DENNIS AND SAMANTHA GUY WERE THE FIRST HOMEBUYERS OF THE RENOVATED HOMES COMPLETED BY HOMES BY LEVEL. PICTURED AT RIGHT IS HOMES BY LEVEL’S FOUNDER AND CEO, JASON TIGANO. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
Newly-renovated homes capped at $180,000 thanks to ‘Homes By LEVEL’
Right now, the median sale price of a home in Allegheny County is almost $270,000.
And to make matters worse, it’s actually cheaper in Pittsburgh to purchase a home than to rent, which exposes just how much it costs to rent within the city.
These numbers leave many African Americans in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County scrambling to find subsequent housing.
And this is where “Homes By LEVEL” comes in.
Its founder and CEO, Jason Tigano, has a personal mission to help people who may not be able to afford market-rate homes get into newly-remodeled homes. Homes that they can be proud of. Homes that can serve as wealth-building tools in the future.
Five of those homes were recently put on the market for sale at a price of $180,000, which, in this county, is a deal.
Holding back tears, Chantel Perkins said at a celebration for the newly-remodeled homes that “homeownership has been a dream…there were moments where I felt like this journey was impossible, but today is proof that dreams are achievable when determination, hard work, perseverance and faith meets the perfect opportunity.”
Perkins was able to close on one of the newly-remodeled homes along Woodward Avenue in McKees Rocks, one of five newly-remodeled homes from Homes By LEVEL on the street. There are three homes that are still available today for purchase.
“This home isn’t just about changing my address; it’s changing my family’s future. This home is our foundation, our safe place, and the beginning of a legacy that continues for generations,” Perkins said.
NEW HOME BY LEVEL HOMEOWNER CHANTEL PERKINS HUGS THE NONPROFIT’S FOUNDER AND CEO, JASON TIGANO, DURING THE AUG. 5, 2026, CELEBRATION IN MCKEES ROCKS. (PHOTOS BY MARANIE STAAB)
Tigano told the New Pittsburgh Courier that Homes By LEVEL, also known as LEVEL: Equity Building (based in Brookline), received the first-ever scattered-site, residential Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant in 2020 in partnership with McKees Rocks Borough. That’s when Tigano’s nonprofit began working closely with the community to create pathways to homeownership for its residents by, in layman terms, gutting the blighted properties and fixing them up to look and feel like new. With additional assistance from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, the Hillman Foundation and Allegheny County, LEVEL: Equity Building was able to complete its first renovated home in 2022 in McKees Rocks. Dennis and Samantha Guy purchased the home on Gardner Street in McKees Rocks and moved into the home in April 2024. They were on hand for the Aug. 5, 2026, celebration of the five remodeled homes on Woodward Avenue.
“It really set us up (well),” Dennis Guy told the Courier. “Samantha just finished her first children’s book; it gave me the ability to go back to school…and now I’m applying to Ph.D. programs this fall, so things are going great.”
Samantha Guy added: “When you rent, you can’t paint, you can’t make things your own,” she said, but as a homeowner, she can do anything she wants to the house. And Dennis Guy said he learned how to make a patio for their new home…”it can survive an earthquake, it’s one hell of a patio now,” he said.
Tigano told the Courier exclusively that in all the years he’s worked in the real estate and economic development industries, he felt that there was “no money for homeownership,” and the funding/grants for low- to middle-income residents steered them towards renting. “What we’ve learned through this journey we’ve been on is the rippling impacts,” Tigano continued. “When you rent, you stay in your place three to four years (on average). That means the kids are moving schools all the time.”
He said officials with the Sto-Rox School District said a third of its students that start the school year in the district “don’t finish the year in the district, because the family moves out of the district.”
But by offering homeownership instead of rentals, Tigano said, “we’re going to keep kids in the district and be able to educate them K-12.”
Tigano also said the average net worth of a renter is $10,000. But the average net worth of a homeowner is $400,000.
The homes that LEVEL: Equity Building have offered for sale so far have a $180,000 cap. It’s not going up. This means that, when a prospective homeowner also applies for Allegheny County’s “1st Home Allegheny” grant, that homeowner could use the up-to-$45,000 grant from the county to knock down the home’s sale price even further, possibly to $135,000.
“This is what it’s all about,” Tigano told the Courier exclusively. “It’s really authentically affordable. If you can qualify for the 1st Home Allegheny with this program, and you’re buying a house for $130,000 to $150,000, there is no full gut rehab house you’re going to get for that. It doesn’t exist.”
Tigano said in 2027, his nonprofit will be renovating four more homes, making it 10 renovated homes that Homes By LEVEL would have completed for the McKees Rocks community. Tigano said it took more than $2 million in grants for the five homes on Woodward Avenue to be renovated for sale.
Heather Jarrett, communications and outreach manager for Homes By LEVEL, said that Perkins and another homebuyer, Melissa Williams-Miles, have purchased two of the five homes on Woodward Avenue, leaving three that are currently available. Interested first-time homebuyers can email:
hello@homesbylevel.org.
“I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the LEVEL team,” Perkins said at the Aug. 5 celebration. “Thank you for believing in families like mine and making homeownership possible for so many. You’re doing more than just building houses; you’re creating opportunities, strengthening communities and giving families the chance to build generational wealth.”
DOLLAR BANK’S SUSAN KELLY, NEW HOMEOWNER CHANTEL PERKINS, PA. LT. GOV. AUSTIN DAVIS.