Would you rather live in a large house in exurban Pittsburgh or a smal house in San Jose California?

[Continential]

a sequel to this

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/145-Rockingham-Ln-McMurray-PA-15317/49792098_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/818-N-13th-St-San-Jose-CA-95112/19567147_zpid/

To provide some context on the area of the house in Pittsburgh; it is one of the rich areas in the greater Pittsburgh area and the richest area in the South Hills (south of downtown Pittsburgh) and it is a place where people want lower taxes and is a staunchly Republican suburb/exurb.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

San Jose although if it was a choice between that and a small house in Pittsburgh proper it'd be Pittsburgh easily.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I hate long commutes.

San Jose.

[Rand]

Jokes on you—I already live in a small house in San Jose.

[LostFellow]

The property taxes jumping from 3.5k to 13k from 2021 to 2022 due to the property tax evaluation jumping from 190k to 1 million is a monstrous, yet hilarious display of how distorting proposition 13 is for the CA housing market. Boomer-hate from younger people is misguided most of the time IMO, but one area where it's completely valid is CA.

The Pittsburgh property has a large tax evaluation jump from 2016-2017 as well though, but it's less clear if the Zillow data is correct there, as the constant 62k valuation seems suspect.

[Continential]

The Pittsburgh property has a large tax evaluation jump from 2016-2017 as well though, but it's less clear if the Zillow data is correct there, as the constant 62k valuation seems suspect.

Every property in the area seems to have the same issue until around that time or when it was sold a few years before that so I think Zillow didn’t start updating the property taxes evaluations until 2016-2017.

[wnwnwn]

Pittsburgh seems cheaper.
Racism may be a problem to me, but most users here are white so it wouldn't matter much for them (in this context).

[Continential]

Pittsburgh seems cheaper.
Racism may be a problem to me, but most users here are white so it wouldn't matter much for them (in this context).

There really aren’t many Latinos in Pittsburgh in general and I doubt people would be all that racist towards them. I’ve only met a handful of Latinos in my life although there are more who assimilate into the White population. Looking at the school’s data - the school is 90% white with a mix of Asians, Hispanics, mixed people and other races composing the last 10%.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

DaBurgh

[Alcibiades]

Sorry to not answer the question, but if I was spending a million dollars on a house, I'd certainly hope to put the money to much better use than either of these.

The Pittsburgh house is too far out, and seems to be in a very characterless exurb -- there's no walkable local town centre to speak of. The house itself is done up very fustily on the inside, so I'd probably end up spending more money redoing it than the San Jose house, although I will say that the exterior is a reasonably attractive example of midcentury modernism, and the garden is nice. Another strike against it is that I wouldn't really want to live in a bungalow, especially with a house this big; almost 6000 sq ft but just one floor is ridiculously low-slung and sprawling. Meanwhile, what really gets me about the San Jose house is the almost complete lack of greenery -- the grey concrete slab of a 'back yard' is particularly depressing.

[jamestroll]

All places are good places in the United States. But I found adjusting your life style choices, expensive places are usually well worth it.

I've liked Western Colorado and Northern Virginia miles and miles and miles and miles ahead of st. Louis

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The Pittsburgh house i guess.
EDIT: Changing my mind. The CA house is right next to Japantown.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

A small house in San José, Costa Rica.

[HillGoose]

id rather live on the surface of the sun

[John Dule]

I don’t have enough stuff to fill up a big house.

[Dr. Cynic]

My answer should be obvious.

[Mr. Smith]

Pittsburgh. South Bay is just grody.

Now if it were Santa Rosa or Sac-town or hell, even Oakland, that'd be different.

[Continential]

The Pittsburgh house is too far out, and seems to be in a very characterless exurb -- there's no walkable local town centre to speak of.

Tbf that’s sort of the appeal. The streotypcial person in the area would be someone who wants to live in a pretty quiet area with a lot of space and lower taxes, and the schools are perceived to be better than the surrounding schools so there are a lot of affluent people.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Spent most of my early life in San Jose since I was born there and my Dad and much of my family lived in the Bay until 2020. I do like the Bay, but not really what it's become... I'll go with Pittsburgh, plus that way I get to live in an important swing state. And I've grown to prefer cold weather.

I lived in the Albany area for a few years growing up, so it can't be too different.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

That's a decent deal for San Jose ngl

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Exurban Pittsburgh

[Podgy the Bear]

Pittsburgh easily--especially the northern parts such as Wexford and Cranberry Twp.  Great people, much cheaper cost of living, and the traffic getting into the city during rush hour is not really that bad.

But I would get out of the area in January and February to avoid the snowstorms (though that seems to be lightened up in recent years).

[Rand]

That's a decent deal for San Jose ngl

Right? Anything under a million is considered a steal here.

[Schiff for Senate]

I don't need a huge house (3 bedrooms is more than enough), and San Jose is close to where I currently live. So the choice is pretty clear cut.