foundation issues.
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Old 08-30-2015, 06:40 PM
 
Location: Manchester
3,109 posts, read 2,900,672 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ferraris View Post
I think PP is definitely right that supply and demand comes into play with how many grand old homes there are in OH. It seems to me like OH might be stuck in a weird middle ground right now. It's not profitable enough for pro flippers to come in and do these homes justice but they are too much of a project for the average weekend warrior.

That Waldorf house is something else! I wonder if there's some major problems not obvious in the listing, like roof or foundation issues.
I would fear the pro flippers though too. They come in and the next thing you know its open concept with dark wood floors, gray paint, and glass tile backsplashes as far as the eye can see...
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Old 08-31-2015, 06:12 AM
 
Location: Close to Pittsburgh, but NOT Pittsburgh ('cause I don't pay CoP taxes)
252 posts, read 235,018 times
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Waldorf is a really nice street. For a city neighborhood, there's mostly an inordinate amount of space between next-door neighbors, and for the most part, the homes have a nice set-back from the street. The real bonus for Waldorf is that, after the left onto Grizella, there's no thru traffic.

As for the neighborhood as a whole, take what I say with a grain of salt, since I moved out within the past year. My wife and I were seeing increasing amounts of nuisance crime (which has culminated to this point in an entire section of the neighborhood being vandalized). There were some attempts at violent crime, but I guess the gunmen in question had lousy aim. We would occasionally hear plenty of shots and the occasional police siren, but we rarely heard from the ambulance.

As for the original question, I it's hard to say whether the neighborhood is in decline or if our threshold for BS was in decline. We left. But we sold to a young couple who seemed committed to the home and the neighborhood, and I know members of the OHI board are good folks. I hope things work out. There's a lot going for the place, but if I were to be honest, I'd say it's experiencing a bit of a decline.
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Old 08-31-2015, 06:27 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
1,491 posts, read 1,450,836 times
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the waldorf one is pending sale. I believe it was sold before being listed, just for formality. Waldorf is a beautiful street. There are a couple renovations going on currently and I would say that as a whole, the area is not in decline. A new restaurant and coffee shop are in the works right down the street.
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Old 08-31-2015, 06:30 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh's North Side
1,701 posts, read 1,591,380 times
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My purely anecdotal sense of Observatory Hill fits pretty well with this thread - certain streets are going through a tough time, but the beautiful housing stock and great location are also attracting people who will come in and invest in the area. Certain lower North side neighborhoods are gentrifying rapidly, and I think the short term ripple effect is that the hills will experience a small wave of petty crime as the area transitions, but will rise in the long term as the adjacent neighborhoods become more desirable/expensive.

I am actually more surprised that Fineview isn't changing more rapidly - on Observatory Hill there are plenty of dilapidated mansions to fix up, but Fineview also has great (if not quite as grand) homes, and I wonder if they will start attracting more investors. That's a splendid location, but whenever we go explore it seems surprisingly sleepy and just a touch run down.
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