Before I moved back to Pittsburgh from San Fran, I traveled back and forth. There were two solid houses with panoramic views on Dunloe Street that were somehwhat deteriorated. The council was looking for someone to rehab them. I told some friends in CA about them and one or more came in to see them. No one bought them in the end and they were demolished. One friend tried to buy a house from the city but was told he was not eligible because he never paid taxes to the city. Go figure. I am telling this because more houses are demolished from neglect than are saved by young people with energy. A $120,000 house that one can move into will spend less time on the market than a $5K house that needs everything. I'd venture the same is true for a $50,000 house that needs some things.

Luckily we have a market and many people have spent a good portion of their lives fixing up houses in the War Streets and elsewhere. It has been a labor of love--love of old houses, love of community, and well many just can't stand to see the city they grew up in (or moved to) deteriorating. Today we're pretty far along and what some would call "gentrification" is part of a national trend in American cities to see the core come alive again. Gentrification or not this is a good trend in the sense that every urban house represents one less being built on a former Cranberry farm. City living is good for the environment and good for humanity because people of diverse backgrounds --and incomes--actually meet each other on the street. Many are out there working hard to imporve access to quality affordable housing as this trend progresses.

Of course the more people who want to live in great city neighborhoods like Central Northside, the more expensive houses there will become. The $5K house market is especially limited--there is absolutely no way to increase the supply!!! As I mentioned before, few people with jobs want to rehab a house. Some do it for a living and they make money from it--good. Otherwise some of these homes would end up being razed--and guess what, every house that's razed reduces the supply and pushes prices further upward.

Luckily we live in Pittsburgh where people have been leaving for 50 years. While the supply of homes for rehab, or just inexpensive homes may be dwindling on the flats, there are plenty on the Hills, as well as Sharpsburg, Wilkinsburg, Millvale, etc (and even Marshall-Shadeland which is still relatively flat and close).

There's an old house, actually a pair of them, that sit along Rt 28 near the Heinz Factory. They are likely some of the oldest homes in Pittsburgh. I currently have some friends and community stakeholders engaged in discussions about saving them. If you'd like to be kept up to date or know anything about these homes, please join the discussion group on yahoo groups. Just go to this link and click on JOIN.

I also recently wrote an article about pre-industrial buildings in Pittsburgh. It's posted at legnth at The New Colonist. Check it out.