Is this house Wilkinsburg or Regent Square? (Pittsburgh, Swissvale: renting, mortgage)

[DomerJen]

It's my understanding that Regent Square is very desireable, while Wilkinsburg is... not.

I found this house (mls 798297) that has a lot of character, said it's regent park, but it's on Biddle and Hay.

Is it out of the "good" zone of Regent Square?

[Copanut]

For the record, Regent Square is a neighborhood that includes portions of the municipalities of Pittsburgh, Edgewood, Swissvale and Wilkinsburg.

The house in question is located in Wilkinsburg.

[PennHillsNative80]

Originally Posted by DomerJen

It's my understanding that Regent Square is very desireable, while Wilkinsburg is... not.

I found this house (mls 798297) that has a lot of character, said it's regent park, but it's on Biddle and Hay.

Is it out of the "good" zone of Regent Square?

According to the Allegheny County Assessment website, the house is located in the Wilkinsburg portion of Regent Square. Regent Square is a trendy area that is divided into three different neighborhoods (although you can't tell them apart) - those neighborhoods being the City of Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg, and Edgewood/Swissvale. Since Regent Square is isolated by the busway, Frick Park, and the Parkway, it retains its own unique qualities.

The house looks very nice and is priced right. The only worries I would have is if you have children because they would fall into the Wilkinsburg School District - which is not good at all.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by PennHillsNative80

According to the Allegheny County Assessment website, the house is located in the Wilkinsburg portion of Regent Square. Regent Square is a trendy area that is divided into three different neighborhoods (although you can't tell them apart) - those neighborhoods being the City of Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg, and Edgewood/Swissvale. Since Regent Square is isolated by the busway, Frick Park, and the Parkway, it retains its own unique qualities.

The house looks very nice and is priced right. The only worries I would have is if you have children because they would fall into the Wilkinsburg School District - which is not good at all.

Wrong, 4 different municipalities.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by DomerJen

Is this house Wilkinsburg or Regent Square??

Both. The good news is it's the "good" part of Wilkinsurg. The bad news is that it's also in the Wilkinsburg school district and you'd pay Wilkinsburg property taxes, which are off the hook.

[BrianTH]

So as everyone is noting, Regent Square (an informal neighborhood) is partially in Wilkinsburg.

However, that address is not really in Regent Square. To the extent there is an official definition, it is this one provided by the Regent Square Civic Association:

Regent Square Civic Association - Street Map

Trenton is the last street in Regent Square on the northeast side, so Hay is a couple blocks outside of Regent Square.

However, that is actually a nicer part of Wilkinsburg as well, sometimes known as Whitney Park after the nearby park of the same name. It can be a bit more transitional than Regent Square and also is farther from Downtown Regent Square, so it is somewhat less desirable and lower-priced. Nonetheless, I consider it a perfectly fine neighborhood, and it is a good alternative to Regent Square if you are looking to pay a bit less.

Finally, Drover is correct that two important downsides to buying in Wilkinsburg are the school district and the relatively high property tax rate. On the other hand, lower property values mean that your property tax rate is being applied to a lower assessment, and of course less expensive housing also translates into lower mortgage interest payments. Finally, the wage tax is 1%, instead of 3% in the City.

So when we decided to buy in Wilkinsburg, we ran all the numbers and figured out we were coming out well ahead despite the property taxes and having to pay for private schools (which we were thinking about doing anyway) versus living in nearby desirable parts of the City. But if you are thinking of buying in Wilkinsburg, you should really do the same calculations yourself to make sure you are making a sound decision.

[DomerJen]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So when we decided to buy in Wilkinsburg, we ran all the numbers and figured out we were coming out well ahead despite the property taxes and having to pay for private schools (which we were thinking about doing anyway) versus living in nearby desirable parts of the City. But if you are thinking of buying in Wilkinsburg, you should really do the same calculations yourself to make sure you are making a sound decision.

Wow, this sounds complicated even to me, and I'm an accountant. LOL It's definitely good to consider though... I've never even heard of the wage tax (We live in Atlanta right now)!

Thanks for the tips!

[BrianTH]

Yeah, my wife is a financial analyst with a bank, and she doesn't want to touch this stuff. Fortunately in our case it wasn't a particularly close call: given how much more an equivalent house would have cost in the other neighborhoods we were considering, the additional mortgage interest, opportunity cost of capital, and property taxes at the lower rate were more than enough to exceed the cost of the property taxes at the higher rate plus the most expensive private schools in the area. The lower wage taxes then just became a bonus, and that isn't even considering yet the fact that school only lasts thirteen years, and we would have options to pay well less than the highest private school rate, and we might have paid for private school either way.

[barneyg]

I lived one block from that house for 2 years before moving back to Canada last summer. Our house was right on the other side of that park; we were renting so I can't really tell you about the property tax experience. It's a wonderful area, but things change dramatically when you go north of Kelly Ave, or east (other side of the tracks/busway). Some houses on Biddle look extremely weird and quite a few of them seem neglected, but otherwise my wife, 2 young kids (now 4 and 2) and I enjoyed walking to Frick Park and to the Braddock Ave restaurants, esp. The Green Mango.

BrianTH sums up the Regent Square issue well -- that area is outside of the Civic Association's limits, which have come to define Regent Square at some point. But we always considered that we lived in Regent Square, not just to avoid saying we lived in Wilkinsburg.

[BrianTH]

By the way, after writing the above it did occur to me that more and more people seem to be viewing that area as Regent Square, and the bottomline is that there really is no official definition so it is basically a matter of convention. So it wouldn't surprise me if over time the conventional definition expanded to include that area, and similarly the parts of Edgewood west of the Busway but outside the RCSA boundaries. Heck, if the area north of us takes off, I could see Regent Square eventually absorbing everything up to Penn and west of the Busway.

But for now, I guess I would just note you should expect to pay at least a bit less in that area.