Affordable-ish Housing in Pittsburgh: Rockin’ the suburbs edition

Most stereotypical sprawling suburbs are the same wherever you go, which is part of their appeal (to some), and Pittsburgh has plenty. Those cookie-cutter ‘burbs get plenty of attention and aren’t affordable anywhere right now. But Pittsburgh has other kinds of outlying municipalities that are different, ranging from leafy streetcar suburbs seamlessly connected to the urban grid to rusting river towns looking for reasons to keep existing after the mills shut down. Others are somewhere in between, or nothing like them at all. Some are still quite affordable.

SHARPSBURG
For sale: 610 Altmeyer St., Sharpsburg, $199,000
The birthplace of the Heinz food empire, and the place that gave my penniless grandfather a stable life (as a blacksmith for Heinz) apart from his hell-raising family of Polish Punxsutawney moonshiners. I’m always going to have a soft spot for this place. It has seen some hard times, and isn’t often easy on the eyes, apart from some 19^th-century brick storefronts on the main drag. The layers of awkward cladding materials — aluminum, Insulbrick, asbestos, whatever — seem nearly impenetrable. And yet, you can walk to things — like an ever-increasing number of good restaurants, shops, and breweries — and take a bus and be in Lawrenceville faster than someone driving from Oakland. It’s also nice to have a well-funded public school district, as long as you can deal with it being Fox Chapel.

For rent: 1349 Main St., Sharpsburg, $950/month
This neighborhood might be the single place where the Yinzer accent is thickest (how can we measure this?), but sometimes change creeps up on you when you least expect it. There’s a pretty big plan in motion to make Sharpsburg’s neglected industrial riverfront into a place to live. In this case, new construction isn’t displacing anything except a scrapyard, and there is a substantial (15%) affordable housing component, so the effect on existing rents should be muted (well, we’ll see). But if rents do rise more than normal, you’ll probably see it in places like this queasy-yellow wood-frame duplex first.
SWISSVALE
For sale: 2751 Columbia Ave., Swissvale, $229,900
Some of Pittsburgh’s close-in suburbs have a coherent, unified feel to them.

And then there’s Swissvale, which seems to change its vibe every other street. It’s kind of its own thing, too, once you get used to its rhythms and look past its flaws. The decline of steel hit hard, but unlike most of the Mon Valley, it’s adjacent to other job centers in Pittsburgh, which helps keep its housing stock intact. This three-bedroom home is a perfect example. It looks robust enough to survive a world war (just missed one, built in 1950), and cozy enough that you know someone’s grandma kept it sparkling, down to the dish full of Werther’s or root beer barrels (whatever was on sale). They don’t really build anything this size anymore, which is a big reason that “affordable housing” seems like a joke to so many.
For rent: 7915 Saint Lawrence Ave., Swissvale, $899/month
Yes, 615 square feet is a small space to live in. But at one point in your life, this would have probably been just enough, or even seemed like a lot. (Maybe after living at your parents’, or in a dorm). This one has a bit of charm in an English-suburb sort of way, seeming like it wandered in from Giggleswick or East Didsbury and never left. Hey, it’s not cramped, it’s “cozy” with the right mindset.
CARNEGIE
For sale: 417 Fountain St., Carnegia, $163,500
Whenever a house for sale doesn’t go for the almost inescapable minimalist-gray look nowadays, it’s almost a shock. I like houses that look lived in, not blank canvases. But sometimes it goes rocketing off in the other direction. Like sure, that string of tiny lights on the porch does distract from faux-stone/siding-clad façade, but then there’s a spare tire there, and a purple sports car on prominent display, and it’s like “Whoa, take the personality down about 10% there, bud.” Walkable neighborhoods with decent places to eat and drink in the city don’t have a lot of prices like this anymore, so Carnegie is worth considering for that alone.
For rent: 930 Hope Hollow Rd. #3, Carnegie, $1,200/month
How do you feel about baby blue? Because every room in this apartment has some major part of it painted that color, in the boldest, glossiest manner possible. There’s even a vintage-looking baby blue refrigerator, and a baby blue microwave. Did they really paint this place to match a refrigerator? Was this the site of some gender-reveal party shenanigans gone awry? Why is this so endearing? (It’s not gray/minimalist/ready-to-sell, probably).