A.S.
Hello, USC and Mt. Lebanon are both nice communities, lots of activities. Both are regarded as some of the more "upscale" communities in the South Hills area, which has its good points & bad points, basically it's what you feel comfortable with. (Many other nice communities around here too). The schools for both are very well regarded, the disadvantage might be that they are both large and very competitive. We live USC and like it quite a bit. We moved here 6 months ago from Washington Co. which as mentioned below does have significantly lower taxes. We liked it there too but decided to come to USC for the school system, the community resources, and we felt like we were always driving in to go to anything. (The taxes in USC have been a bit of an ouch because we are not wealthy but we budgeted it out). We go to church in Mt. Lebanon (United Presbyterian)and my son goes to preschool there. It's called Kingdom Kids, I am very happy with the program there. Also in Mt. L is a Montessori school, some people like that. I know many people in Mt. Lebanon, again very good schools but as someone said there are no buses. Also the general type of homes are differnt. In Mt. Lebanon there are a lot of 80-90 year old houses, very beautiful but sometimes lacking in modern updates, have smaller kitchens, 1-car garages, etc. There are shops in Mt. Lebanon that depending on what neighborhood exactly you are in that you can walk to, which is nice. USC does have a mall (that also is partly in Bethel Park) but there is no nice "downtown" area, it's mostly all residential. USC homes tend to be a little newer and more spacious (2 car garages, bigger yards) but many homes, as ours is, are in the 40 year old range. New construction is almost nonexistent in Mt. L.,any new construction in USC is very expensive (400K+). In case you need a realtor, I loved ours, she does a lot in both communities. Let me know if you want her name or if I can let you know about anything else. Good luck!