by Christine O'Toole / Photography by Lisa Kyle
Map Illustration by Phil Wilson

Pittsburgh's reputation for affordable homes is growing nationally. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo, the Pittsburgh region ranks in the top-50 most affordable cities in the country--in 2005, it placed 40th.

When we asked Pittsburghers what they look for in a home, many said they liked good housing stock, and they love a bargain (you can still bag a great home for under $75,000 in six of our top picks). They also want an easy
commute. (Most of our picks are less than 30 minutes from downtown.) And we embrace a corner coffee shop where neighbors can schmooze, sip and connect with the locals. And, whether for tomatoes or tschotchkes, they demand good shopping.

But most of all, they want connections with their neighbors. And that's where every one of our picks shines. Each little district gives itself high marks for folks who care about each other, who get together to make their space cleaner or cooler, who turn out to be fun to know. That's what neighborhood is all about.
If you're looking for a new place where you can connect, check out these possibilities.

ASPINWALL

Median Home Price: $180,000
Population: 2,960
Factoid: Town Post Office: J&W Variety

Eclectic on the Water
When Aspinwall's residents hop onto their bikes or pile into friends' convertibles for a ride around town, waving and inching along Brilliant Avenue at 2 miles an hour, you know summer has officially arrived via one of the smallest Memorial Day parades around.

Gracious late-Victorian facades, flat streets and funky accents such as Bavarian fortresses make Aspinwall one of the most stylish of the Allegheny River towns. Bounded by the river, railroad tracks and Route 28, the tiny borough might not seem to have much chance to grow. But the way it's growing is younger.

As older families turn over their handsome homes to young ones, the community and its perky business district are the David to the Goliath--the giant being the Waterworks shopping center in nearby Pittsburgh.

The modernism of St. Scholastica Catholic Church, dedicated in 1950, provides contrast to traditional architecture, such as the home above with its great Gothic windows.

Brilliant Avenue merchants such as Otto's Shoe Repair, Eddie C.'s Barber Shop and J&W Variety anchor the walkable business district; newer hot spots, including Aspinwall Bookshop and ESSpa Kozmetika, create unique local appeal. Restaurants such as Aspinwall Grille and Luna are always full.

Novelist Philip Beard, who lives a block from the town center, says J&W provides a homey magnet for the town (population about 3,000). "It's probably the only place in the country where you can mail a letter and get your vacuum cleaner fixed at the same time," says Beard. (The post office is a battered counter at the back of the two-room store.)

Beard, a resident for 15 years, says it's a great place for a writer to live: "There's a great variety of people--they'd make great characters." The mix includes elderly matrons still living in large family homes, yuppies buying starter homes and families who prefer a sidewalk community where kids can scooter a few blocks to recreation fields. Bounded by Western Avenue toward Sharpsburg and by Delafield Avenue at UPMC St. Margaret Memorial Hospital, the town comprises a few dozen flat blocks near the river--with the biggest homes--and the curving roads that wind up to O'Hara Township. Built into the hillside along Centre Avenue is Heidelberg, a fantastic village of stone castles, which includes a three-story apartment building converted from a chicken house by architect Frederick Sauer around the 1920s.

Commanding the corner of First and Brilliant for the past 90 years is Brilliant Market, whose young new owners, Craig and Erin Snyder, keep its tradition of old-school personal service. They've added Elysian Fields lamb to its butchered offerings, and they hit the Strip District each morning for the freshest produce. If you need just one pork chop for dinner, they'll even deliver.

"Town's younger than it used to be," says Rosie Welsh, who's owned the thriving Rosebud's gift store on First Street for almost 19 years. "A lot of families are moving here, buying the multifamily houses and turning them into single family. It's really nice to see the strollers out."

BRIGHTON HEIGHTS

Median Home Price: $75,000
Population: 14,318
Factoid: 718 Acres, Riv Vu

Brighton-ing up the Heights
The crisply renovated Osterling Flats on California Avenue, their century-old ornate Dutch-style facades gleaming, send the signal loud and clear: What's old is new again in Brighton Heights. This North Side community is revamping local resources, including the Flats and a former bank that's morphed into a spot to eat and meet your neighbors. Giving directions to Brighton Heights may result in a variety of interpretations. Next to Riverview Park? Yes. Just over the McKees Rocks Bridge? That, too. Meanwhile, one busy street, Termon Avenue, snakes up a hill off Route 65 near a bridge close to a business district, where main drag California Avenue willfully hangs a right. The resulting five-street intersection can stymie would-be explorers. Home buyers, press on: There are bargains on these tree-lined streets.

"We're on the other side of Riverview Park from Observatory Hill," says Ray Meyer, who's lived on McClure Avenue for 26 years. "We two [neighborhoods] share the park." Families like the Meyerses are finding new neighbors who also appreciate the housing stock in this North Side neighborhood.

One is 38-year-old Kelly Burns, who bought and restored her 1930s Arts and Crafts brick home on Viruth Street six years ago after returning to the city from North Carolina. She spearheads the "Portal Project" of the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation. The plan is to bring economic revitalization to the business district, welcoming visitors to the neighborhood with a new sign, cleaned-up streetscape and a new traffic roundabout to replace the five-point traffic stop at Termon.

Property values in the Heights haven't risen as dramatically as in other city districts, but they're still 27 percent higher than they were in 1995. And that could change even more as new families take advantage of solid, affordable houses, and singles consider a new crop of condos.

"The Osterling Flats are just beautiful. The community group has converted three California Avenue buildings on the downtown bus line into great units with the old marble fireplaces," reports Meyer. Osterling, the architect of Clayton and the Union Trust Building, designed the buildings in the early 1900s with ornate Dutch rooflines. Buyers like the one and two-bedroom flats' interior touches, added by EDGE Architecture, as much as the price, around $125,000.

Supplying the energy for a nascent business-district renaissance is The Vault, a bank turned coffee and tea bar and performance space that opened last year. It's become a destination for parents en route to Rooney Middle School, commuters grabbing the Bellevue-downtown bus outside or art lovers checking out exhibits in the tiny upper-level gallery while chomping on The Vault's famous open-faced PB&J sandwiches. One recent show: tattoo art.

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