While perusing some of the local online publications, I ran across this article by Ron DaParma, Real Estate Reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Pittsburgh region sidesteps much of subprime storm

The Pittsburgh region isn't at the top of the list of U.S. cities stung by mortgage foreclosures and problems with subprime loans, experts say.

Residential foreclosures here actually declined slightly in 2007 versus 2006, according to a recent report.

Mr. DaParma's article goes on to spotlight a couple of anecdotal instances of how folks are dealing with their own foreclosure worries, but there's also this article by Ben Semmes in The Pittsburgh Business Times:

Foreclosure flood in Pittsburgh region

A flood of foreclosures swamped the Pittsburgh region in February, which saw the most foreclosed homes in more than two decades.

Four hundred owners lost their homes in February in the five-county Pittsburgh region, 64 more than February of last year, according to RealSTATs, a South Side-based real estate information company.

In the 22 years since RealSTATs began keeping records, no one month has recorded more foreclosures than February's total.

These articles were written about 3 weeks apart from one another.  Can they both be true?  I suppose, but from where I sit, it's all a matter of perspective.  Personally, I've always been a glass-half-full kind of guy, although I can see where it's easy to get discouraged when faced with the prospect of losing one's home.  This isn't the first time this region has faced an economic downturn, however; we were hit hard by the decline of the steel industry in the late 70s and managed to come back from that.  That's why I prefer to remain optimistic.  The people of southwestern PA are a resilient lot.  We never give up and always find a way to win.