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The T is accessible all the way out to Library and Upper St. Clair in the South Hills. They're starting on the apartment project at the current site of the big Park and Ride lot in Castle Shannon this fall, so I would avoid CS for the next couple years.
Both of these homes would be perfect for you. Both neighborhoods are safe. The first home is in the Greenfield neighborhood of the city proper. It is in a hilly part of the neighborhood and isn't walkable to many amenities, but you're a quick drive to neighborhood conveniences as well as to The Waterfront, which is a large suburban-styled shopping area with chain restaurants, big-box stores, a movie theater, etc. Your husband would be able to walk to a bus on Greenfield Avenue that would go Downtown.
The second home is in the suburbs, but it's a quick walk to the "T" light rail. All things considered the commutes would probably be comparably-timed. The trains are slow here, but they have their own dedicated right-of-way. The bus would seem faster, but if there's a traffic jam on Greenfield Avenue or Second Avenue between Greenfield and Downtown, then the bus just gets stuck in it with everyone else.
I'd personally be happy living in either home. As a "city mouse" Greenfield would be the one I'd pick, but living in a part of Mt. Lebanon, Castle Shannon, or Dormont that's accessible to the "T" is also great.
Excellent, I'm on the right track. Now I just need one of them to stay empty until the fall. haha I'll not spam more houses but I'm glad to know the ones I'm looking at aren't totally unachievable (and hopefully in our price range at an approx household income of 95k+)
Hopefully we'll have more answers about the visa and relocation package from the company soon so I can start making some actual plans.
There's 2 parts of your question. The expat move and the finding a good place to live in Pittsburgh. In general, the cost of living in the US is lower than Europe. Taxes are lower also but healthcare insurance is an additional cost, and it's confusing trying to choose the best plan for yourselves.
Your husband is moving with a L1 visa so you can work if you have a L2 visa. All you need is a EAD card when you get here and it takes a mximum of 90 days to get one.
For expats, your company should be able to provide around a work around not of not having a credit history. When I moved to the US, I was able to get a car loan, mortgage, cell phone plan, etc, even before got a Social Security card. The company dealing with your relocation should know all about this. If you don't ask them, they tend not to say anything. That was my experience.
As for where to stay in Pittsburgh, that's is best answered by the locals. In general, the best places to live in the US are usually also very good school districts. Just look up the good school districts and those are the good areas.
Also plan on getting a car. Unlike the Netherlands, where cycling is the most common way of getting around and has "good" public transport, the US is the complete opposite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xammy
Hello! My husband and I are currently waiting for our visa to be processed to move to the US. I am Canadian and he is Dutch and we will be moving to Pittsburgh. I'm not exactly sure when, as we are hashing out the details with the company he works for there, but it will be either the fall or the spring.
As neither of us have any experience with life in the US, it will all be very new to us. We aren't really familiar with the cost of living in Pittsburgh or costs we may need to consider that we haven't thought of. The company will be giving us a relocation package but I'm sure there are things we'll come up against that didn't even cross our minds.
Has anyone done a move to Pittsburgh from outside the US? I assume we will have to pay deposits on pretty much everything since we won't have any credit. Getting a credit card, a mobile phone, etc.
What is considered a good salary there? We are a couple with no kids who aren't really social butterflies. We'll go out to eat now and then but aren't really penny pinchers when it comes to day to day life. Due to the type of visa we are getting, I won't be able to work, so we'll rely solely on his salary.
Can someone give me some ballpark salary ranges and how comfortable we can live on them? For example, if he makes 60k, 80k, 90k, 100k per year, for those amounts would it be considered a low wage, comfortable, high, more than enough, etc.
Also, for those salary ranges, assuming we have a car, health insurance for us both (we'd want a pretty good coverage as we both come from countries where this is all taken care of for us, so we're a bit nervous of the US health care system... simply because it's so unfamiliar to us), etc. What would we reasonably be able to afford for a rental house? We'd want something with 2-3 bedrooms, at least a little outdoor space and freestanding. Coming from the Netherlands, we are looking for space and privacy, two things we currently lack badly as the country is very small and very packed with people.
The reason why you're confused about Penn Hills is that it used to be a fairly nice middle class/upper middle class suburb. When I was growing up back in the 80s, the Eastern suburbs like Penn Hills, Churchill and Forest Hills were all considered fairly well-to-do. But a number of things happened in the late 80s and 90s that reversed the fortunes of the area. The major employer in the Eastern suburbs, Westinghouse, moved its offices to the Northern exurb of Cranberry. The school districts in all those areas are now considered to be pretty bad. And the urban core of Pittsburgh started to become more desirable for young professionals, who began gentrifying city neighborhoods and forcing the previous residents to move f to neighborhoods further out, and a lot of that migration wound up in the Eastern suburbs due to rents and home prices there already cratering due the previous two factors.
So, the houses and streets that you're seeing are typical mid-80s middle class properties and certainly plenty of owners and landlords do keep them up. But some don't (absentee landlords especially). The area is plenty safe if you yourself aren't trying to buy drugs or anything. And if you don't have kids, you needn't worry about the quality of the schools. But it is a massive pain in the rear to get from there to downtown. I was at a work seminar all week that was being held downtown and one of my colleagues who lives in Verona (next to Penn Hills) was late every day because the bus took over an hour. And there's just not much out there any more. There's strip malls and fast food. There's big box stores in Monroeville. But if you're looking for Ethiopian food, you're not going to find it there. (Actually, Pittsburgh sucks for African food in general and the only Ethiopian restaurant is in East Liberty.)
There are so many neighborhoods of single family homes in the city where getting to work won't be a chore and you can pop down the street for take out pho or what have you. You don't need to live on top of other people, Pittsburgh is a small city, it's not New York or London where it's been built up so much that you have to go miles out before you can have a yard. I have a huge yard, a raspberry patch, a massive vegetable garden, and a chicken coop and I'm less than 4 miles from downtown.
There's 2 parts of your question. The expat move and the finding a good place to live in Pittsburgh. In general, the cost of living in the US is lower than Europe. Taxes are lower also but healthcare insurance is an additional cost, and it's confusing trying to choose the best plan for yourselves.
Your husband is moving with a L1 visa so you can work if you have a L2 visa. All you need is a EAD card when you get here and it takes a mximum of 90 days to get one.
For expats, your company should be able to provide around a work around not of not having a credit history. When I moved to the US, I was able to get a car loan, mortgage, cell phone plan, etc, even before got a Social Security card. The company dealing with your relocation should know all about this. If you don't ask them, they tend not to say anything. That was my experience.
As for where to stay in Pittsburgh, that's is best answered by the locals. In general, the best places to live in the US are usually also very good school districts. Just look up the good school districts and those are the good areas.
Also plan on getting a car. Unlike the Netherlands, where cycling is the most common way of getting around and has "good" public transport, the US is the complete opposite.
No, he's not getting an L1 visa, it's a H1B, which is why I won't be able to work. I think he's the first overseas move the company will be doing so there are no standard plans as this is as new for them as it is for us. I'm hoping that somehow the company will be able to act as a guarantor for things like a car loan / lease or if we have trouble getting a landlord to rent to us without a credit history. Although, I'd think that could be solved with a security deposit, maybe?
We definitely plan on getting a car. We will rent a place to live at first, though, as we want to make sure we are really settled before we even consider buying a place. Plus, after the move we'll likely need some time to save up. You need downpayments for houses in the US, right? When we bought our place in the Netherlands we didn't need one at all, so that's new for us as well.
The reason why you're confused about Penn Hills is that it used to be a fairly nice middle class/upper middle class suburb. When I was growing up back in the 80s, the Eastern suburbs like Penn Hills, Churchill and Forest Hills were all considered fairly well-to-do. But a number of things happened in the late 80s and 90s that reversed the fortunes of the area. The major employer in the Eastern suburbs, Westinghouse, moved its offices to the Northern exurb of Cranberry. The school districts in all those areas are now considered to be pretty bad. And the urban core of Pittsburgh started to become more desirable for young professionals, who began gentrifying city neighborhoods and forcing the previous residents to move f to neighborhoods further out, and a lot of that migration wound up in the Eastern suburbs due to rents and home prices there already cratering due the previous two factors.
So, the houses and streets that you're seeing are typical mid-80s middle class properties and certainly plenty of owners and landlords do keep them up. But some don't (absentee landlords especially). The area is plenty safe if you yourself aren't trying to buy drugs or anything. And if you don't have kids, you needn't worry about the quality of the schools. But it is a massive pain in the rear to get from there to downtown. I was at a work seminar all week that was being held downtown and one of my colleagues who lives in Verona (next to Penn Hills) was late every day because the bus took over an hour. And there's just not much out there any more. There's strip malls and fast food. There's big box stores in Monroeville. But if you're looking for Ethiopian food, you're not going to find it there. (Actually, Pittsburgh sucks for African food in general and the only Ethiopian restaurant is in East Liberty.)
There are so many neighborhoods of single family homes in the city where getting to work won't be a chore and you can pop down the street for take out pho or what have you. You don't need to live on top of other people, Pittsburgh is a small city, it's not New York or London where it's been built up so much that you have to go miles out before you can have a yard. I have a huge yard, a raspberry patch, a massive vegetable garden, and a chicken coop and I'm less than 4 miles from downtown.
That all makes a lot of sense, I can get now why it -looks- ok but there are things you don't really see on Google street view. I will definitely scratch that whole area (Penn Hills, Plum, Monroeville etc) off my radar.
Your situation (less than 4 miles from downtown but still with a yard) sounds ideal!
I think it will be much easier when it comes time to BUY a place, to find what we want in an area we like than it will be finding a rental. Fortunately, I am like a dog with a bone and super obsessive haha so when the time comes to look I'll probably know every house for rent in the city by the time we get one!
There are local realty/realtor companies who work with expats coming into the US. Pittsburgh is a big city and they can get you into a place without a credit history. The big ones Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ReMax, etc should have at least one local office in Pittsburgh.
Also getting L1 visa is much easier than H1b. I think H1b is a lottery nowadays. If they can do a L1 petition, then he's more guaranteed of a visa. With H1b, I think the next opportunity is in April next year and that means coming here in Oct 2017.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xammy
No, he's not getting an L1 visa, it's a H1B, which is why I won't be able to work. I think he's the first overseas move the company will be doing so there are no standard plans as this is as new for them as it is for us. I'm hoping that somehow the company will be able to act as a guarantor for things like a car loan / lease or if we have trouble getting a landlord to rent to us without a credit history. Although, I'd think that could be solved with a security deposit, maybe?
We definitely plan on getting a car. We will rent a place to live at first, though, as we want to make sure we are really settled before we even consider buying a place. Plus, after the move we'll likely need some time to save up. You need downpayments for houses in the US, right? When we bought our place in the Netherlands we didn't need one at all, so that's new for us as well.
There are local realty/realtor companies who work with expats coming into the US. Pittsburgh is a big city and they can get you into a place without a credit history. The big ones Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ReMax, etc should have at least one local office in Pittsburgh.
Also getting L1 visa is much easier than H1b. I think H1b is a lottery nowadays. If they can do a L1 petition, then he's more guaranteed of a visa. With H1b, I think the next opportunity is in April next year and that means coming here in Oct 2017.
Thanks for the tips on the realtors / car companies! I'm sure that will come in handy.
We won't be expats in the sense of it being an intercompany transfer. He has been doing work for them as a contractor but they want him in Pittsburgh. He will be getting an H1B via. I'm not sure about the L1 but they applied for the H1B last year and we didn't get through, but this year we did. We were selected in the lottery and I'm now busy checking the USCIS site every day waiting to see if it's been approved. It should go through ok but we just have to wait for them to finish with the processing. So, if that goes through, and they sort out all of the relocation, we can move anytime after Oct 1.
Finally got thru the whole post. I am from Ireland (cork) and live in Pittsburgh. Also have visited Amsterdam and much of Europe.
The place I think that would be good for you is Mt. Lebanon. It is a walkable village, lots of coffee shops etc and has a T station for commuting to the city.
Also a note on the rental homes that do not accept pets. I am a landlord myself and when I initially listed my home for rent, I was told by my agent that it would be a good idea to put in there "No pets." However, almost every single person that was interested in my rental home had a pet and asked if I'd make a special consideration. I did end up doing just that, and charged just a bit more for a pet fee in case the worst case scenario occurred and the pet destroyed something. So, don't be afraid to ask about the pet policy especially since you've got small dogs.
We do not have sales tax on clothing which is a really great bonus. There is a 7% tax on just about everything else though. Taxes vary from state to state, but you may already be aware of that.
My ex husband is Canadian and when he moved here he just traded in his license and got a Pennsylvania one. He did not have to take a test. I am not sure how this works with an international license though.
We do have one Tim Hortons as well! It is near the Meadows Casino in Washington, PA.
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It is near the Meadows Casino in Washington, PA.
