Current Homes For Sale? (Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel: middle-class, chapel, appliances)

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by safak

That doesn't tell me much about real world prices though. Most places out west or down south don't have a ton of old defunct towns at an average of 40k pulling it way down.
no one is moving there yet its a huge part of those meaningless numbers.

I'm more of a believer in the hands on 'heres your budget, find me a house in a decent neighborhood' type of guy.

That is not what the median looks at. Median is the exact mid point. If there are 1000 houses for sale, the median is the 500th most expensive (or technically the average of the 500th and 501st). We are way below the median house price for the nation. Zillow has the US median home value at $216K and the Pittsburgh median at $139K. It has the median listing in Pittsburgh at $219K and and $275K in the US.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Goodjules

I believe the median in SF is $1.2 million now.

Edit: Just checked. It's even higher now. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...gh-1-6-million

No wonder they have a huge homeless problem and the entire city smells like pee. I hope we don't have too many homeless move in here, but I suspect the weather will keep them away. We have some of the worst weather in the country for sure.

[selltheburgh]

As of today - Allegheny County:

3359 houses for sale. Median list price is $215,000. Average is $318,517

5378 houses sold on West Penn MLS year to date.
Of those that have sold:
Median list price: $168,000. Median sales price: $163,000.

[jea6321]

Originally Posted by corpgypsy

Somewhat confused here by what you mean. Are you saying that to purchase a middle type house, (perhaps with a garage, 2.5 modern baths and AC and somewhat updated in a decent school district), it will be necessary to spend $378,000 to $567,000 in Pittsburgh, Pa? Those numbers, which I bet are close to reality, kind of support what Safak & I were saying. Based on the lists that place us as highly affordable or tout us as a bargain city for housing, the number utilized, I believe, is currently $189,000 and doesn't that number come from considering all those homes that are listed in the $40,000 and under and slightly over category, as well as the others on the MLS? So you indicate we should multiply that by 2 or 3?

Based on what you present, Jea6321, it still confuses me when I hear that housing has not risen sharply here in the decent enough to buy and live in range. Factoring in that PGH wages are somewhat to moderately lower, and our taxes are significant, and interest rates are climbing it still does not seem to be sustainable or at least worthy of an affordable title.


I think housing issues and value may have become a problem for our area, especially if trying to attract new citizens. The current market still looks chaotic and high for where we are and I do wonder if it can last?

what I'm saying is that median price in ALL areas is not exactly reality. tell a person in San Fran that the average house is 750k and they will laugh. tell a pittsburgher that The average house is 160k and its the same thing. So in reality, yes Pittsburgh is still way cheaper than most other cities, just not as cheap as metrics tend to show.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

As of today - Allegheny County:

3359 houses for sale. Median list price is $215,000. Average is $318,517

5378 houses sold on West Penn MLS year to date.
Of those that have sold:
Median list price: $168,000. Median sales price: $163,000.

This illustrates a couple of good things to keep in mind.



First, it isn't cheap houses pulling down the average, but rather expensive houses pulling up the average. That's what the average (mean) being so much higher than the median means.


Second, the price of all houses listed is much higher than the price of houses sold. I assume this is because houses priced cheaply sell very quickly and expensive houses can sit on the market for a long time. This is important to keep in mind when people talk about the cost of housing in Pittsburgh. If you look at the listings (as opposed to actual sales), you'll see houses that cost much more than what people actually pay.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

This illustrates a couple of good things to keep in mind.



First, it isn't cheap houses pulling down the average, but rather expensive houses pulling up the average. That's what the average (mean) being so much higher than the median means.


Second, the price of all houses listed is much higher than the price of houses sold. I assume this is because houses priced cheaply sell very quickly and expensive houses can sit on the market for a long time. This is important to keep in mind when people talk about the cost of housing in Pittsburgh. If you look at the listings (as opposed to actual sales), you'll see houses that cost much more than what people actually pay.

Do houses which aren't publicly listed count toward average sale price? A lot of those transactions are between family members, and for very small amounts of money, which could bring the average sale price down.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Do houses which aren't publicly listed count toward average sale price? A lot of those transactions are between family members, and for very small amounts of money, which could bring the average sale price down.

I'm not a real estate person, but I can't figure why private transactions would be on the MLS and selltheburgh was citing that.

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by jea6321

what I'm saying is that median price in ALL areas is not exactly reality. tell a person in San Fran that the average house is 750k and they will laugh. tell a pittsburgher that The average house is 160k and its the same thing. So in reality, yes Pittsburgh is still way cheaper than most other cities, just not as cheap as metrics tend to show.

Basically, you're saying you're not interested in the median. I suspect you're more interested in the upper quarter (or significantly better than average houses). There's nothing wrong with that but the median still is the standard way to compare regional home prices.

[safak]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

This illustrates a couple of good things to keep in mind.



First, it isn't cheap houses pulling down the average, but rather expensive houses pulling up the average. That's what the average (mean) being so much higher than the median means.

I disagree. I don't think that is using a common sense approach to it at all.

For that to be accurate you would need to believe that Pittsburgh is a place where people are moving into and desiring mainly places with very low ranking school districts and the outliers are pulling the average up.

In fact I just ran the YTD for 4 of the lowest ranking districts out towards my area(east allegheny co.), and its almost 12% of those sales and an average slightly lower than 100k.

If I start throwing in areas no one really wants to buy except section 8 landlords..(like Clairton 15 sales at a 27k price), Pitcairn, Perry Hilltop, Beltzhoover, etc thats probably half of all the sales.

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by safak

I disagree. I don't think that is using a common sense approach to it at all.

For that to be accurate you would need to believe that Pittsburgh is a place where people are moving into and desiring mainly places with very low ranking school districts and the outliers are pulling the average up.

In fact I just ran the YTD for 4 of the lowest ranking districts out towards my area(east allegheny co.), and its almost 12% of those sales and an average slightly lower than 100k.

If I start throwing in areas no one really wants to buy except section 8 landlords..(like Clairton 15 sales at a 27k price), Pitcairn, Perry Hilltop, Beltzhoover, etc thats probably half of all the sales.

There are two separate questions: 1 - How well is the real estate market in the city/metro area doing altogether? And 2 - How much does a house that meets your specific criteria (location, size, etc.? typiaclly cost? Most people care more about question #2, and most people want a better than average house. That's why these median prices probably look too low. I care a lot about how the region as a whole is doing. So I'm very interested in question #1.