Just a hobbyist - not a realtor. Live in this area. Grew up in the region.
Very familiar with this area.

Without going into great detail - my gut says DON'T.

Well, you could be right. It's my experience that the lower priced areas either come back strong or they fade away. Tarentums a cute town, fairly low violent crime. I pulled some stats downs off of yahoo realtor and it shows a nice steady gradual climb for the last 10 years and a sudden strong dip about the time of the subprime meltdown (nothing abnormal to the rest of the world). I have to just figure out if it's possible to keep a rental occupied.

I do not factually know why people left or where they went, but they possibly could have lived on or near the grounds of the Pittsburgh Mills.

I’m not disagreeing that there is not a large population of people currently living in this area. Those numbers speak for themselves. In my opinion, I feel this area has the potential for growth.

Michael:

Thank you very much for the interesting feedback but Im still not clear on where the people went. I checked two different websites that showed the town lost 400 people over 5 years. Are you saying they left because they did not like the mall???

Thanks,

Jim

The small decline in Population could be tied in with the development of the Pittsburgh Mills. Opening about 3 years ago, the area around the mall keeps expanding. I do not expect this to stop.

As I stated before, in my opinion this area really has the opportunity to grow. Other than the mall, this is a very under developed area.

Thanks, this house is in Tarentum. I checked population stats on this town and in the year 2000 it looked like it had a population of about 5000 and in 2007 I think the population was about 4600. At this rate the town will be dead in about 12 years. A buddy of mine owns a place in this town and he wants to raise some cash but I dont want to do the deal if the town is slowly vanishing. Any thoughts on that? Thank you so much.

Crawford Run Road is located in one of three townships, Indiana, Frazer, or West Deer.
These three vary because their different in school districts and each have their own planning commissions.

I have been involved with transactions in these areas and do believe it has a lot to offer. The top positive is the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, which is just a couple of minutes down Butler Logan Road. Not only is there a newer mall, but other retail developments are also happening around it. All that’s missing from the Pittsburgh Mills is people living in close proximity to it. In my opinion, I believe it’s just a matter of time before a residential developer takes notice of this, and builds homes in this area.

In regard to buying, this area also tends to have a “big bang for the buck” considering the property values of surrounding areas south such as Indiana Township, O’Hara Township, and Fox Chapel. It’s very hard to say if the area is a good buy not knowing the price and exactly where you are buying, but with the Pittsburgh Mills and the future potential of the area, it could be a good investment.