A Great Location with a European Flair
By Katherine Camp

Liz Gray came across her house on Ophelia Street in Oakland by accident. The big For Sale sign put up by the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC) caught her attention. She had been looking to move back to the city from Mt. Lebanon, where she was taking care of her elderly parents until they passed away. She didn't like living in the suburbs--she missed the faster pace and walkable streets of the European cities where she had lived before.

Gray called Laura Ludwig, Real Estate Program Manager at OPDC, at the beginning of the summer. Ludwig conducted a buyer analysis, as she does for all prospective homeowners, and found that Gray and her children qualified for a deferred second mortgage from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh. Gray's home is one of four houses that OPDC rehabilitated as part of a scattered site redevelopment project in Oakland and Uptown. OPDC has committed to selling at least two of them to buyers making 80% or less of the area's median income.

Ludwig and OPDC staff helped Gray navigate the process from start to finish. "Laura has been fabulous. This is the first time I bought a house in this country, and it's very different," Gray said. OPDC also provided assistance with closing costs, and Gray was able to close on the house by the end of October.

"I like Oakland because it reminds me of city neighborhoods in Europe, like the West End of London," Gray said. "Little stores, little streets, houses packed together, brownstones, and still some green spaces. There's no way I could afford to live in Downtown [Pittsburgh], as much as I would like to. I love it out here."

She does have to drive to work downtown, since her job updating the Post-Gazette's website ends after the buses stop running, but she fills up her gas tank half as often as she used to when she commuted from the suburbs. "I can walk to CVS, to coffee places, to Baba D's for lunch, to 5th Avenue for bookstores, and even to Phipps Conservatory," she said. Two features she wishes Oakland had are a bigger grocery store and a movie theater, but even these are less than 10 minutes away. Her son is a student at the University of Pittsburgh, so he can walk to his classes.

Because it is home to several universities, Oakland has a large student population, but Gray doesn't mind having students as neighbors. "This used to be not a good neighborhood. It was really bad in the mid-90s. This whole area has changed with the development of more student housing. This pocket of Oakland is probably even safer than the main section, because it's out of the way. Everybody said, "Oh, you'll have a bunch of drunk college students around all the time," but that hasn't been the case. The students on my block are really nice."

Gray spoke highly of the one-day homeowner class offered by Neighborhood Housing Services for URA-qualified second mortgage recipients. "The class was great because it was a comfortable setting to ask questions, and it went at a good pace. They went over understanding your credit report, the process of closing, working with a housing inspector, points on a mortgage, your responsibilities in upkeep, and all about homeowner's insurance. They had great documentation as well--I kept all the workbooks."

Since moving in, Gray has worked to make the house environmentally friendly: she got an energy efficient stove and fridge, and some reused renovation materials from Construction Junction. She is planning to put insulation in upstairs and is thinking about using the kind made of recycled denim from blue jeans. She planted drought-tolerant plants so that she now has a low-water yard. Next to her house is a grassy lot where a house in poor condition was removed, and she hopes to acquire it through the city's Side Yard Sale Program so she can expand her yard and create an off-street parking space.

"These are good-quality houses at a good price," Ludwig said. "Oakland's amenities, and its convenient location near highways and other neighborhoods, make it attractive to many families looking to buy homes in the city." Clearly, Gray is not the only one who has discovered that Oakland is a world-class place to live.