Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania.

Twenty-six years ago, Bob Topich broke the age-old social norm of Pittsburgh suburbanites — departing his native South Hills for a home north of the city.

Topich, 65, of FranklinPark, has never looked back.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. “I’ll take that to my grave.”

Topich’s friends and family were surprised by the move, he said.

“Pittsburgh is a very provincial type of city. If you’re born in the south, you stay in the south and you just continue to move farther down the south,” he said. “And it was the same with the north. If you grew up in Shaler, you moved to McCandless, you moved into Cranberry.

“It’s just the way it is. When I moved across the river, you would’ve thought I moved to Canada.”

The stereotype — that those who live in the North Hills or South Hills never move to the opposite region — has some merit to it. The two regions have their differences, said Caroline Barrett Douglass, Realtor for Realty One Group Platinum.

The North Hills is marked by slightly newer homes, properties with larger yards and big box stores and national chain restaurants lining McKnight Road, she said. The South Hills is known for its historic homes, walkable communities, breweries and boutique retail.

Then there’s the traffic.

“There’s the old joke that neither one wants to cross the river,” said Barrett Douglass, who has worked 25 years in the Pittsburgh real estate market.

“If you’re leaving the South Hills, it’s like you have four seconds to merge or die in terms of the tunnels. And then the North Hills, it’s ‘McKnightmare Road.’ ”

But in Barrett Douglass’s assessment, the real estate markets in the two communities have more in common than one might think in terms of house pricing and availability.

‘It always seems to come down to the tunnels’

Housing inventory in the North and South Hills can be tight, Barrett Douglass said — particularly in well-established suburbs, strong school districts and walkable neighborhoods.

But both regions have shifted in recent months toward a buyer’s market.

It’s the calmest the real estate industry has been since the covid-19 pandemic, said Berkshire Hathaway Realtor Megan Grenek.

“We’ve been in the market where a lot of homes were being priced so high and the pricing consistently goes up,” said Grenek, who has worked about 12 years in real estate. “But at this point right now, it’s shifted a little bit more toward a buyer’s market with the calming and the price reductions happening.”

The regions have similar availability of outdoor amenities, Barrett Douglass said — North Park and Hartwood Acres in the North Hills; South Park and the Boyce Mayview Complex in the South Hills.

And homes in both regions fall in similar price ranges, she said.

Starter homes tend to cost between $300,000 and $350,000 in the North Hills and $250,000 to $350,000 in the South Hills.

Larger or newer properties typically cost between $500,000 and $900,000 in the North Hills and $450,000 to $900,000 in the South Hills, Barrett Douglass said.

The primary sticking point for North and South Hills buyers, Grenek said, is the traffic.

“It always seems to come down to the tunnels and traveling back and forth, maybe on the Parkway,” Grenek said. “When someone has a job closer to the South Hills, they want to stay in that area. And it does make sense. If you’re having to go through the tunnels, it’s always trafficky. That would be a tough commute every day, twice a day.”

‘Couldn’t have picked a better place’

The Topich family’s move to Franklin Park has not prevented them from staying in touch with their former South Hills community.

Topich and Nancy still make the drive to attend church, visit friends, or participate in community events.

“In reality,” he said, “it takes me, from my house, 30 minutes to get to my childhood home.”

Topich grew up in Brentwood and Whitehall. When he married his wife, Nancy, a native of Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood, the couple briefly lived on the South Side.

But when Nancy became pregnant with their second child, Topich knew it was time to pursue a home outside of the city with more space.

The couple looked at a few homes in the South Hills, Topich said.

“But there just wasn’t what we were looking for home-wise at a price point that we were comfortable with,” he said.

Their Franklin Park home checked every box on their list — plenty of space to raise a family, easy access to main roads and reasonable commutes to work.

“Where we ended up, it’s 15 minutes to (the city). It’s 25 minutes to the airport,” he said. “We couldn’t have picked a better place.”

Krista Galla has no desire to leave her Ross Township home for the South Hills.

Galla, 45, rented in Bellevue for 11 years before she and her husband decided to search for their first home last year. The couple never doubted they would stay in the North Hills.

“We really love the location, how it’s a great commute for us to work,” she said. “It’s close to the city, but it’s outside of the downtown area.”

Being close to the turnpike is also a perk for Galla, whose family lives in Ohio.

Although Galla occasionally visits friends in the South Hills, she is not envious of the after-work traffic she would face if she lived there herself.

“To even get off at that Banksville exit, it’s just bumper to bumper,” she said. “The merging — it’s just too much for me at the time that I typically would have to leave to go home from work.”

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