{"id":178210,"date":"2026-04-28T13:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/178210\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:18:19","slug":"you-paid-how-much-for-that-lets-dive-into-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/178210\/","title":{"rendered":"You paid how much for that? Let\u2019s dive into affordability."},"content":{"rendered":"

When Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source held community listening sessions<\/a> across the Pittsburgh region this spring, affordability kept surfacing as a shared concern, from taxes to transit to everyday costs. Here in the newsroom, some recent price changes have shocked us \u2014 particularly as warm weather gets us thinking about vacation drives and wave pool dives.<\/p>\n

Form: What\u2019s costing (or saving) you money these days?<\/a><\/p>\n

Are rising prices a real problem or is the \u201caffordability crisis\u201d a hoax<\/a>, as President Donald Trump has suggested?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s weigh the evidence together.<\/p>\n

If you commute into town, you may or may not be feeling lighter in the wallet.<\/p>\n

A hike: Regular gasoline this month was above $4 a gallon<\/a>, up around 75 cents from last year.<\/p>\n

Still a steal: A Pittsburgh Regional Transit full fare is $2.75<\/a>, good for three hours and as many transfers as you can fit in, as it has been since 2021.<\/p>\n

But if living close to the job hubs of Downtown and Oakland is saving you at the pump, it may have burned you through the property taxes<\/a> you just paid.<\/p>\n

A hike: The City of Pittsburgh jacked its levy up 20%<\/a> to 9.67 mills, or $9.67 per $1,000 in taxable assessed value.<\/p>\n

Still a steal: Pine Township kept its millage at 0.998, or just under a dollar per $1,000, where it has been for at least a decade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, beating the heat this summer will be much more expensive on one side of the city line than the other.<\/p>\n

A hike: An Allegheny County pool pass this year costs $235<\/a> for a family of four living in the county \u2014 up from $150 last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still a steal: A pass to the City of Pittsburgh pools is still just $60<\/a> for a family living within its borders, as it has been for years, and again includes the Oliver Bath House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve recently had a sticker-shock moment, or a \u201cwow-that\u2019s-a-good-deal\u201d revelation, give us your fill-in-the-blank answers below, and please provide some basic information about yourself. We may publish any input we receive, except contact information.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

This story was made possible by donations to our independent, nonprofit newsroom. <\/p>\n

Can you help us keep going with a gift?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source. Since 2011, we\u2019ve taken pride in serving our community by delivering accurate, timely, and impactful journalism \u2014 without paywalls. We believe that everyone deserves access to information about local decisions and events that affect them.<\/p>\n

But it takes a lot of resources to produce this reporting, from compensating our staff, to the technology that brings it to you, to fact-checking every line, and much more. Reader support is crucial to our ability to keep doing this work.<\/p>\n

If you learned something new from this story, consider supporting us with a donation today. Your donation helps ensure that everyone in Allegheny County can stay informed about issues that impact their lives. Thank you for your support!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source held community listening sessions across the Pittsburgh region this spring, affordability kept surfacing as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5466,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-178210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-leadstorynoshow","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}