In August, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Buying Here column profiled a 120-year-old rowhouse at 5238 Harrison St. in Upper Lawrenceville. The developer had gutted the interiors of 14 homes on that street, and the owner told the paper about a tax abatement on city taxes that came with his house. "I'm only paying [Pittsburgh] property tax on the previous sale price of the home," he said. "It stays with the property, so whoever buys the property gets the savings."
He is right that the abatement transfers. What a buyer takes over is the time left on it. Pittsburgh's code ties the exemption to the property, and it "shall not terminate upon the sale." A buyer doesn't get a new ten-year term. They get whatever years the original owner hadn't used yet. In Lawrenceville, many of the abatements from the 2015 to 2020 building boom are close to their end.
Why Lawrenceville Has So Many of These
In August 2014, the Pittsburgh Public Schools board voted 8-0 to bring back a set of residential abatements that had expired in 2012. One was a ten-year "Act 42 Enhanced" abatement worth up to $250,000 of assessment a year, available only in targeted growth zones. Lower Lawrenceville and Upper Lawrenceville were both on that list.
Developers used the incentive in their marketing. A 2018 NEXTpittsburgh roundup of new Lawrenceville projects reported that condos at the Wainwright, 3607 Butler St., came with an abatement on city and school taxes on the first $250,000 of assessed value for eight years. It also said the townhomes at Lola Square, at Charlotte Street and Mulberry Way, and at Carlton Court, at 46th and Carlton streets, qualified for ten-year abatements. Builders said they expected Carlton Court to be finished that December.
Under the city code, the exemption begins in the tax year after the occupancy permit is issued, as long as the county has certified the new assessment. By that rule, a ten-year abatement on a home finished in 2018 or 2019 would likely run until about 2028 or 2029. That is our estimate, and the actual end year depends on when the permit was issued and the assessment certified. Those 2018 terms don't describe what's available today. They show when the clocks on that generation of housing started.
The Expiration Curve Is Going Up
Pittsburgh merged its abatement programs in 2020. Most active abatements still come from before the merger. The City Controller's March 2026 audit counted 819 abatements as of December 2025. About 86% were pre-consolidation programs, and more than half were Act 42 Enhanced Residential, the Lawrenceville-era program. Only 119 had been approved under the new rules since July 2020.
The same report projects when those abatements end, using data through December 2025:
| Year | Act 42 Enhanced Residential expirations | City revenue returning from those | All programs expiring |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 63 | $91,064.61 | 88 |
| 2027 | 91 | Not listed | 173 |
| 2028 | 151 | $226,438.00 | 326 |
| 2029 | 234 | $344,831.34 | 426 |
| 2030 | 290 | $432,946.48 | 489 |
These numbers are projections, and they count only the City's share of the tax. An earlier Controller report from December 2024 had projected more 2026 expirations than the March 2026 version does. Exact counts can change as the data is updated, but both reports show expirations rising from 2026 through 2030.
For a buyer, this means the same thing in every one of those years. A listing that shows unusually low taxes on a newer townhome or a fully redone rowhouse may be showing the abated amount for only a little longer. If the abatement ends a year or two after closing, the low number on the listing sheet tells you very little about what the house will cost to own.
What the Abatement Is Worth Depends on Who Pays
The amount at stake depends on which taxing bodies take part, and the public sources don't agree with each other. The 2014 Post-Gazette report says the school board itself approved the ten-year enhanced program. The City's own abatement table, dated April 1, 2018, lists Act 42 Enhanced Residential as covering the City only. It shows the three-year Act 42 Residential program covering both the City and the schools. According to the 2014 report, Allegheny County took part only in the three-year program.
Because the sources conflict, the program name on a property's record matters more than the word "abated" on a listing. Using 2026 rates, here is what each taxing body's share would be on $250,000 of assessment, the top of the enhanced program:
| Taxing body | 2026 millage | Tax on $250,000 of assessment |
|---|---|---|
| City of Pittsburgh | 9.67 mills | $2,417.50 |
| Pittsburgh Public Schools | 10.457 mills | $2,614.25 |
| Allegheny County | 6.43 mills | $1,607.50 |
| City parks levy | 0.50 mills | $125.00 |
| City library levy | 0.25 mills | $62.50 |
These are not estimates for any particular house. They show how far apart the outcomes can be. An abatement that covers only the City's share of a fully capped assessment comes to about $2,400 a year at 2026 rates. One that also covers the school share comes to more than $5,000. The rates themselves went up for 2026. WESA reported that the school board approved a 2% increase, setting the rate at 10.457 mills.
The cap also applies only to the building. The code limits the exemption to the assessed value attributable to construction, and the 100% exemption covers "the eligible assessment on buildings." Land is taxed from the start. On a rowhouse renovation, the abatement covers the increase in assessment from the improvements, not the full value of the property.
A Condition That Applies to the Current Owner
There's another detail in the code worth knowing. Under Chapter 265, no exemption is granted, and an existing one is revoked, "for so long as there exists any tax delinquency, any code violations, or non-compliance with agreed upon conditions" tied to the property or its owner. Once a buyer owns the property, those conditions apply to them for the rest of the term.
What a New Abatement Looks Like Today
Under the current Chapter 265 rules, a newly built or substantially renovated owner-occupied home gets one of two terms. The base term is three years, capped at $247,786 of assessed-value reduction in 2026. The enhanced term is ten years, capped at $250,000, but only for homes in a CDBG-eligible area or in a multi-unit for-sale development where at least 10% of the units are affordable to and occupied by households at or below 80% of area median income. Because of those conditions, many current new builds qualify only for three years, a much shorter break than the ten-year terms common during the Lawrenceville boom.
How to Check a Specific House Before You Make an Offer
The public records don't give a complete answer in one place, but used together they cover most of it.
- Search the parcel on the Allegheny County Real Estate Portal by address or parcel number. The General Information page has an "Other Abatement" field and lists base-year values separately from county assessed values. The county notes that local and county values can differ because of abatement programs.
- Look the parcel up in the City of Pittsburgh Property Tax Abatements dataset on the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center. It lists the start year, program name, number of years and abatement amount. It does not list an end year, so you'll need to work that out from the start year and the term.
- Ask the City's Real Estate Division for the account's abatement record, at 412-255-2525 or [email protected]. In a December 2024 audit, the Controller described the Finance Department's abatement records as listing start and end years and the abatement calculations for the City, the school district, the library and parks.
With those three, a buyer can estimate the tax bill for each year they expect to own the house, including the years after the abatement ends.
Quick Questions
Does the abatement transfer when the house sells? Yes. The city code attaches the exemption to the property and says it does not end with a sale. The buyer gets the remaining years.
Does every Lawrenceville abatement cover school taxes? Not necessarily. The 2014 news report and the City's 2018 program table describe different taxing bodies for the ten-year enhanced program. The program name on the parcel's record determines which shares are abated.
Can I get a new abatement by renovating an abated house? The current Chapter 265 terms apply to new construction and qualifying improvements, and applications are due within 180 days of the building-permit date. Whether a particular project qualifies is a question for the City's Real Estate Division.
This post explains how Pittsburgh's abatement rules work in general. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, so please confirm the details of any property with the City and with your own tax or legal professional.
If you're comparing Lawrenceville rowhouses and newer townhomes, or deciding how to price one that is a few years from the end of its abatement, The Cannon Group can pull the parcel records and show you the tax bill year by year before you make a decision. Sellers can start with a free home valuation that takes the remaining abatement into account. If you're buying your first home, our first-time homebuyer guide for Pittsburgh covers the steps around the offer.