The 10 Cheapest Pittsburgh, PA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2025


The cheapest Pittsburgh neighborhoods are Marshall-Shadeland and Lincoln Place for 2025 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: October 22, 2025
Worst Neighborhoods In Pittsburgh
Source: Wikipedia User Yassie (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Pittsburgh might be more expensive than living in rural Pennsylvania, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Pittsburgh neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Pittsburgh are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Pittsburgh For 2025

  1. Marshall-Shadeland
  2. Lincoln Place
  3. Allentown
  4. Chartiers City
  5. Ridgemont
  6. Arlington Heights
  7. Hays
  8. Arlington
  9. Summer Hill
  10. Mt Oliver

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Pittsburgh for 2025? According to the most recent census data, Marshall-Shadeland looks to be the cheapest Pittsburgh neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Pittsburgh. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Pittsburgh that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.

For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Pittsburgh For 2025

1. Marshall-Shadeland

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 4,396
Cost Of Living Index: 84 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.2 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (14th cheapest)
More on Marshall-Shadeland:

2. Lincoln Place

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,046
Cost Of Living Index: 85 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.3 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (8th cheapest)
More on Lincoln Place:

3. Allentown

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 1,815
Cost Of Living Index: 88 (34th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 0.6 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (17th cheapest)
More on Allentown:

4. Chartiers City

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 518
Cost Of Living Index: 85 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.5 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (30th cheapest)
More on Chartiers City:

5. Ridgemont

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 636
Cost Of Living Index: 88 (34th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (24th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (2nd cheapest)
More on Ridgemont:

6. Arlington Heights

Overall SnackAbility

/10

Population: 315
Cost Of Living Index: 82 (5th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (2cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (4cheapest)
More on Arlington Heights:

7. Hays

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 962
Cost Of Living Index: 86 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.2 (38th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (9th cheapest)
More on Hays:

8. Arlington

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 1,368
Cost Of Living Index: 83 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (2cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (4cheapest)
More on Arlington:

9. Summer Hill

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 805
Cost Of Living Index: 92 (53rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.6 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (6th cheapest)
More on Summer Hill:

10. Mt Oliver

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 291
Cost Of Living Index: 84 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (2cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (4cheapest)
More on Mt Oliver:

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Pittsburgh Hoods In 2025

To rank the cheapest places to live in Pittsburgh, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 85 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Pittsburgh.” We’re lookin’ at you, Marshall-Shadeland.

We updated this article for 2025. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Pittsburgh. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Pittsburgh

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Pittsburgh where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Pittsburgh are Marshall-Shadeland, Lincoln Place, Allentown, Chartiers City, Ridgemont, Arlington Heights, Hays, Arlington, Summer Hill, and Mt Oliver.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Pittsburgh aren’t all cheap. North Oakland takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Pittsburgh.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Pittsburgh are North Oakland, Friendship, Shadyside, Southside Flats, and Oakland.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Pittsburgh For 2025

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Marshall-Shadeland 84
2 Lincoln Place 85
3 Allentown 88
4 Chartiers City 85
5 Ridgemont 88
6 Arlington Heights 82
7 Hays 86
8 Arlington 83
9 Summer Hill 92
10 Mt Oliver 84
11 Sheraden 86
12 Spring Garden 87
13 Perry North 88
14 Beltzhoover 83
15 Saint Clair 86
16 Fine View 86
17 Knoxville 87
18 Homewood North 83
19 Westwood 93
20 Beechview 90
21 Brighton Heights 93
22 Oakwood 91
23 Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar 86
24 Wind Gap 91
25 Banksville 96
26 Troy Hill 91
27 Esplen 85
28 East Hills 82
29 Mount Oliver 87
30 Larimer 85
31 Overbrook 90
32 Bedford Dwellings 82
33 Brookline 91
34 Homewood West 80
35 East Carnegie 89
36 Stanton Heights 94
37 Crafton Heights 91
38 Spring Hill-City View 86
39 Bon Air 90
40 North Shore 92
41 Herrs Island 95
42 Elliott 88
43 Polish Hill 92
44 Manchester 88
45 Swisshelm Park 96
46 Duquesne Heights 96
47 Carrick 88
48 Point Breeze 114
49 Garfield 88
50 California-Kirkbride 84
51 Mount Washington 92
52 Upper Lawrenceville 92
53 Perry South 87
54 Morningside 95
55 Regent Square 116
56 Lower Lawrenceville 97
57 Middle Hill 87
58 Highland Park 96
59 Allegheny West 115
60 Homewood South 81
61 Hazelwood 84
62 Greenfield 99
63 Central Lawrenceville 95
64 Chateau 105
65 East Liberty 89
66 Upper Hill 96
67 Strip District 127
68 Terrace Village 81
69 Southside Slopes 93
70 Point Breeze North 101
71 Allegheny Center 109
72 Bluff 89
73 Squirrel Hill North 128
74 Central Business District 100
75 Squirrel Hill South 108
76 West Oakland 85
77 Crawford Roberts 85
78 East Allegheny 90
79 Bloomfield 98
80 Central Northside 99
81 Oakland 90
82 Southside Flats 108
83 Shadyside 117
84 Friendship 104
85 North Oakland 99
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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