In late 2016, the URA, in conjunction with Reinvestment Fund, completed the 2016 Market Value Analysis (MVA) for the City of Pittsburgh. The Market Value Analysis (MVA) offers an approach for community revitalization; it recommends applying interventions not only to where there is a need for development but also in places where public investment can stimulate private market activity and capitalize on larger public investment activities. The MVA is a unique tool for characterizing markets because it creates an internally referenced index of a municipality’s residential real estate market. It identifies areas that are the highest demand markets as well as areas of greatest distress, and the various markets types between. The MVA offers insight into the variation in market strength and weakness within and between traditional neighborhood boundaries because it uses Census block groups as the unit of analysis. Where market types abut each other on the map becomes instructive about the potential direction of market change, and ultimately, the appropriateness of types of investment or intervention strategies.

Pittsburgh’s 2016 MVA utilized data that helps to define the local real estate market between July, 2013 and June, 2016:

• Median Sales Price

• Variance of Sales Price

• Percent Households Owner Occupied

• Density of Residential Housing Units

• Percent Rental with Subsidy

• Foreclosures as a Percent of Sales

• Permits as a Percent of Housing Units

• Percent of Housing Units Built Before 1940

• Percent of Properties with Assessed Condition “Poor” or worse

• Vacant Housing Units as a Percentage of Habitable Units

The MVA uses a statistical technique known as cluster analysis, forming groups of areas (i.e., block groups) that are similar along the MVA descriptors, noted above. The goal is to form groups within which there is a similarity of characteristics within each group, but each group itself different from the others. Using this technique, the MVA condenses vast amounts of data for the universe of all properties to a manageable, meaningful typology of market types that can inform area-appropriate programs and decisions regarding the allocation of resources.

During the research process, staff from the URA and Reinvestment Fund spent an extensive amount of effort ensuring the data and analysis was accurate. In addition to testing the data, staff physically examined different areas to verify the data sets being used were appropriate indicators and the resulting MVA categories accurately reflect the market.