Its not going to have the growth of CA or the weather of FL, but the state income tax is fixed at 3.07%, near the bottom of the 40-42 states that have state income taxes.Pittsburgh has totally turned around in my adult life time (last 30 years).  

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1 in 9 adult Americans was self employed in 2009: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2010/09/art2full.pdf. 

We all develop coping mechanisms for situations in our lives be they good or bad and then tend to repeat these behaviors during our adult lives to varying degrees. 

Originally posted by Ihe Onwuka:But it isn't $40.It's $40 times however many applications need to be submitted in order to get a house, some of which they will be rejected for even though they qualify because landlords have taken non-refundable fees and are running the process as a beauty paegeant.I agree with your sentiment about the process being run as a beauty paegeant being wrong, but that's not what your ire was about.And although it's not just $40, but $40 per adult, considering each adult must have some sort of income these days, it's still not a large amount of money.

Granted I haven't driven that area in a few years but I didn't like what I saw back then....too many people/adult males "hanging out" during the middle of the day when most people are working.  

I haven't yet made any real estate investments beyond my own personal residence, but I've been interested in real estate for most of my adult life.  

I called a construction company about interning for free when I was a 15 (over 20 years ago), and was told they don't hire females because they're too distracting to the men!  

It makes the younger females safer and overall the tenants know that all the common areas are been taped so nothing bad has occurred.

A friend of mine suggested I search for Adult Foster Care Home companies in the area because he thought the layout of the house was perfect for it.

Find someone that will treat you like an intelligent adult, who doesn't put expiration dates on preapproval letters so that, again, you aren't feeling time-pressured to move before you're ready.