[speaker001:] what part of the country are you in
[speaker002:] uh Pennsylvania yeah
[speaker001:] oh you are East or west I'm from Pittsburgh
[speaker002:] oh are you really what part of Pittsburgh
[speaker001:] yeah um the South Hills area Beaver County well originally Beaver County
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh where are you from
[speaker002:] uh Clarion County
[speaker001:] oh okay I know where that is
[speaker002:] I live we live out in the country
[speaker001:] yeah that's pretty out there What well
[speaker002:] yeah we have we have two children that live in Pittsburgh yeah
[speaker001:] oh okay yeah I got my brother and my whole family there I'm I'm talking to you from Dallas right now uh-huh
[speaker002:] oh oh you are do you work do you work for Texas Instruments then
[speaker001:] no my husband does and who how about you
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh no I'm just my son works for a computer a computer uh federal company you know
[speaker001:] place that that needed this well that's okay I guess it's an easy thing to do so you're you have a big do you have a rural house or what do you have
[speaker002:] so yeah uh we have a big old farmhouse that we've you know remodeled
[speaker001:] oh that's a uh-huh those are beautiful
[speaker002:] it had been you know of course a farm it's a farm community and we
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah is it a is it a working farm or is it
[speaker002:] ours is not a working farm
[speaker001:] more more I can understand that that's probably what I would uh
[speaker002:] yeah I have a garden but you know we have a garden but we don't farm
[speaker001:] yeah I can hear the accent now I hear the I hear the Western Pennsylvania um we live uh we lived in Minneapolis for about five years we we originally lived in Dallas and we met and got married and then
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] um actually married in Pittsburgh and that's that's not what they want to hear on this call uh at any rate we came back here with my husband was transferred around uh up to Minnesota and now back to Texas with T I
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh um-hum
[speaker001:] and we're leasing a uh two story town home in a section of Dallas they call North Dallas
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and it's uh near a little town called Plano well it's not little any more
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh Grapevine do you know Grapevine
[speaker001:] uh yes that's out near the airport that's about forty five miles from us
[speaker002:] yeah my brother has a home there he's trying to sell he he's living now up uh in in Maryland but uh he lived lived in Grapevine for a long time
[speaker001:] it's yeah that's why we not sure we we're not sure we want to uh buy down here because we actually we lived up north long enough to appreciate the um Minneapolis Saint Paul is very clean you know in terms of
[speaker002:] um uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and in terms of housing down here um you really have your pick but it's just everything's overpriced for the economy
[speaker002:] oh it's terrible
[speaker001:] it really is I mean we're we're in a leased town home and it's uh you're probably your teeth will probably fall out figuratively speaking it's nine hundred a month
[speaker002:] I oh I'm not surprised
[speaker001:] but you know what if you if you get anything under five hundred you get into what they call high density living
[speaker002:] uh right right right
[speaker001:] you know the big apartment complexes and and I just have no tolerance for that
[speaker002:] right yeah yeah it's not good
[speaker001:] no I prefer
[speaker002:] and the people think the income is really great in some of those areas but when they sit down and look at what it costs to live
[speaker001:] that's right
[speaker002:] and uh of course most of the homes are you know fairly nice they're uh done up fairly nice uh
[speaker001:] yeah but like the town home we're in I don't know how I mean we this is it's like a duplex like a two by two they call it like in Pittsburgh and it's nice but it's I mean the girl bought it for a hundred and ten and now she can't sell it And our neighbors
[speaker002:] right uh-huh right  uh-huh well prices have come down on the homes the duplexes
[speaker001:] yeah I mean we'll our neighbors the attached on the other side they're very nice thank God they paid fifty eight for it
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh my heaven
[speaker001:] that's how bad it I know
[speaker002:] well I know up in Connecticut the same thing happened and uh it's people are devastated because they paid so much for their home
[speaker001:] that's right uh-huh yeah I have some friends that live in Westport and it's really really bad I mean you
[speaker002:] but we like our area it like I said it's it's an old house and everything but uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh how far where is Clarion County in relation to actually because we're considering moving to Pennsylvania
[speaker002:] well we're about a hundred miles from Pittsburgh
[speaker001:] that's not too bad that's north
[speaker002:] north and yeah and it's it's really not you know not that far
[speaker001:] are you going up toward uh uh I'm trying to think of the name of that town that starts with an M Bradford no that's too far north
[speaker002:] Bradford's north of us
[speaker001:] so you're you're not that far north then okay well you're really not too bad yeah
[speaker002:] no no uh-huh
[speaker001:] um was it a home that you've had for quite a few few years or that you've
[speaker002:] well we've been here since sixty six
[speaker001:] oh then you have yeah do you have a lot of land or
[speaker002:] uh we have fifty acres well pardon me we have forty we gave ten to one of our children
[speaker001:] oh my well then there you go did you have a hard time getting used to do you feel like you live in an isolated area or
[speaker002:] no not really and and towns keep creeping closer and closer you know
[speaker001:] yeah I think that that's um I can remember in Pittsburgh when this has to do with homes uh indirectly but I can remember when upper Saint Clair was out in the you know
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] the rural end of Washington and now it's it's a terrible connection
[speaker002:] yeah it's ours up here we have our rural connections are real bad
[speaker001:] oh well that's okay um
[speaker002:] but we but we live about ten miles from probably three or four not large towns but you know reasonable
[speaker001:] but but substantially yeah substantially you know um do you like living in an older home and restoring it like that
[speaker002:] uh yeah we're tired of doing it though we we don't want to do too much more
[speaker001:] how big is it how many square feet do you have
[speaker002:] uh oh golly I really uh we have um
[speaker001:] well how many rooms do you think yeah
[speaker002:] uh four rooms downstairs and a pantry and upstairs we have a bath a bath oh we have a half bath downstairs too we have a bath upstairs and one two
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] three four bedrooms and a sewing room and a junk room
[speaker001:] a junk room yeah I understand we have that too that's that's large if your children aren't at home any more that's large if your kids aren't at home any more
[speaker002:] and uh pardon well it really isn't too big yet we we like a lot of people say that but um
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] it's we just like it real well and
[speaker001:] it's enough space for two people yeah
[speaker002:] yeah we had five children so and they've all moved you know on they're all out on their own now
[speaker001:] yeah oh okay yeah right that's okay well we've got um this this town house is pretty big it's about eighteen hundred square feet it's got three bedrooms two and a half baths um it's really nice
[speaker002:] uh-huh well it sounds like a good buy
[speaker001:] yeah it is I mean I would never buy it but leasing it is fine
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] um but it's just again the the privacy you know um we had a house in Minneapolis that was on three acres and my husband was raised um on a working farm near Dayton
[speaker002:] oh and that makes a big difference
[speaker001:] right near Dayton Ohio and he said you know he's he's slowly getting me to um not feel isolated if we move to to where there's more land
[speaker002:] uh-huh you really aren't isolated because it's the advantages is your home is far enough away that you're not bothered by being too close to people but yet you can have your friends uh you can have them in you can go out you uh
[speaker001:] right uh-huh
[speaker002:] you have more of a choice you're not pressed upon as bad
[speaker001:] that's kind of what like his parents have uh land that they retired to um about a hundred miles out of Atlanta and in Georgia and it is too far south for me but um
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh uh-huh
[speaker001:] um but I mean they have one of the um when they said log cabin I just laughed that they retired to but they built one of these I mean it's just beautiful
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] it's like a custom you know it's not like what I would think of when I think of old log cabins you know I mean it's modern it's right right it's modern it's beautiful it's country it's you know um
[speaker002:] uh-huh  more luxury uh-huh uh-huh right yeah
[speaker001:] but uh I don't what else about housing except it's uh well Pittsburgh's housing economy I I I think it's holding it's own
[speaker002:] uh they're yeah I suppose they are now we both of our children who live there have just bought a home now
[speaker001:] what part what sections are they in
[speaker002:] uh in the Mount Lebanon area
[speaker001:] yeah that's nice
[speaker002:] and uh the one the one boy the house they bought is completely livable they didn't have to do much to it
[speaker001:] great
[speaker002:] the other one is uh uh has you know needs more work done it's twenty years old I think and but they have two children too and they they bought what they could afford
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh that's yeah a really good friend of mine lives in Penn Hills and they've been in their house oh probably about twelve years now and um it's it's you know they're going to start to see their return on their investment very soon um but it's a beautiful home and
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh they are beautiful homes
[speaker001:] I mean my brother lives is it called Baldwin or Bebble I mean he lives all in that same area going from Mount Lebanon um it's real pretty up there it's just
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh  it is it's real nice
[speaker001:] and the neighborhoods are stable you know it's uh when you come to this part of the country we've been away from Dallas long enough that you see the difference in housing
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh my you would you do when you move when we first got married uh my husband works for the state and we moved once a year usually
[speaker001:] oh my goodness
[speaker002:] and then after they had to start paying to move us
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] that suddenly wasn't necessary any more
[speaker001:] that's what it is here yeah that's why we're at a point now we've uh we're adopting and we have been married ten plus years and what happens is uh you just realize that once you get to a certain age the next house that you get we'll be staying in so
[speaker002:] right yeah you have to stop some place yeah
[speaker001:] yeah that's kind of like where we're so we're considering Pennsylvania and we're just kind of you know toying with what exactly where we want to be you know a lot of people say it doesn't matter where they live if they have a nice house and but I disagree with that I
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh-huh well I do too I've heard too many people say I hate it here you know they buy a place and they just hate the area
[speaker001:] uh-huh I know and it and the economy here in Dallas I mean it it's steady but it's still not going up and I um I just refuse to buy it um if I know I'm not going to be there for at least
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] five years uh you you know
[speaker002:] yeah well my brother they're having trouble selling their home they
[speaker001:] oh I'm sure yeah there I mean you can go down a street and here he told you this every other house you know if it's been foreclosed on or you know even big executives um
[speaker002:] hm right uh-huh oh yeah yeah
[speaker001:] it's really I mean a and and it's hard to sell the properties people from JC Penney's from New York came here about a couple of years ago
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and they thought they were getting a great deal um because they could get a five hundred thousand dollar home with they call it zero lot lines no property Jean
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and it would make you ill to see this
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I mean it would probably be like your house on uh you know a half a city block in Pittsburgh or something
[speaker002:] I I couldn't handle that
[speaker001:] yeah I know and that's you know like I can look outside right now and look into the next unit you know it's across the way and it's landscaped and all that with azaleas but it's still it's still not that private
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh I get tired uh sometimes mowing because we mow you know a good bit of ground around the house area and I do get tired of that but uh
[speaker001:] yeah but you have a rider
[speaker002:] I don't know I don't think I'd want to change it
[speaker001:] no and your kids have to tell you the truth um I think that if you can keep that that way you know kind of like a homestead
[speaker002:] uh-huh