An extremely low quantity of houses on the market is driving up prices for would-be homeowners in Pittsburgh.
Buying a home in Pittsburgh’s current housing market is a challenging proposition, especially for first-time homebuyers. Not only are mortgage rates at 6.9% for a 30-year fixed rate, but there is an even more definite stumbling block to home ownership: an exceptional lack of housing inventory. With low inventory comes an increase in demand and a substantial rise in prices. Pittsburgh is currently a sellers’ market.
According to Kim Shindle, vice president of communications at the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, state-wide statistics show that compared to the 59,000 houses available on the market in 2020, there are now only 37,000. Potential buyers have to make do with 22,000 fewer options, leading some to consider flipping homes or even starting from scratch and purchasing an empty lot.
The housing shortage is particularly noticeable in the $150,000 price range. While there are significantly more options upwards of $400,000, this is simply not an option for many Pittsburgh families. The United States Census Bureau reported in 2023 that the median household income in the Pittsburgh area is $64,137, while according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the median home price in Allegheny County is $245, 940 as of 2024.
Zillow’s calculations show that the median home sale-price across Pittsburgh is about $221,000–still a considerable amount when buyers aren’t convinced that what’s on the market is worth paying for.
A major frustration would-be-buyers encounter is how quickly homes are getting snatched up. According to the president of the Westmoreland Realtors Association, Tony Molnar-Strejcek, a neutral housing market requires that homes be on the market for roughly four months, while in Pittsburgh’s Monongahela Valley the average months-of-inventory metric is two to two and a half months.
Missing the opportunity to put in an offer is not the only difficulty. Buyers are experiencing last minute collapse, too. Rising property taxes in certain areas are detrimental to home buyers’ mortgage eligibility. Recently, the Shaler Area School district increased their property taxes to 6.6%. For one buyer, already under contract to buy a Shaler house, this meant that their debt-to-income ratio was pushed over the bank’s limit and the contract fell through.
While home-flipping and renting are, of course, still options, they aren’t necessarily good ones. Ryan Scialabba, co-founder of HomeBuyers of Pittsburgh, says that where he used to be able to flip homes for $50 per square foot, due to rising labor and material costs, he now has to pay $75-89 per square foot. The renting situation isn’t much more cost effective either, and data shows that renting is currently more expensive in the long term than buying. The monthly mortgage payment of a home could very well be the same as the monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment, depending on the location.
Despite these unpromising statistics, some realty professionals remain hopeful. The current unpredictable nature of the housing market might prove in buyers’ interest in the coming months. Moreover, there are numerous success stories and strokes of luck. For instance, retired physics professor and first-time homeowner John Mullinex–a bachelor with no children–wasn’t asking for much and found what he wanted without any fuss or delay.
On another positive note, Emily Fraser of The Fraser Team, says that “Pittsburgh hosts a historically stable housing market, averaging roughly 4% to 5% yearly appreciation rates over the last 20 years. Many factors are in our favor that point to Pittsburgh continuing to be a stable place to own property.”
However, the U.S. Consumer Confidence Index provided by The Conference Board experienced a major drop in February and then again in March, likely tied to economic uncertainty concerning the prices of household goods and impacts of tariffs. Sylvia Maxwell, president of the Greater Allegheny-Kiski Area Board of Realtors, reflects that “we’re all at a wait-and-see point right now.”
