Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee
I wish Spring Hill had even a modest business district, no doubt. But you are forgetting our BIGGEST asset: The View. There are quite a few streets that have amazing views and a decent percentage of houses have rooftop decks.
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Views can massively inflate the value of houses in Pittsburgh well beyond neighborhood norms, but realistically they're limited to a fraction of any neighborhood. For an example, look at Perry Hilltop, where the expensive houses on the lower parts of Perrysville and Clayton have not done much to stabilize the neighborhood other than those streets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee
I have read that the brick-layers unions in the Northeast here make it cost prohibitive to do 4 sides brick. I've read that in the Southeast US with right-to-work states that new construction tends to get 4 sides brick because they are paying their guys much less.
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While labor costs for bricklaying are much, much higher in the north, SFH residential projects (even large-scale infill) are usually nonunion jobs even in northern cities. Of course, some of the unionized workers may refuse to work the job on the side if it's below job rate, which could keep the costs higher on residential projects. But it's not directly due to the union - it's just construction work is better paying up here in general.
Still, it's true in general one of the reasons why housing could be so ornamental in the late 19th/early 20th century was because there were tons of skilled immigrant craftsmen willing to work for poverty wages. I personally think a decline in detail is worth the tradeoff if it means construction work is a decent living. I think the rise of 3D printing in construction will result in this paradigm breaking soon however.
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