living in the South Side Slopes? (Pittsburgh, Reading: real estate, lease, chapel)

[ReadingIsSexy27]

My husband,2 daughters and I moved to Pittsburgh in Aug of 2011 so my husband could get his MBA at CMU. I have fallen in love with Pittsburgh- much to my surprise! We are hoping my husband can find a job here so that we can stay. Im being cautiously optimistic and starting to research neighborhoods we can move to.

We currently live in Regent Square, technically Wilkinsburg but we are literally 4 houses away from the edgewood line. We love the neighborhood and the area and have it on our list for possible places to stay but the schools here arent great- though I do think the idea of the environmental charter school is a great one but we cant guarantee our girls would get in there when the time comes. So Ive been looking into other school districts and have seen that Upper St. Clair has a great school district so for that reason we would consider moving there. We want somewhere with a little bit of character, a cute downtown area, houses with character, parks etc. Not looking for ugly strip malls

Can anyone tell me anything about the Upper St. Clair area? Are there good parks and playgrounds? Is it close to good shopping?

I have been checking out real estate and fell in LOVE with some of the places I saw in South Side Slopes. Can anyone shed some light on how it might be living in that area with young kids? Are the schools any good?

Thanks!

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ReadingIsSexy27

We want somewhere with a little bit of character, a cute downtown area, houses with character, parks etc. Not looking for ugly strip malls.

This does not define Upper St. Clair. It's a characterless subdivision with no cute downtown and strip malls all around it.

Originally Posted by ReadingIsSexy27

I have been checking out real estate and fell in LOVE with some of the places I saw in South Side Slopes. Can anyone shed some light on how it might be living in that area with young kids? Are the schools any good?

I suspect the schools aren't good but others more knowledgeable will chime in. If you want character and a cute downtown with a good school district, look at Mt. Lebanon, Aspinwall (Fox Chapel School District), Sewickely, and perhaps Oakmont.

[ReadingIsSexy27]

Thank you! And definitely thank you for the recommendations. I will check those out.

[sealie]

Is your husband driving to school or taking the bus?

[ferraris]

Do you have any idea what your budget is?

[robrobrob]

If you want a cute downtown area and good schools. Sewickley is really your only option. I wouldn't call Lebo cute. Sure it has a couple of business districts but they aren't exactly cute. Aspinwall's business district is tiny. The attraction of Aspinwall is that it has great schools, a small business district, close to shopping, Oakland and Downtown.
Oakmont is nice. But a lot of people aren't sold on the school district and for a lot of stuff you really have to cross the Hulton Bridge which can be a pain. I know people that have moved to the new homes by the river recently and that is their big compaint.

[sealie]

Me, I'd be looking at the Pittsburgh side of Regent Square, which puts you in a better position in the ECS lottery as well as in one of the better PPS options. I would especially do this if he is going to continue to need to get to Oakland. I presume this wouldn't happen until he got the MBA and a job offer, so you're just scouting around for now? The reason I asked about the bus vs driving is that it gets increasingly difficult to get in and out of CMU from some of these neighborhoods unless you want to spend a lot of time on the road, and some of them would require a transfer to get into Oakland by bus, whereas from Regent Square/Wilkinsburg it is relatively painless.

[eschaton]

As to the Slopes in particular, the Western half is in Phillips (which is the K-5 for the Flats) while the eastern half is in Arlington (a K-8). Phillips has always been a better-scoring school, both because it is whiter and because it has a partial Spanish magnet program in it (which you have to apply to), but there have been signs the neighborhood side is getting better. I would not recommend Arlington - next to Grandview it's probably the worst of the elementary schools in the southern part of the city.

If you want guaranteed good local schools in the city, this is the region to look within. I didn't highlight Hazelwood, even though it goes to the right schools, as its essentially a ghetto. Central/South Oakland is not a ghetto, but it's mainly a student slum, thus it might not be somewhere you'd be interested in living.

[Pghuser]

Parking on the Slopes could be tough depending on the street.

[ReadingIsSexy27]

We are in our lease until July 31 so we will be here until after my husband graduates in May. He is interviewing and looking for jobs now, hopefully we will know something concrete soon. Im really just trying to figure out options right now. He has a good idea of what his salary will be, give or take about 10k so we have an idea of our budget. We would likely rent for about a year- give us time to pay off the student loans- so I think we would expect to pay around $1800 to rent a 3-4 bedroom. Does that seem possible? And then to buy I think we would have a budget around 250k-300k. That could vary depending on a few things but that is what we talk about.

Right now he rides the bus but that wont be an issue after may.

I also forgot to mention Id rather not go much farther north- I could manage Sewickley but I think that might be our limit. It might sound silly but Im from the DC area and I dont want to be much farther than 4 hours away from my family there.

Thank you for all of the info everyone!