5 months after relocating to Pittsburgh - things I like and dislike (Beaver: rental market, condos)

[gg]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

The parking tax is not more lucrative than the income tax according to the city budget. Parking tax revenue comes in at an estimated $56.2 million for 2019, while the earned income tax comes in at $102.6 million. Real estate tax is the top source of revenue, at $147.4 million.

https://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/redtai...2-17-19(3).pdf

Ah, the massive tax drain in our region with all the governmental waste. It continually kills growth in our region. Wonder what the next "new tax" will be. What gets me about how taxed to death our region is, we have all these new homes in Lawrenceville, the Strip and all over the city, yet there never is a tax break. With all this revenue from new construction of very high end places where is all that money going?

You assessment seems fair enough.

[RLCMA]

I've been here for 4 months and think the city is ok but not for me. My lease is up in October and I don't plan on staying in the area. I work in Beaver so my commute sucks. I'll move closer to Beaver if I decide to stay in the area as the traffic going 376 W in the morning sucks until I get past the airport and I'm forced to take 65 S home because 376 E is a parking lot when you get close to the city. Overall, Western PA isn't for me. I moved here from DC and I'm originally from MA. Most likely I'll move back to MA this year. The COL is better than DC but I'm still paying 2k/month for a 1 bedroom in Pgh. I consider this high for the area but 1k less than I was paying in DC per month. I find the people here to be friendly in general. The vibe of the area just isn't for me. I gave myself a goal of at least a year as I followed a great opportunity here but that may still be a stretch.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Clevelandguy88

1.) retailers here are generally much smaller than other places where I’ve lived.


A lot of stores, especially grocery stores are much smaller and crammed next to other stores compared to previous places I’ve lived. Sure, this is probably a good thing to a lot of people but took time to get used to. Also a lot of Walmart’s here have not been converted into supercenters so not really a grocery option there.

I think that probably goes back to how much older Pittsburgh is in the urban area than virtually any city in the US that's west of us. The urban core and inner ring suburbs were pretty much all built out by the time the Depression started, so it would take a lot more purchasing of already built up property for bigger stores which gets harder of course with the more you need.

I do notice too Allegheny County at least is a lot less Wal-Mart centric (I can only thing of two or three supercenters in the county) than a lot of other areas in the country, but I consider that a good thing.

[Knepper3]

Originally Posted by RLCMA

I've been here for 4 months and think the city is ok but not for me. My lease is up in October and I don't plan on staying in the area. I work in Beaver so my commute sucks. I'll move closer to Beaver if I decide to stay in the area as the traffic going 376 W in the morning sucks until I get past the airport and I'm forced to take 65 S home because 376 E is a parking lot when you get close to the city. Overall, Western PA isn't for me. I moved here from DC and I'm originally from MA. Most likely I'll move back to MA this year. The COL is better than DC but I'm still paying 2k/month for a 1 bedroom in Pgh. I consider this high for the area but 1k less than I was paying in DC per month. I find the people here to be friendly in general. The vibe of the area just isn't for me. I gave myself a goal of at least a year as I followed a great opportunity here but that may still be a stretch.

I can't imagine driving from the city to Beaver daily even if you were going against the rush hour flow. I would never live that far from my work. $2k a month for 1 bedroom, is that a high end rental? you could rent an nice home for that price in many areas.

[RLCMA]

Originally Posted by Knepper3

I can't imagine driving from the city to Beaver daily even if you were going against the rush hour flow. I would never live that far from my work. $2k a month for 1 bedroom, is that a high end rental? you could rent an nice home for that price in many areas.

I'm a city guy and figured traffic wouldn't be bad. I was wrong. I'm just going to grin and bear it until my lease is up in October. For a 32-36 mile commute I make it under an hour each way but it still sucks. I think it's more mental than anything else. DC traffic is much worse but I didn't have to deal with it for the most part. The place I live in is new construction with a water view. It's expensive but I like it.

[Knepper3]

Originally Posted by RLCMA

I'm a city guy and figured traffic wouldn't be bad. I was wrong. I'm just going to grin and bear it until my lease is up in October. For a 32-36 mile commute I make it under an hour each way but it still sucks. I think it's more mental than anything else. DC traffic is much worse but I didn't have to deal with it for the most part. The place I live in is new construction with a water view. It's expensive but I like it.

Ah ok, yeah I am not surprised about the commute and would feel the same. I grew up in NJ and people commonly drove 1-2hrs each way to work, not something I could ever deal with. Even here, I only drive in traffic once in a while but it drives me nuts

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by RLCMA

I've been here for 4 months and think the city is ok but not for me. My lease is up in October and I don't plan on staying in the area. I work in Beaver so my commute sucks. I'll move closer to Beaver if I decide to stay in the area as the traffic going 376 W in the morning sucks until I get past the airport and I'm forced to take 65 S home because 376 E is a parking lot when you get close to the city. Overall, Western PA isn't for me. I moved here from DC and I'm originally from MA. Most likely I'll move back to MA this year. The COL is better than DC but I'm still paying 2k/month for a 1 bedroom in Pgh. I consider this high for the area but 1k less than I was paying in DC per month. I find the people here to be friendly in general. The vibe of the area just isn't for me. I gave myself a goal of at least a year as I followed a great opportunity here but that may still be a stretch.

I'm so sorry you don't like Pittsburgh, but I'm still glad you came here. It never hurts to take a leap of faith in life and be wrong rather than living the rest of your life curious about how your life COULD have turned out if you HAD taken a different path. As a transplant myself from DC (okay, NoVA...) I think Pittsburgh offers an immensely better quality-of-life than DC when factoring in the cost-of-living.

I can agree, though, that MA may blow Western PA out of the water on many fronts. I've never lived in MA, but based upon my research into the state and my visits up there it just seems and feels so much more progressive than Pittsburgh. So many people here (especially older people) are so damn resistant to change. It's incredibly irritating to see so much NIMBYism on NextDoor and Facebook, too.

I wish you the best of luck moving back to MA at the end of the year.

Originally Posted by Knepper3

I can't imagine driving from the city to Beaver daily even if you were going against the rush hour flow. I would never live that far from my work. $2k a month for 1 bedroom, is that a high end rental? you could rent an nice home for that price in many areas.

Judging from a prior post (s)he lives at the Glasshouse, which is the new high-end residential community adjacent to Station Square. The community is gorgeous (as are the views), and you are so convenient to Downtown along with numerous bus lines and the "T", so, yes, it does deservedly carry a high price tag.

I'm curious where the OP lives that they have such cheap rent. As I said we're paying almost $1,000/month for a DUMPY 1-BR, and I'd presume most "nice" 1-BR units in the city are north of $1,200/month these days. I don't know of anyone who pays <$900/month in rent for their 1-BR in the city these days.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I'm curious where the OP lives that they have such cheap rent. As I said we're paying almost $1,000/month for a DUMPY 1-BR, and I'd presume most "nice" 1-BR units in the city are north of $1,200/month these days. I don't know of anyone who pays <$900/month in rent for their 1-BR in the city these days.

Looked through the OP's post history, and I think they landed in Dormont. I can see if their job is in Oakland that being a hell commute.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Looked through the OP's post history, and I think they landed in Dormont. I can see if their job is in Oakland that being a hell commute.

Ah. Okay. I'll never understand why rent has consistently been SO CHEAP in Dormont. If the property taxes are as high as Copanut says, then shouldn't rent be considerably higher there for landlords/landladies to remain profitable? It's a cheap town (for rentals) with wonderful businesses, the "T", and is generally safe. I mean it's 10 times the neighborhood Polish Hill will ever be at half the price tag. Makes no sense.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by RLCMA

I've been here for 4 months and think the city is ok but not for me. My lease is up in October and I don't plan on staying in the area. I work in Beaver so my commute sucks. I'll move closer to Beaver if I decide to stay in the area as the traffic going 376 W in the morning sucks until I get past the airport and I'm forced to take 65 S home because 376 E is a parking lot when you get close to the city. Overall, Western PA isn't for me. I moved here from DC and I'm originally from MA. Most likely I'll move back to MA this year. The COL is better than DC but I'm still paying 2k/month for a 1 bedroom in Pgh. I consider this high for the area but 1k less than I was paying in DC per month. I find the people here to be friendly in general. The vibe of the area just isn't for me. I gave myself a goal of at least a year as I followed a great opportunity here but that may still be a stretch.

Where in the world is a one BR apartment $2,000 a month in Pittsburgh? I thought that was a typo.