Wilkinsburg’s housing challenges are solvable when we remove the legal barriers that keep vacant houses off the market. The facts below explain the problem and how our approach restores homes to new owners

Graffiti art with the word 'LOVE' painted on a brick wall, featuring purple circles and teal accents, set in an urban area behind a sidewalk.
A three-story yellow brick house with a small covered front porch and bay window on the second floor, between two other brick houses, one red and one with pink siding. The yellow house has a set of stairs leading to the front door, and the porch has a metal railing with some damage. The second-story window in the bay is partially boarded up, and the house appears to need some repairs.
People shopping at an outdoor farmers market with tables of fresh produce, a mural on a building, trees, and a parking lot in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

Fast Facts

30%

Homeownership rate in Wilkinsburg today 

20%+

Single-family homes now owned by LLCs

92%

Properties at sheriff’s sale that end up with LLCs

849

Net housing units lost, 2010→2020

2,320

Tax-delinquent properties in 2019; 1,683 were 3+ years delinquent ($1,030,185 lost that year)

Deceased owners

A significant share of vacant homes are still titled to deceased individuals, blocking normal sale until courts act

Why so many houses stay empty

Many abandoned homes can’t be bought through the normal market because the deed is still in a deceased owner’s name and liens have piled up. Clearing title requires court action and coordination most buyers cannot do alone

How the Land Bank fixes it

Bar graph showing Wilkinsburg's ownership and rental rates. 30% owner-occupied, 70% renter-occupied.

We acquire vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties, create clean, marketable title, stabilize them, and transfer them to pre-qualified community-based developers for rehab and sale to first-time homebuyers

Bar chart titled "Tax-delinquent properties (2019)" showing three categories: all delinquent 2,320, 3+ years delinquent 1,683, and lost revenue $1,030,185. Color-coded bars, from top to bottom: red, light blue, dark blue. Data source: MBM Collections, 2020.

The cost of doing nothing

When investors capture distressed properties at scale—92% through sheriff’s sale go to LLCs—owner-occupancy falls and neighborhoods hollow out. Wilkinsburg is now 4th in Allegheny County for LLC-owned homes.  

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