Pittsburgh Shows the Way to a Rust Belt Rebound

I vividly remember a time back in 2007 when some people I knew were marveling at an online ad for a house in Pittsburgh selling for $1. Of course, the true cost of houses being auctioned for almost nothing is much higher, since you have to rebuild and maintain them. But it just served to illustrate Pittsburgh’s battered reputation as a post-industrial sob story, a tumbledown slum where no one would want to live.

A decade later, how things have changed. Pittsburgh is hot. A growing mecca for millennials, Pittsburgh regularly earns a place on the list of “best cities to live” and “coolest neighborhoods in America.” It’s being hailed as the next tech industry hotspot, and even old-line manufacturers like Alcoa Corp. are moving back to the city. How did things change so quickly?