{"id":898199,"date":"2026-10-29T01:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898199\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T01:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:50:12","slug":"inflation-is-a-big-issue-for-pa-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898199\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation is a big issue for PA voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kaye<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n

Residents and visitors in Squirrel Hill are sharing their struggles with rising housing costs and financial challenges, reflecting a growing issue across the country. <\/p>\n

Dan Muessig, a longtime resident of the neighborhood, said the cost of living in major cities has become unaffordable. <\/p>\n

“I honestly, I don’t know how we do it, and I don’t know how anyone else is doing it right now,” Muessig said. <\/p>\n

He added that housing prices have increased dramatically over the years, while wages have failed to keep up with inflation. <\/p>\n

Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel<\/a><\/p>\n

“I mean, from when I was a kid, the real price of homes has multiplied tenfold in some of these neighborhoods, and wages have not kept pace with inflation at all,” Muessig said. <\/p>\n

Ian Ehrlich, visiting from Salt Lake City, Utah, said he has noticed similar trends with rent, which he said has nearly doubled over the past two decades. <\/p>\n

“And now I think about young guys on my team at work who work for me, and it’s like $1,700 for the same apartment that I paid $300 for. It’s just, yeah, it’s tough,” Ehrlich said. <\/p>\n

Not Just Residents Being Impacted<\/p>\n

Aiyanna Batey, visiting from Ohio, said she had to move money around to afford her trip to Squirrel Hill. <\/p>\n

“Yeah, I definitely had to, like, move my money around to make this trip happen. And, like, I’m glad I made it happen, but like, I had to dig in my savings to make this happen. I didn’t really want to do that, but like, I just had to because, like, I had to put money up, like, for the house,” Batey said. <\/p>\n

She is not alone in relying on savings to cover expenses. According to Payroll Integrations’ 2025 Employee Financial Wellness Report, 38% of employees have tapped into their retirement savings, including 46% of Gen Z workers. A third of employees plan to do so again within the next year to cover emergencies or everyday expenses.<\/p>\n

Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Residents and visitors in Squirrel Hill are sharing their struggles with rising housing costs and financial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[12832,376490,41515,106295,28,10247,376489,101,13961,3901,106124,67637,3812,2402,145299,376488,2066,176724,22947,19079,7383,14857,254030,3421,3415,45642,28406,18056,7619,79961],"class_list":["post-898199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-affordability","tag-aiyanna-batey","tag-allegheny-county","tag-big-issue","tag-business","tag-cost","tag-dan-muessig","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-employee","tag-expense","tag-financial-strain","tag-homes","tag-inflation","tag-midterm","tag-midtermallegheny-county","tag-money","tag-more-news","tag-neighborhood","tag-november","tag-pittsburgh","tag-resident","tag-rising-cost","tag-saving","tag-savings","tag-squirrel-hill","tag-visitor","tag-voters","tag-wage","tag-wtae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}