Relocating in summer, neighborhood and school help

[Independentthinking83]

Originally Posted by mc19

Thanks for the additional tips on South Park and Bethel Park. Yes, I will reach out to Knepper. How about South Fayette? I haven't seen anyone mention it yet - seems right next to USC with reasonably rated schools - is it too far out from everything else?

Where did you end up?

[mc19]

Still looking. Not much inventory and housing market seems to be slowing down. Probably won’t fully relocate until end of summer.

[mxm]

Inventory is relatively ok at USC now (6/24/22). You can find the whole range of houses that is typically in USC. Typical USC house is now days 4 rooms/3 or 4 bathrooms, 450-550k. You can find more expensive, but almost impossible to find cheaper. If you are looking for under 450k, then it is better to look in Bethel Park or Mt Lebanon - better houses for that money.

USC, Mt Lebanon, Peters twp, Bethel Park all are all VERY good school districts. Peters has the lowest taxes, but biggest houses, so it comes to the same when reaching for the wallet.
South Fayette is also good, but much more rural/sprawling district. SF has a college like campus that hosts all the schools at one place.
Mt. Lebanon is walkable municipality, kids are not bused to schools, but rather walk together. Houses are older and smaller though, than USC, Peters, BP, SF. Municipal amenities are great (tennis courts, ice rink, Olympic sized open pool).

All high schools in the area have swimming pools, turf stadiums, some with tennis courts too. Plenty of golf courses in the neighborhood if you are into that.

Realistic travel to airport is ~ 20-30 minutes (20 from MTL, 30 from USC and Peters, 35-40 from BP).

UPMC is everywhere, so your question is not easy to answer to. UPMC Shadyside (main campus) is 25min - 45 mins depending on the place you live (MTL, USC, BP, Peters) and the time of the day.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by mxm

Inventory is relatively ok at USC now (6/24/22). You can find the whole range of houses that is typically in USC. Typical USC house is now days 4 rooms/3 or 4 bathrooms, 450-550k. You can find more expensive, but almost impossible to find cheaper. If you are looking for under 450k, then it is better to look in Bethel Park or Mt Lebanon - better houses for that money.

USC, Mt Lebanon, Peters twp, Bethel Park all are all VERY good school districts. Peters has the lowest taxes, but biggest houses, so it comes to the same when reaching for the wallet.
South Fayette is also good, but much more rural/sprawling district. SF has a college like campus that hosts all the schools at one place.
Mt. Lebanon is walkable municipality, kids are not bused to schools, but rather walk together. Houses are older and smaller though, than USC, Peters, BP, SF. Municipal amenities are great (tennis courts, ice rink, Olympic sized open pool).

All high schools in the area have swimming pools, turf stadiums, some with tennis courts too. Plenty of golf courses in the neighborhood if you are into that.

Realistic travel to airport is ~ 20-30 minutes (20 from MTL, 30 from USC and Peters, 35-40 from BP).

UPMC is everywhere, so your question is not easy to answer to. UPMC Shadyside (main campus) is 25min - 45 mins depending on the place you live (MTL, USC, BP, Peters) and the time of the day.

I agree with most of what you said here. I used to live in Mt. Lebanon, and have relatives in Mt. Lebanon and USC. I would rate the Bethel Park school district a notch below the other four that you mentioned.

Regarding travel to the airport, I lived very close to the Carnegie exit to the Parkway and could usually make it to the airport in 20-25 minutes taking Cochran Road to Greentree to Forsythe to 376. Most people in Mt. Lebo will have a longer drive. For USC and Peters Twp, it will depend how close you live to I-79. From Bethel Park, I would estimate 40-45 minutes during morning rush hour traffic.

[guy2073]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

I agree with most of what you said here. I used to live in Mt. Lebanon, and have relatives in Mt. Lebanon and USC. I would rate the Bethel Park school district a notch below the other four that you mentioned.

Regarding travel to the airport, I lived very close to the Carnegie exit to the Parkway and could usually make it to the airport in 20-25 minutes taking Cochran Road to Greentree to Forsythe to 376. Most people in Mt. Lebo will have a longer drive. For USC and Peters Twp, it will depend how close you live to I-79. From Bethel Park, I would estimate 40-45 minutes during morning rush hour traffic.

For the airport you can now use the new toll road. For usc you can take rt 19 to vallybrook to georgetown to morganza to the new toll road. I guarantee you wont sit in any traffic. I did it when the road opened and travel time was around 25 minutes to the airport.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by guy2073

For the airport you can now use the new toll road. For usc you can take rt 19 to vallybrook to georgetown to morganza to the new toll road. I guarantee you wont sit in any traffic. I did it when the road opened and travel time was around 25 minutes to the airport.

Good point! I haven't been on it yet.

[USC1986]

Originally Posted by mc19

I see…speaking of taxes, just for estimation of how much house is affordable, what percentage exactly are the property taxes? I have read ranges from 2 to 3% so would be helpful to hear from locals, especially in USC. Thanks

I have lived in USC for 36 years in the same house, so our taxes may not be a good comparison, but they are as follows: Allegheny County Tax: $869, Real Estate: $785, and the BIG one, as yet to be determined for 2022, but $5476 last year, School Tax, so roughly $7130.
House value is about $350-375K, 2,000 Sq.Ft., 4 bedrooms, central A/C, etc.
Any municipality in Allegheny Co. is high, even in a crappy school district.
Peters is very nice but expensive unless you can find one of the older homes still in good condition; otherwise, it's McMansions.
I like Mt.Lebanon, but politically, it has moved much more to the left over the past 20 years and, as stated, the school board is too woke for it's own good.

[mxm]

... Being resident of both Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair in Pittsburgh, here is the difference (and I included Bethel Park here for a good measure):

- Mt. Lebanon (MTL) is walkable all over with downtown and uptown shopping/restaurant areas, cheaper, smaller mostly brick houses, no kids bussing to schools (great feature!), fantastic high school, and excellent schools system in general, most shopping to be done in USC/Bether Park mall and shops, tram* station right in the center of the township. Has tennis club, municipal skate ring open whole year. open olympic size pool, and few small parks. HS has pool and swim club too.
- Upper St Clair (USC) is more suburban, bigger houses (more lawn to cut), new housing stock, kids bused to school (but also walkable if you live nearby). Has easy access (by car, mostly) to the area shopping mall, and tram station, great schools, great recreation center (especially for adults and small children). Bigger parks than Mt. Lebanon (see: Boyce Mayview park). HS has 2 pools and a swim club.
- Bethel Park (BP): biggest area of the three, least pretensions, most shopping, still good, but not as good schools. Huuuge park (South park) with wave pool, horse riding, fair, dog parks. HS has a pool and a swim club.

*Tram is a light railway system that connects south areas to the downtown Pittsburgh and goes all the way to the Steelers stadium.

Depending on the ranking system, public high schools in these municipalities sometimes do not get 10/10 only because of the lack of perceived diversity (some systems do not consider Asian students as diversity, and some ranking systems consider relatively uniform social status as non-diverse). Other than that, schools are excellent. Mr. Lebanon and USC are socially more homogeneous, while BP is more diverse.

My kids grew up in USC, even though I'd prefer MTL for them, just for non-busing and sense of community and friendship that walking with other kids to and from school brings. All three are very safe, with USC being the safest, as it is somewhat sandwiched between the other two.

Fox Chapel is great area, with sprawling lots, expensive houses - other than Aspinwall. Aspinwall has more town-like feeling (similar to MTL) with easy access to the river (couple of marinas if you are boater). and a bit faster access to downtown Pittsburgh (actually Oakland) than south Hills counterparts (MTL, USC, BP). HS is great there too, with Aspinwall providing more of socio-racial diversity.

Sport wise, there is plenty of parks, with free sport amenities like tennis, pickleball, soccer, baseball, and basketball courts. All schools have swimming pools and turf stadiums. Some schools have Tennis Courts, and ALL municipalities have free for all tennis courts.

Money wise, residents of FC and USC are very well off, MTL is generally (and on average) well-off , BP and Aspinwall are a bit lower on THAT scale (but not really low on absolute scale).

In my opinion, for under 500K you will get the most balanced house/school situation in USC. The other ones are tilting to either house side, or to school side.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

Good point! I haven't been on it yet.

Nobody else has, as well.

Pennsylvania = most heavily tolled roads in the world.

Anyway, Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon are tax-crazy, CRT communities. Though I'm not a McMansion fan, you'll get a great school district in Peters Township and lower Washington County taxes.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by svband76

Nobody else has, as well.

Pennsylvania = most heavily tolled roads in the world.

Anyway, Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon are tax-crazy, CRT communities. Though I'm not a McMansion fan, you'll get a great school district in Peters Township and lower Washington County taxes.

Agreed! Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls are a disgrace.