When thinking about investing in real estate we consider the neighborhood, the community that surrounds it, the school district etc. When thinking about investment properties we look for where we can get the most bang for our buck and rent units for the most money possible. Had you asked us back in 2007 if the East Liberty area was a good community to invest in, we would have probably responded with mixed emotions.
East Liberty is a section of the east side of the City of Pittsburgh that is surrounded by neighborhoods like Shadyside, Highland Park, Homewood and Wilkinsburg.
Boarded up buildings were a common sight in East Liberty not more than 7 years ago.
Sure it offered a diverse community with unique shops, restaurants and bars owned by people living in the community and it isn’t far from a large park, Pittsburgh Zoo and other great museums, but it was also riddled with drug and alcohol abusers, crime and condemned buildings. Is that a place to settle into and potentially think about raising a family?
Newly renovated buildings meant tearing down some condemned portions and giving others a much needed facelift.
East Liberty featured thriving businesses and theater opportunities in its glory days in the 1940’s and 50’s.
Looking at the same neighborhood today in 2014 you would get a different response from us. Many of the condemned buildings have been torn down and replaced with luxury housing complexes, new opportunities for small shops are available and that diversity we mentioned? Still there. The one thing that has changed is that some of those small business owners that were there moved their businesses toother parts of the city such as neighboring Larimer, Homewood and Wilkinsburg. All this redevelopment has put East Liberty back on the map like it was in the 1940s and 50s. USA Today even named it in their May 8, 2014 article “10 up-and-coming neighborhoods around the USA” alongside Ohio City, Cleveland; Detroit, Michigan; and Kansas City, Kansas to name a few. This recognition comes as another feather in the hat of Pittsburgh with all of the recent recognition the city has gotten in the past few years, from “most livable city” to a top 10 “comeback city” to “smartest city in the United States” to the unexpected “10th most romantic city in the United States”. Moral of the story? Kudos to those that saw the potential in the East Liberty neighborhood and truly gave it the spit polish it deserved. Don’t be afraid to think about investing in a lesser neighborhood that you see the potential in and really getting involved in the community and push for the changes that the community needs to take it from mediocre to great. The payoff in the end will be more than worth it. Consider all those people that took the chance and invested in property in East Liberty when it was dirt cheap…how much do you think those properties are going for now?