A Market on the Move
While much of the nation is suffering the slings and arrows of an outrageously bad real estate market, the Greater Pittsburgh region is experiencing steady growth.
By Tim McNellie

If you listen to the tales of woe the national media has been spinning about the housing market, you’d think that a lot of real estate agents are a few steps away from the unemployment line.

Don’t tell that to Mary Eve Kearns of Howard Hanna Real Estate. “Last year was the best year I’ve ever had in real estate,” says Kearns, who has been in the business for more than 15 years. “Most people in my office had really good years too.”

Photo: Real Estate agent Mary Eve Kearns prepares to show a house.

Pittsburgh gets a lot of flak for being out of touch. One version of a Mark Twain quote has him saying that if the world ends, he hopes he’s in Pittsburgh, because everything gets there 10 years late. And Forbes Magazine, in declaring the Pittsburgh is the worst city in the country for single people, said that while mullets and WrestleMania T-shirts have recently come back in style with New Yorkers as a cheeky fashion statement, “Pittsburghers have been wearing them without irony since 1989.”

But there’s one trend that Pittsburghers are proud to buck: the national housing slump. While homeowners in many markets have seen the values of their properties fall off a cliff, prices in the Greater Pittsburgh area have remained relatively stable. And while there’s a freeze on home construction in some parts of the country – which is crushing local economies – Western Pennsylvania is still seeing a positive trend of new housing starts.

In fact, even more the case, the local housing market might be headed for a mini-boom. The combination of stable prices and low interest rates, may have created a real estate sweet spot, where buyers can find an affordable house with great financing, while sellers can still move their property relatively quickly and at decent prices.

“There’s a lot of activity right now,” says Christina Ross, of Keller Williams Realty. “Unlike other parts of the country, our real estate values didn’t increase tremendously over the last few years, and as a result, we’re not feeling the downside like those places are now.”

In fact, while the national median sales price of a home dipped 5.8 percent in the last months of 2007, Pittsburgh median sale was up 4.2 percent. “It’s a great time to buy a house,” Kearns says.

And while the region hasn’t completely escaped the national deluge of sub-prime loan defaults, it hasn’t hit nearly as hard here as, say, Cleveland, where as many as 10,000 families could lose their homes now that their payments on their adjustable mortgages have shot up. The overall effects of the mortgage crisis could still impact Western Pennsylvania, however, especially as banks have become much more selective in extending credit. But at the moment there are no serious signs of a severe slowdown.

In Peters Township, for example, new home construction dipped by about 25 percent last year, but considering the blistering pace at which the township has grown in recent years, that still puts new home construction in triple digits. Thus, in 2007, some 374 homes were sold in the township, with an average price of $351,000.

Across the county line in South Fayette, the township wasn’t approached by nearly as many housing developers last year as it had been in previous years, but with plenty of already-approved lots still out there, new home starts aren’t about to fizzle out.

The managers of both townships report a marked increase in commercial activity in their communities, which may be the result of the housing booms of previous years. With the influx of new residents in South Fayette and Peters, commercial builders see opportunity. That’s what realtors are seeing as well. “I felt good about last year and feel good about this year,” says Christina Ross. “As long as somebody doesn’t have unrealistic expectations – like trying to get a house at 50 percent off – it’s a good market. Prices are good and interest rates are low.”

"In the 22 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen a market like this. There are so many positive factors in the Pittsburgh housing market that we are becoming a role model for the whole country. It’ll be a busy spring season."
- Barb Baker Prudential Realty

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