Pittsburgh is going to be North America's Kuwait. Move there now, fortune seekers.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Editor's note: yesterday, we published new data from U-Haul showing Pittsburgh had the highest percentage of inbound to outbound moves in 2012.

We reached out to newly minted Pittsburgh resident Dom Beveridge, a multifamily real estate and lodging/travel industry consultant, to explain the incredible influx to the Steel City.

Here is an edited version of the note he sent us:

I recently moved here from California for my wife’s work — she's in the oil industry. That’s not unusual – if one half of a couple has a career in oil (where you have to move around in order to advance) then the other can’t have a location-bound job. Other oil companies are doing the same.

The energy boom here is real. But in my view the important thing to understand is that it’s in its very early stages. Production right now is tiny, given that the Appalachians sit the world’s second largest known gas reserve (after Iran/Qatar). I think it’s because natural gas prices are very low in the US – which (bizarrely) means that supply doesn’t grow as quickly as it would if gas were as expensive as crude oil, for example. But big oil companies have been buying up shale gas producers and are in it for the long run. Over time demand will grow (frankly it’s ridiculous that the US continues to mine and burn coal given the abundance of gas), which will push prices and production up. Which means that for the next generation or two wealth should accumulate rapidly in and around Pittsburgh.

There are a few other factors that – I think – set the city up nicely. There was never much of a housing bubble in Pittsburgh. House prices were relatively low both before and after the financial crash. So I don’t think the city suffered that characteristic of lots of people suddenly being under water on their houses. So local businesses probably came through the downturn relatively unscathed. Further, prior to the invention of horizontal drilling (the technology that made the shale gas boom possible when it was invented about a decade ago), Pittsburgh’s economy was already growing, having re-invented itself as a center of higher education and medicine.

My wife (who actually grew up here) points to an event a few years ago. The US Steel Building (the tallest building between NY and Chicago) became the UPMC building. It felt like that change to the skyline signaled a change in the city’s economic fortunes. Pitt and CMU are excellent universities. UPMC is a world class medical organization. CMU is a top engineering school, and produces an abundance of the skills needed in a knowledge-based economy. It’s what made Google set up shop here. Their presence – and presumably other, related companies – are changing the East End of the city (the area near the universities). Folks that knew that part of town 10 years ago say that the transformation has been remarkable. Neighborhoods like East Liberty, Lawrenceville etc, used to be rough and have little to offer culturally, etc. Now they’re hotbeds of good restaurants, entertainment and culture. Nobody could have said that a few years ago!

There are now more jobs of the type customarily found in SF and Silicon Valley in Pittsburgh. I think that’s mostly to do with Google – and again, that’s not a reflection of Google moving lots of people from SF to Pittsburgh, rather the competition for talent in the Bay Area is so fierce right now – especially for Facebook and Google – that it makes sense to set up operations close to major engineering schools (like CMU) in a few different US cities.

So I guess the summary is, I think the city has been doing well for some time, mostly because of favorable underlying economics and the long-term growth in the education and medical industries. But shale gas is changing the fortunes of the city and will continue to do so for a long time.

http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-is-driving-migration-to-pittsburgh-2013-4

Edited April 18, 2013 by amriki bhai

[Darnell 8,479]

The new Kuwait? #######? Cheaply paid Indian and Bengali construction workers, phillipino ofw maids and nurses?

No No No. Pittsburg could become the new Houston, all of the same expanding industries save for the space industry.

[mota bhai 2,675]

The new Kuwait? #######? Cheaply paid Indian and Bengali construction workers, phillipino ofw maids and nurses?

No No No. Pittsburg could become the new Houston, all of the same expanding industries save for the space industry.

Houston's a sh1thole.

[duraaraa 203]

I've been to Pittsburgh. I've even performed there (I don't want to be too specific regarding what career I had.) And yet, for whatever reason, when I think of Pittsburgh, I think of Dance Moms. That show is great.

Edited April 18, 2013 by duraaraa

[mota bhai 2,675]

You were a stripper? Cool.

[duraaraa 203]

You were a stripper? Cool.

If I had been good looking enough to be a male stripper, I'd be out stripping and not sitting in an office right now.

[mota bhai 2,675]

If I had been good looking enough to be a male stripper, I'd be out stripping and not sitting in an office right now.

hey, maybe you got old.

[duraaraa 203]

hey, maybe you got old.

If I was old, I'd have a higher position

Unfortunately for me, young or old, stripping just isn't in the cards.

Edited April 18, 2013 by duraaraa

[GandD 5,966]

If I had been good looking enough to be a male stripper, I'd be out stripping and not sitting in an office right now.

Well, at least you'll be able to visit Saudi Arabia if you wish

[mota bhai 2,675]

If I was old, I'd have a higher position

Unfortunately for me, young or old, stripping just isn't in the cards.

so you were a clown. only other possible conclusion.

[duraaraa 203]

so you were a clown. only other possible conclusion.

Something along those lines, I guess. Haha.

Whatever it was that I was, I got to travel around the world, and the regular office job I have now, although I get to speak various languages and work with lots of people from lots of countries now, it just doesn't compare to worldwide clowning.

And the run-on sentence of the year award goes to...

Edited April 18, 2013 by duraaraa

[mota bhai 2,675]

And the run-on sentence of the year award goes to...

Not you. You haven't been on VJ that long I guess. I've seen much worse.

[duraaraa 203]

Not you. You haven't been on VJ that long I guess. I've seen much worse.

I was going to clean up my sentence, but I figured, it's never bad to change a topic from Pittsburgh's natural resources to grammar.

And no, I haven't been on VJ for very long, at all. Now that I have my NOA2 for my fiancee, I'm just passing the time, tainting the religion/politics forum with my hippie views, I guess.

Edited April 18, 2013 by duraaraa

[mota bhai 2,675]

Of course not. There's a reason people call it Shitsburgh.

[duraaraa 203]

Well, at least you'll be able to visit Saudi Arabia if you wish

This is true. I could definitely go, and I wouldn't have to wear a mask to hide my beauty, like Vega.