Two weeks after Terry Tully bought a plot of land in May 1977 to build a home in Wilkins Township, his big sister Judy Buchanan bought the lot right beside him.
The two siblings have lived next door to each other for 46 years on a quiet cul-de-sac along with many neighbors who have lived there for decades.
“I liked the idea of being next door to my brother,” said Ms. Buchanan, 80. “It was fine. It was never an issue.”
Mr. Tully, 78, made up his mind long ago that he would spend the rest of his life on Curry Court. And his brother-in-law next door, David Buchanan, 85, declares the only way he’s leaving his house is “feet first.”
Across the country, older Americans are deciding against selling their homes and downsizing at the same pace they once did, leaving younger homebuyers struggling to purchase homes in the face of limited housing supply. That stay-put mentality is even more pronounced among native Pittsburghers, earning locals a reputation for holding onto their homes for generations.
Now, a new report by Austin, Texas.-based U.S. Money Reserve confirms it:
The Pittsburgh metropolitan area is home to the country’s largest share of retirement-age residents who have lived in the same house for more than 30 years.
U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 56.5% of Pittsburgh homeowners aged 65 and older are living in a house they moved into 30 or more years ago. The national average for homeowners over age 65 living in the same home for 30 years or more is 38%, while an additional 39% have lived in their current home for more than 10 years.
“How long Americans are likely to remain in their homes varies widely by location,” the U.S. Money Reserve researchers found. “As they age into their retirement years, baby boomers have proven reluctant to leave homes where they feel comfortable and where their costs are affordable.”
‘I didn’t know I was going to be here this long’
In Pittsburgh, a home’s proximity to family and friends is often the deciding factor in where people buy and how long they stay.
“When we bought this house my wife’s family was only two or three minutes away. And my mom and dad were just 10 minutes away down in North Braddock,” Mr. Tully said. “Our children had their friends. We had our friends. Being over here was convenient for wherever we wanted to go. And this was our life.”
Jim Healey, a retired union millwright, grew up in Sheraden, a block from the three-bedroom house on Allendale Street where he has lived for 48 years.
“When this house became available I bought it,” Mr. Healey, 73, said of his 1975 real estate purchase. “I didn’t know I was going to be here this long. It just turned out that way.”
His wife Claren, 58, has lived there since 1995.
Mr. Healey said one reason he and his wife stayed planted as the years went by was that her job at the Urban Redevelopment Authority required that she live in the city. Otherwise, they might have moved to the Kennedy or Robinson Township area, he said.
The U.S. Money Reserve pointed out that one of the most significant trends affecting housing supply in the U.S. is the aging baby boomer generation — those born between 1946 and 1964 — controlling a sizable share of the housing stock.
Census Bureau data shows that while Americans over age 65 represent just 17% of the population, they account for 32% of owner-occupied housing units — about 30 million homes. In the Pittsburgh region, residents aged 65 and older own 34.7% of residential real estate.
There were 732,879 owner-occupied housing units in the Pittsburgh metro area as of 2021, the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau. Of those owner-occupied households, 254,478 of them were owned by householders age 65 and older.
Counties included in the Census data include Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland.
People age 65 and older represent 19.7% of the population in Allegheny County.
High interest rates = chilling effect on new construction
“The lesson here is to be nice to your elders. You may need their house,” said Mike Netzel, a team leader at Keller Williams Real Estate in Pine Township.
The shortage of housing stock in Allegheny County has only gotten worse over the years. Meanwhile, average home values have shot up, according to West Penn Multi-List data.
There were 5,683 homes for sale in Allegheny County in May 2018. In May this year, there were 3,367 homes for sale. Meanwhile, the average listing price of a home in Allegheny County in May was $349,989, compared to $261,364 in May 2018 — a difference of $88,625.
In addition to the obvious reason — higher interest rates, which makes homes less affordable — the dwindling inventory of homes for sale is also to blame for why prices keep going up.
New home construction numbers in the Pittsburgh region were off last year and will probably be off again this year, according to Tall Timber Group, a consulting firm for the commercial and residential construction market based in Ross.
Construction of new single family homes fell from 3,444 in 2021 to 2,800 in 2022.
“That’s a very big drop,” said Jeff Burd, owner of Tall Timber group.
Dramatically higher interest rates have had a chilling effect on the new construction industry. “You have constraints on lending for commercial development,” he said. “So, even though demand is extremely high, and even though the inventory of existing homes for sale is extremely low, there’s not a lot of new construction on single family homes.”
Mr. Netzel pointed out that this region has other factors weighing on its available housing supply, such as institutional players like BlackRock and smaller real estate investors who are buying up single family homes for rentals. Airbnb owners are taking a bite out of the region’s housing inventory, too, he said.
Another force to be reckoned with are homeowners who have low mortgage rates now and don’t want a new home with a higher mortgage.
At the end of 2022, 62% of mortgage holders had an interest rate below 4%, and 82% had a rate lower than 5%, according to Redfin.
The rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage currently stand at 7.11%, according to bankrate.com.
‘Home matters more than it ever did’
Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported in May that the average balance for a first mortgage reached a record high in 2022 of $323,780.
“If the pandemic taught us anything, it showed us the importance of home,” Mr. Netzel said. “Home matters more than it ever did. Home is privacy central. Home is family central.”
Mr. Tully had a good job that felt secure in the mid-1970s, at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport.
He and his wife, Jeanne, 78, were raised in North Braddock. They moved to Peters Township shortly after getting married to be closer to his job. But after four years, they moved back to the East suburbs to be closer to everyone they knew and cared about.
“My wife spent a lot of time coming back and forth, visiting her parents, and going to a ceramics class once a week,” Mr. Tully said. “And her hairdresser was over here too. So, everything was back here on this side of town.”
Pittsburgh homeowners who avoid frequent relocations have another decided advantage: They pay off their mortgages faster.
Zillow found in a study in 2013 that 38.6% of all homeowners in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area are free and clear of mortgage debt, which was the highest percentage of outright ownership the company found in any of the 30 largest metropolitan areas it tracks.
Mr. Tully and Ms. Buchanan have watched the neighborhood change in their neighborhood as time went on.
Children who used to play in the streets went to college and moved out. Friends and neighbors who became too old to maintain their homes relocated to apartments. Those in failing heath moved to assisted living facilities or passed on.
“It’s been interesting to see how everything has evolved with families coming in over time,” Ms. Buchanan said.
Mr. Healey, in Sheraden, said it was always in the back of his mind to move someplace with a bigger lot, but it never felt right leaving the first and only home he ever bought.
“I always wanted to have a little more room around us, but it just never happened,” he said. “And I didn’t want to spend my weekends riding a mower around cutting grass either.”
Tim Grant: tgrant@post-gazette.com or 412-779-5834
First Published: June 12, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: June 13, 2023, 12:17 a.m.
