What's good pay?!?!

[shadowfax]

$15/hr is doable

I take home slightly more than SCR does and live very comfortably in a little studio apartment in Squirrel Hill south. Rent $625, plus electric. I have electric heat so that can get steep in the winter but usually $50-100. LL pays H2O. Internet service and TV (satelite) runs about $100. I have my pets with me and support a horse ($300/month plus vet bills and equipment) and a car payment. Its tight but I manage.

Ride the bus to work, to save on parking. As someone else said ALDI is your friend.

As others have said paying $1k a month for rent at your income level isn't a good idea. Finding an apartment that is where you want with the amenities you want at the price you can handle is doable but takes work. My pet friendly LL just rented out the 1 br apartment above me for $850. I think the place was on the market for two weeks. Those go fast.

[ohyellowbug]

Thanks everyone. I would want to rent from a complex though not an individual. A few people I've known had bad experiences with individuals as landlords

[guy2073]

Originally Posted by shadowfax

$15/hr is doable

I take home slightly more than SCR does and live very comfortably in a little studio apartment in Squirrel Hill south. Rent $625, plus electric. I have electric heat so that can get steep in the winter but usually $50-100. LL pays H2O. Internet service and TV (satelite) runs about $100. I have my pets with me and support a horse ($300/month plus vet bills and equipment) and a car payment. Its tight but I manage.

Ride the bus to work, to save on parking. As someone else said ALDI is your friend.

As others have said paying $1k a month for rent at your income level isn't a good idea. Finding an apartment that is where you want with the amenities you want at the price you can handle is doable but takes work. My pet friendly LL just rented out the 1 br apartment above me for $850. I think the place was on the market for two weeks. Those go fast.

I had to reread it, I thought you lived with a horse.

[jea6321]

Originally Posted by guy2073

I had to reread it, I thought you lived with a horse.

horse friendly studio apartment in sq hill, lol.

[gg]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Good. That will open up many more possibilities for you because decent 1-BR apartments in the suburbs tend to be cheaper than decent 1-BR apartments in the city these days.

Well I don't know about what suburbs, but my hometown the average rent right now is about $8,500+ a month for rent.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My partner and I are seriously considering relocating out of Pittsburgh because as it "improves" (i.e. gentrifies) it is losing a lot of the appeal it once had. It's great and getting better to be a Pittsburgher if you make decent money. Otherwise it sucks for those of us "caught in the middle"---feeling like we're not making enough to keep up but also making a tad too much to qualify for assistance programs. I've been exploring a job opportunity in Eastern PA in a smaller urban city that is better paying and has comparable rent to here. I wish you well here, but if you aren't going to be willing to consider a roommate or a second job (which is unfair to leave your dog alone so much) you're going to feel strapped for cash here.

I have a friend who was hell bent on moving to Pittsburgh. We warned her about the COL and rents. She sits in her apartment miserable because she is too broke to experience the city.

From what I have read, the COL in Pittsburgh is already starting to deter young individuals from moving to the city. I have a feeling we are near the tipping point as to where the rents and COL will have to eventually decline. There just aren't enough good paying jobs to keep up with the upscale gentrification. This can be seen in the growing exurbs and number of high end apartments for rent instead of sale.

I don't know if I would leave that Polish Hill apartment. You have a good location.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

I have a friend who was hell bent on moving to Pittsburgh. We warned her about the COL and rents. She sits in her apartment miserable because she is too broke to experience the city.

From what I have read, the COL in Pittsburgh is already starting to deter young individuals from moving to the city. I have a feeling we are near the tipping point as to where the rents and COL will have to eventually decline. There just aren't enough good paying jobs to keep up with the upscale gentrification. This can be seen in the growing exurbs and number of high end apartments for rent instead of sale.

I don't know if I would leave that Polish Hill apartment. You have a good location.

Sorry, but a two bedroom in the south hills ranges from 600-900/month. With a roommate, the rent splits to 300-450/mo. If you can't afford 300/mo on basic housing in this city, you're likely making poor choices.

[PreservationPioneer]

I make $16 an hour. When I first moved to Pittsburgh I made $12.75 and was able to comfortably afford a $500 studio apartment. There are still $500 studio apartments in decent neighborhoods. You just have to look for them. If you bump up the maximum rent to $700, you will easily find a good studio or 1BR. That would be manageable on $15 an hour. Try to find an apartment with some or all of the utilities included. And remember there's free street parking downtown after 6pm!

[shadowfax]

Originally Posted by guy2073

I had to reread it, I thought you lived with a horse.

Nah she has her own place in the suburbs. Not that my landlord would mind if she moved in but there's that pesky zoning thing. I doubt I could convince them that my 15.3 hand(hand=4 inches) 1100 pound mare is a therapy animal.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Metropolitan Statistical Area

Maybe look at that ^ and see if you can find a salary range for the title or general field you interviewed for. The Washington Hospital paid their CNAs more than $15/hr in 2012. Make sure they aren't cheating yer, because the employers in this quadrant of the world seem to think that $12 to $15/hr for a college grad is mighty generous. Not sure why you want to relocate to Pittsburgh. Most of the people in my generation who had college degrees never got more than an entry level job out of western PA, including Pittsburgh, and they all moved South for actual career opportunities. Pittsburgh is known for being an entry-level town, unless you are in ed or med, in actual teaching or medical employment, NOT their support staff and assistants.

If you can't get any salary data from that (I have no time to look), then call up the local PA CareerLink, ask to speak to someone who handles WIA and Trade Act retraining, and ask them if they have any salary data for your occupation. They'd probably be able to tell you pretty fast what is or is not a "demand" occupation or support role at UPMC, and what is just another dead-end job there. CareerLink tracks the job market and salaries and job placement data, to be able to determine what's worth giving money to people to retrain for. I don't live in the Pittsburgh or Washington area anymore. But there's been a lot of talk on this forum about how the job market pays below average rates to educated and skilled people. ymmv