Seeking affordable homes, many in Pittsburgh look south

James Lomuscio wanted to take his growing family from renting to owning a home in 2019, and moving to Brookline was the answer. There, they found a suitable home for $125,000, he said, and now raise their six kids alongside a cluster of families who share their Catholic faith.

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Liz and Sam Gordon bought a home in Brookline two years later. With six cats and no children in their plans, the neighborhood’s somewhat small houses suited them fine. 

“Since 2011, I’ve lived in seven different Pittsburgh neighborhoods,” Liz said. “Brookline definitely is at the top of my list, and I’ve lived here the longest.”

Whether you have six kids or six cats, buying a home in South Pittsburgh can be significantly less expensive than buying in other Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including the trendy, renter-heavy East End. Interested buyers have had luck in neighborhoods such as Brookline, Carrick and Overbrook, where homeownership rates are far higher than the city’s overall.

Neighborhoods in the south of Pittsburgh are “extremely affordable,” said Alyssa Costantino, a Howard Hanna real estate agent with family ties to Carrick and Brookline. She expects home prices to mostly remain steady, as buyers are feeling cautious due to high interest rates and other costs rising.

“You’re not seeing people overpaying by thousands on homes like you were in 2020 or 2021,” she said.

Brian Odioso, a realtor with Riverpoint Realty Group, cautioned that while affordability appears to abound in Carrick and nearby Overbrook, he is noticing home prices increase in Brookline. That trend, he said, is driven by young professionals buying duplexes and triplexes to “house hack” — living in one unit and renting out the others to pay off the mortgage.

Another concern, observers said, is that rising prices are beginning to cause displacement. One driver is the increase in corporations buying up single-family homes, either to flip or rent. 

Amanda Rineer and her partner live in Carrick, home to some of the most affordable homes in Pittsburgh. They moved there when she was in graduate school and were glad to leave behind the renting life. She said one past landlord endeavored to sell her building while she lived there, leading to “a million strangers” touring her home. Now she and her partner are the only ones with keys.

“There’s a good mix of long-term residents, and I would say a lot of younger people have been moving here from outside and from other neighborhoods because of its affordability,” Rineer said. (She referred to non-newcomers as “Carrickters.”)

She works as a program manager for the city government, and has found Carrick to be plenty affordable. 

“I work with people who live in Greenfield; they say, ‘I’m still hesitant to buy a home,’” Rineer said. “But here, that’s a non-issue. I think it’s a huge factor, and it’s bringing in a lot of people.”

The 2020 census found Carrick’s population increased by 177 during the 2010s.

When the Gordons bought their home in Brookline in 2021, the couple was lured by the neighborhood’s affordability, proximity to public transit into Downtown and general walkability. 

“There’s a lot of places [in Pittsburgh] that are super hilly and don’t have sidewalks, and Brookline wasn’t like that,” Liz Gordon said. 

The neighborhood has also provided a home base for the couple’s passion of helping local cats. They contribute to local organizations that provide care for so-called “cat colonies,” or clusters of stray cats living in locations around the city. 

Lomuscio, an entrepreneur who originally moved to Pittsburgh from Connecticut to study at Pitt, said he wouldn’t have been able to afford buying in Highland Park, where he previously lived with his wife and kids in a third-floor apartment. 

“The real decider was that we could afford to buy a home here,” he said.

When his family first arrived in the neighborhood, the preponderance of other families provided near-constant social opportunities, like bonfires and cookouts. “It almost felt like summer camp,” he said. Lomuscio and his wife are now looking for a bigger home for their family. Though finding a right-sized home nearby has been challenging, they don’t want to leave the neighborhood. 

“We’re deliberately trying to stay in this neighborhood,” said Lomuscio. “Our kids are in their formative years, we’d rather not take them out of the place.”

Editor’s note: This story was first published in a Pittsburgh’s Public Source neighborhood zine. Look for our printed zines now in Brookline, Carrick, Overbrook and Oakland.

Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Emma Folts.