Moving to Pittsburgh

TLDR: We're moving to Pittsburgh in June and looking for advice, mostly on where to target for living. Probably but not definitely a suburb. Schools are important.

The long version: My wife just accepted a new job at U of Pittsburgh. A little like @exmediahack's thread, we're reluctantly moving from a great place (we can barely afford) for a significant career opportunity. It was a hard decision, but it was the right one.

We have two young children, 6 and 2.

At this point, we're sold enough on the region. It wasn't at the top of either of our lists, but we've heard nothing but rave reviews from everyone we know who's spent more than 24 hours there, so here we go.

We're not committed to buying a house right when we get there. If we need to rent for a bit and learn the lay of the land, so be it but we hate the idea of moving the kids to new schools more than once so if we can ID a city or neighborhood we like with reasonable housing, we'd at very least like to rent in that area, if not buy.

We will take several neighborhood hunting trips, but at this point barely know where to start. We're probably not interested in city-city, but suburbs, newer or older, as far as 30, 35 minutes from Pitt? Schools and housing prices (and in turn property taxes?) are factors (and those priorities may contradict!). In some ways, we'd love the charm and perhaps walkability of some areas. In others, an older house could be a lot of headaches and we'd love some backyard space for the kids.

So... any advice? Someone gave us an aggressive Mt. Lebanon recommendation. Someone else said Cranberry (and in that, perhaps we have the new burb vs. old burb options?). We really don't know much beyond those two very basic recommendations at this point, so I'd love to hear anything anyone had to say!

 

My condolences.

 

Seriously though, southeast is more mountainous. Skiing. Seven Springs. Hiking. Appalachian Trail.

When you start to select a specific house - be sure to drive that route during your commuting times to see how good/bad it is. Because you’ll be driving that route a lot for the next several years. If the drive sucks, that’s an enormous time sink and loss of quality of life.

 

The South Fayette area is really nice. All its schools are highly rated. Lots of new construction if you're looking for a contemporary home but it still has a lot of traditional Western Pa. architecture if you're looking for a better price or you want more space. Pittsburgh is very accessible, too. Generally convenient commute.

 

Shadyside/Squirrel Hill neighborhoods are near Pitt and cool -- at least when I was hanging out there 30 years ago.

 

God damn it. lol.

 

Make sure the freestanding toilet in the basement doesn’t leak.

I went to a college friend’s house one weekend and just blankly stared at the thing, confused.

 

Bethel Park is nice. Congrats to you and your spouse. Check out Pittsburgh Dad on youtube when you get the chance if you are unfamiliar.

 

Better a free-standing toilet than a lotion pit.

 

I know the McCandless/Wexford area north of the city is pretty appealing, too. North Allegheny district is really good.

 

I lived in Mt. Lebanon for a year when I was finishing up my undergrad at Pitt. You can get to campus in 20-25 minutes depending on the route. Cranberry is going to be better for you on property taxes but you're going to double your commute, which will be a shit show when it snows. My mom lives in Rosslyn Farms and I'd recommend there as well as other south suburbs like Robinson and Green Tree. Easy drive into town and out to the airport.