The Rise of the South Side Slopes

Related Images

Enlarge

Enlarge

Enlarge

Enlarge

Related Tags

South Side 

When the first annual South Side house tour debuted in the spring of 1991, its hopeful organizers wanted to showcase the neighborhood’s potential to buyers like themselves, those willing to invest a little cash and a lot of sweat equity to polish a tarnished architectural gem. At the time, only a few homes in the South Side had broken through the $100,000 ceiling, and the vacancy rate along East Carson St. was still in double digits.

How times have changed. When the 16^th annual Historic South Side Home Tour unfolds on June 2nd, a dozen private homes in one of Pittsburgh’s hottest housing markets will be open for ogling.

According to the South Side Local Development Company, median home values in the South Side -- where current listings range from $32,000 to $895,000 -- have nearly tripled city rates in the past decade. And nowhere is the upward trend more evident than in the South Side Slopes, my neighborhood for the past 14 years, a neighborhood described by the New York Times last year as “on the brink of trendy.”

A few months ago a house on my street sold for nearly $600,000, making it the highest sale in the Flats and Slopes to date. My neighbors and I are still reveling in a state of disbelief, even as we mentally calculate the increase in our own home’s equity.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the lure of the South Side Slopes had captivated us as well. Indeed, the Pius St. home that recently topped the South Side charts and the high-priced condo development on the opposite end of the street were both developed by Slopes residents who intuitively understand the neighborhood’s value.

So, what’s the Slopes’ appeal?

Community redevelopment, done well. In 1982, when the South Side Local Development Company was formed, the community focused on restoring the East Carson St. business district, one of the nation’s largest collections of Victorian commercial architecture, which had declined along with the neighborhood’s steel mill. Reviving the historic commercial corridor would bring back residents, organizers strategized, and that’s exactly what happened. Visitors to the neighborhood’s cool bars, restaurants and shops eventually wanted to live within walking (or stumbling) distance, driving up housing values.

“What we’re seeing in the South Side real estate market today is the natural evolution of successful redevelopment,” says Don Carlson of Carlson McGinley Real Estate. “It was only a matter of time before the momentum in the Flats would migrate to the Slopes.”

Developers who are pushing the market. Another brilliant community organizing move was the South Side’s advocacy of a recent zoning change that prohibits investors from remodeling single family homes into multiple units, which in the past often generated considerable rental income for absentee landlords. Today, opportunists intent on flipping homes in the neighborhood are investing significantly to turn them around, says The Healey Company’s Michael Healey, a general contractor who specializes in restoration. “Investors understand that buyers are willing to pay for quality,” he notes.

At the upper end of the South Side price range are homes with extraordinary features. Michael Powers, the Coldwell Banker agent who listed the $600,000 sale on my street, described the row home’s “ultra-contemporary” restoration as “spectacular.” The Angels Arms condos in the former St. Michael’s Catholic Church, which range from $259,000 to $625,000 for unfinished units, incorporate original architectural features from the sanctuary and rectory. The new three-story, energy-efficient townhomes of Windom Hill Place, also selling in the neighborhood of $600,000, boast views of Downtown from 10-foot-high windows.

The view. “You’ll pay at least $900,000 in Mt. Washington for the view you can get in the South Side for much less,” notes Powers.

Herein lies the beauty of the Slopes housing market: The higher you go, the better the view, but because South Side’s housing values are slowly trending upward from the Flats to the Slopes, the farther you go from East Carson St., the less you’re likely to pay.

“I got twice the house for half the cost,” says Brad Palmisiano, president of the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, who purchased his Pius St. home four years ago for $68,000 after a futile search for a house in the Flats. Like me, Brad lives on the non-view side of the street. “I didn’t even realize there was a view until the previous owner showed me how to climb up to the roof. Construction of the rooftop deck then became an immediate priority.”

The vibe. Whether you live in the Flats or the Slopes, you can’t beat the South Side for convenience. South Siders can walk to virtually anything their hearts desire, from a four-star dinner to a first-rate concert to a shot-and-a-beer before bed. We can shop for everything from movies, books and high-tech electronics to art, flowers, furniture and designer jeans, right here in our own neighborhood. In the Slopes, the addition of UUBU 6 last fall, a new tablecloth restaurant in the old Workingman’s Beneficial Union building that still features the original 1940s-era bar, is yet another sign of upward progress.

“It used to be that the Slopes was always on the wrong side of the tracks compared to the Flats,” says Palmisiano, an architectural engineer who walks home every evening from his office Downtown. “Now, we’re above the fray.”

For more information about the Historic South Side Home Tour, which features several Slopes properties, visit www.southsidepgh.com.

In addition to living on and writing from the Slopes, Beth Marcello manages Women’s Business Development for National City.