This wouldn’t be a tough decision for me.
On the low cost end, UMass with Commonwealth Honors is excellent, but your kid has several tangible reasons not to be feeling it. I feel as if choosing UMass would involve a tacit, preemptive decision to take the sophomore transfer to BU; and I don’t feel like starting your freshman year with one foot out the door is really a good way to begin the college experience.
On the high cost end, I don’t feel as if Northeastern is really offering the value-added that you should expect for the cost differential. The first semester abroad would probably be fun, but it’s mainly a way of preserving the school’s revenue stream while biding kids’ time away from campus for a very-expensive semester. Your son could do a semester abroad, as a Pitt or UMass student for vastly less money, and it wouldn’t be inferior in any way, so you’re basically just donating tens of thousands of dollars to Northeastern for the privilege of being in a generically-educational and fun holding pattern until they have dorm space in the spring. Once on campus, there’s nothing special about studying Econ at Northeastern as compared to Pitt Honors or UMass Honors, and as you say, there’s no guarantee of fruitful co-ops, especially given the trajectory of the economy. To me, the only thing you’re really giving up by passing up Northeastern here is Boston, and you even have a second chance at that with the BU sophomore transfer option.
That leaves Pitt. It’s more expensive than UMass but still pretty affordable. It’s in a great urban area; in fact, one with a vibrant Jewish community if that’s important to you, which it sounds like it might be. Honors is a really nice enhancement. In addition to the honors housing, do not underestimate the benefit of priority registration! This means that instead of “taking what you can get” in terms of classes, you get to skim the cream in terms of the most interesting classes with the most highly-regarded instructors. This means that not only are you entering a well-regarded program, but the quality of your particular experience will be skewed toward the best the school has to offer. (This is true for UMass Commonwealth Honors too; it just seems that the Pitt vibe and environment feel like a much better fit.) Pitt students can even join CMU music ensembles, if they aren’t finding what they’re looking for in-house.
In your position, I would choose Pitt, and I would try to go in with the assumption that I was going to stay for four years. Keep that BU offer in your back pocket, and if you really feel that it would be worth the disruption and the extra money, the option is there. But it has so much in common with Pitt - even the two cities have a lot of similarities IMO - that I don’t think you should assume it will offer an upgrade that’s commensurate with the price difference, much less worth having to start over on a new campus after a year. Pitt is a great school, and I don’t really see much downside to choosing it over the other two urban universities which cost so much more. (In your case, that is. There are students for whom BU and Northeastern, with full-need-met aid, would be cheaper than Pitt, and then it becomes a different conversation.) Also, 32% of Pitt students come from outside PA (vs. 27.5% at UMass, which still isn’t bad) - probably an even higher percentage in Honors, though don’t know that for a fact - so I really don’t think it’s “geared for PA” - he can go anywhere with a Pitt degree that he could go with a degree from one of the MA schools.
As decisions go on these forums, I honestly feel less conflicted about this one than most. I’d be feeling pretty settled about choosing Pitt.