About Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill

Did you know that a program called the Pittsburgh Promise helps students graduating from the Pittsburgh Public Schools to pursue further their education after high school by guaranteeing qualified students $5,000 a year for college. That number is expected to increase to $10,000 a year in 2012.

In order to qualify students must graduate from Pittsburgh Public Schools or one of its charter high schools, be a student in the district and a resident of Pittsburgh continuously since at least the 9th grade, earn a minimum of 2.5 GPA, maintain a minimum of 90% attendance record and earn admission to any public or private post-secondary school that is covered by The Pittsburgh Promise. Those schools include all Pennsylvania state-funded schools, community colleges and private schools that offer two or four year degree programs.

You can find more information at The Pittsburgh Promise website.

Buying or Selling a home in the Pittsburgh area? Call Christa Ross from RE/MAX Select Realty, at 724-933-6300 x214 (office) or 724-779-1437 (direct) or visit my website at www.bestpittsburghhomes.com.

I am reading an interesting book this week called "The Option of Urbanism" by Christopher B. Leinbeger that is a fascinating perspective on how we got to our current structure of housing in the country, what the positives and negatives are and what's next. I suspect that I will be making it a regular feature of my blogs in the coming days since there is so much to talk about and comment on.

One section of the book focuses on the benefits and drawbacks of the suburban environment that has become a mainstay in our culture. He pulled from a 2006 study from the Rand Corporation that found that when comparing the health of people in more and less sprawling locations that the spread-out places has about 100 more health problems per 1,000 people than areas that were less sprawling.

An amazing statistic but not surprising since our suburbs are so car-dependent. When the only option is to get in the car to go to work, run errands and get the kids to their activities we loose the opportunity to make valuable exercise part of our daily routine. In the same paragraph he quotes research from Dr. Lawrence Frank that found for every additional half hour per week residents in Atlanta spent in the car they were 3% more likely to be obese. I love the thought of giving back the 45 minutes a day I spend at the gym for the opportunity to walk down the street to pick up a gallon of milk or ride my bike to work.

As a real estate professional it is impossible to miss the point that home choices effect every part of our lives from economic to physical and that future development of walkable communities may be one of the solutions to our country's health crisis. What do you think?

Buying or Selling a home in the Pittsburgh area? Call Christa Ross from RE/MAX Select Realty, at 724-933-6300 x214 (office) or 724-779-1437 (direct) or visit my website at www.bestpittsburghhomes.com.

Photo: Copyright 2008 flickr user Living Streets Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license

Yahoo Real Estate just named Pittsburgh the #1 Best City To Move To based on our affordablity, arts and college scene, good jobs and low unemployment. Of course, I could have told you that already but you can click here to read their version.

Relocating to Pittsburgh? Looking for a historic home on the Northside, a cool condo in Shadyside, a beautiful bungalow in Regent Square, a sweet suburban address, or anything in-between, I'm here to help you make it your home. Call Christa Ross from RE/MAX Select Realty, at 724-933-6300 x214 (office) or 724-779-1437 (direct) or visit my website at www.bestpittsburghhomes.com.

On midnight October 13th Pittsburgh's 2010 Day of Giving officially starts. This unique event is an opportunity for Pittsburghers to have their donations matched by The Pittsburgh Foundation and their supporters.

The Pittsburgh Foundation has a pool of $500,000 in matching funds for 433 organizations. Each donation made to these organization will receive a commensurate share of these matching funds that will enable every gift to be matched and every participating organization to receive a share.

Here is an amazing chance to make your money go further to help many of Pittsburgh's best causes and organizations. I want to give a shout out to a few of my favs you can make a donation to...Bike Pittsburgh, the Green Building Alliance and WYEP, but there are hundreds of other deserving organizations you can give to as well. To find out how the make a donation (remember this is only good on the 13th of October) go to the official website at http://pittsburghgives.org/.