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 neighborhood 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.
81 cost of living index
81 cost of living index
Located in
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is Pennsylvania’s third most populous city and the 224th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently the fastest growing city in all of Pennsylvania. It is the largest city in the metropolitan area known as the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 821,623 residents as of 2010. Allentown constitutes a portion of the New York City Combined Statistical Area and is the county seat of Lehigh County. In 2012, the city celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1762.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
87 cost of living index
88 cost of living index
92 cost of living index
90 cost of living index
91 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
85 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Pennsylvania’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Pittsburgh hoods in 2026
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 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Pittsburgh for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marshall-Shadeland | 81 |
| 2 | Allentown | 81 |
| 3 | Lincoln Place | 87 |
| 4 | Ridgemont | 88 |
| 5 | Summer Hill | 92 |
| 6 | Westwood | 90 |
| 7 | Chartiers City | 91 |
| 8 | Mt Oliver | 83 |
| 8 | Sheraden | 85 |
| 8 | Arlington | 83 |
| 8 | Arlington Heights | 83 |
| 12 | Saint Clair | 83 |
| 13 | Brighton Heights | 92 |
| 14 | Knoxville | 85 |
| 15 | Beechview | 90 |
| 16 | Perry North | 92 |
| 17 | Fine View | 85 |
| 18 | Hays | 92 |
| 19 | Spring Garden | 93 |
| 20 | Banksville | 95 |
| 21 | Wind Gap | 91 |
| 22 | Homewood North | 83 |
| 23 | Crafton Heights | 88 |
| 23 | Mount Oliver | 84 |
| 25 | Beltzhoover | 85 |
| 26 | Larimer | 81 |
| 27 | Troy Hill | 92 |
| 28 | Oakwood | 94 |
| 28 | Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar | 85 |
| 30 | East Carnegie | 87 |
| 31 | Esplen | 83 |
| 32 | Spring Hill-City View | 83 |
| 33 | East Hills | 80 |
| 33 | Herrs Island | 94 |
| 35 | Overbrook | 92 |
| 36 | Bedford Dwellings | 79 |
| 37 | Bon Air | 91 |
| 38 | Stanton Heights | 97 |
| 39 | Elliott | 86 |
| 40 | Duquesne Heights | 97 |
| 41 | Brookline | 95 |
| 42 | Swisshelm Park | 98 |
| 43 | Homewood West | 82 |
| 44 | Upper Hill | 86 |
| 45 | Carrick | 88 |
| 46 | Mount Washington | 94 |
| 47 | Polish Hill | 100 |
| 48 | Point Breeze | 119 |
| 49 | Regent Square | 112 |
| 50 | Upper Lawrenceville | 97 |
| 51 | Allegheny West | 116 |
| 51 | Perry South | 90 |
| 53 | Greenfield | 100 |
| 54 | Lower Lawrenceville | 109 |
| 54 | North Shore | 116 |
| 56 | Chateau | 101 |
| 57 | Garfield | 94 |
| 58 | Morningside | 102 |
| 59 | California-Kirkbride | 87 |
| 60 | Manchester | 100 |
| 60 | Middle Hill | 91 |
| 62 | Central Lawrenceville | 106 |
| 63 | Strip District | 135 |
| 63 | Highland Park | 128 |
| 65 | Point Breeze North | 102 |
| 66 | Homewood South | 86 |
| 67 | Allegheny Center | 116 |
| 68 | Squirrel Hill North | 143 |
| 69 | Southside Slopes | 101 |
| 70 | Squirrel Hill South | 119 |
| 71 | Hazelwood | 94 |
| 72 | Bloomfield | 107 |
| 73 | Central Business District | 142 |
| 74 | East Liberty | 112 |
| 75 | Central Northside | 115 |
| 76 | Bluff | 100 |
| 77 | Terrace Village | 93 |
| 77 | Southside Flats | 112 |
| 79 | East Allegheny | 101 |
| 80 | Shadyside | 123 |
| 81 | Crawford Roberts | 95 |
| 82 | Friendship | 112 |
| 83 | Oakland | 97 |
| 84 | West Oakland | 98 |
| 85 | North Oakland | 118 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 85 Pittsburgh neighborhoods.
Summary
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, Allentown, Lincoln Place, Ridgemont, Summer Hill, Westwood, Chartiers City, Mt Oliver, Sheraden, and Arlington.
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.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Pennsylvania? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Pittsburgh FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Pittsburgh?
Marshall-Shadeland is the cheapest neighborhood in Pittsburgh for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Allentown and Lincoln Place are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh are Marshall-Shadeland, Allentown, Lincoln Place, Ridgemont, Summer Hill, Westwood, Chartiers City, Mt Oliver, Sheraden, and Arlington. We ranked all 85 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Pittsburgh?
North Oakland lands at the expensive end of the 85 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
