Pittsburgh real estate update (Liberty, Republic: condo, affordable house, neighborhoods)

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My North Side home is now worth nearly double what we paid for it two years ago. If that is a sign of the city "failing", then so be it.

Now we need someone younger to complain that there are no affordable houses left in the city. Complete the cycle.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My North Side home is now worth nearly double what we paid for it two years ago. If that is a sign of the city "failing", then so be it.

You're one of those lousy, stinkin' Flippers!

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Copanut

You're one of those lousy, stinkin' Flippers!

They’re so nice that they said when the time comes to move they would sell their house to a first time homebuyer like themselves for the price they paid when they bought it. That’s very commendable.

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't understand your desire to spin everything into a story of WHY PITTSBURGH IS FAILING!!!?!?!?!?

i've lived in the east end for almost my entire life except college and a few years in NYC - i'm not here to be a cheerleader - this city, like many others, is being ruined by income inequality which is caused by the fed favoring wall street and burying main street

overpriced apartments downtown and watching walnut street being turned into a fancy shopping mall where william penn tavern has to move so henne jeweler can expand - not a fan

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Copanut

You're one of those lousy, stinkin' Flippers!

Flippers should be sent to prison for abuse of grey paint, abuse of cheap Home Depot vinyl flooring, gutting historical architecture of old homes, and just overall thinking that their poor, cheap taste justifies a 400% profit.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BUILD PENN SQUARE

i've lived in the east end for almost my entire life except college and a few years in NYC - i'm not here to be a cheerleader - this city, like many others, is being ruined by income inequality which is caused by the fed favoring wall street and burying main street

overpriced apartments downtown and watching walnut street being turned into a fancy shopping mall where william penn tavern has to move so henne jeweler can expand - not a fan

I'm also someone who is concerned about income inequality, but it's not something which can be solved by municipal governments, who at most can basically just shuttle the poor people around. In aggregate though the changes to Pittsburgh have been better for the city - certainly financially - in that it's less and less an area of concentrated poverty and more a pretty representative selection of a mix of rich and poor areas similar to Allegheny County as a whole.

As to your alienation about the changes to Shadyside, look, I get it. I'm not an old timer, but I remember moving to Lawrenceville in 2007 and then leaving the neighborhood largely in disgust in 2014 because most of what I liked about living there had already gone away. I also had an older coworker who lived in Shadyside and lamented how Walnut Street systematically lost its local businesses and became nothing but chain stores. But the only thing that's constant in life is change. Neighborhoods always evolve over time, and it's fruitless to expect a neighborhood to remain constant for decades.

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

this is good

Project to better connect Pittsburgh's Larimer neighborhood to Bakery Square

https://triblive.com/local/project-t...bakery-square/

"Local leaders announced the start of construction of a multi-modal corridor that will better connect the Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods of Larimer and Homewood with the Bakery Square development and shopping district.

The $4.5 million project, called the Larimer-Homewood Connector, will include a tree-lined road complete with a pedestrian walk, bike lanes, and rain gardens.

Eventually, the project will include a pedestrian bridge that will connect Bakery Square to Hamilton Street in Larimer, near the intersection of Putnam Street."

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Neighborhoods always evolve over time, and it's fruitless to expect a neighborhood to remain constant for decades.

with that kind of thinking this song would not exist - gotta express yourself

My City Was Gone / The Pretenders

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown

South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

Well, I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed

My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride

The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said, ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

[Moby Hick]

The fed isn't helping, but I don't think many people remember how taxes were back before Reagan. The upper middle class didn't bid up housing prices past the reach of the regular earners because marginal income tax rates were over 50% and capital gains taxes were much higher. We are living with the results of policy choices made over the past forty years.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

The fed isn't helping, but I don't think many people remember how taxes were back before Reagan. The upper middle class didn't bid up housing prices past the reach of the regular earners because marginal income tax rates were over 50% and capital gains taxes were much higher. We are living with the results of policy choices made over the past forty years.

Sometimes I wonder how different America would be if we treated housing like a rapidly depreciating asset similar to the Japanese. Houses in Japan essentially lose all value after 20 years and are replaced.

Certainly there would be less historic preservation, and a lot of construction waste, but on the other hand housing would be much more affordable, because NIMBYism doesn't really exist and there are no housing supply issues to speak of.