A plumber just paid $45,000 for a boarded-up row house with a peeling facade in Baltimore, after competitors doubled what he’d planned to spend. That’s the new reality in a city once synonymous with urban decay.
Baltimore’s vacant housing crisis, which left 16,000 properties rotting for years, is experiencing a dramatic reversal. Bidding wars are now breaking out over abandoned homes as Americans priced out of expensive coastal cities discover they can actually afford to buy here. The city’s vacancy count has dropped by nearly a third over the last decade, falling to under 12,000 properties.
“Vacant housing was everywhere,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told the Wall Street Journal. “When people see a bunch of vacants, no one wants to live there. No one wants to invest there.”
That’s changing fast.
The median home sale price in Baltimore sits at $235,333, according to Zillow data. Compare that to the $381,333 national median, and it’s easy to see why families are packing up and heading to Charm City. Add in billions of dollars in funding from the city and state of Maryland, nonprofits rehabbing entire blocks at once, and historic drops in violent crime, and Baltimore suddenly looks like opportunity.
Alex Queen knows the math well. The Baltimore native left Los Angeles after repeatedly losing bidding wars on California homes. She and her family returned and purchased a vacant property rehabbed by Parity Homes, a nonprofit developer. They’re not alone.
Alex Kovach and Ella Miller bought a home in East Baltimore’s Johnston Square neighborhood, where a nonprofit called ReBUILD Metro has been steadily reducing vacant properties. The area offers proximity to downtown and solid transportation options.
“Johnston Square is at the perfect location,” Kovach told the Journal.
The turnaround traces back to the COVID years, when rock-bottom interest rates drew buyers in, pushing prices up and making renovations financially viable. Residents of pricier areas, particularly Washington, DC, started looking at Baltimore as a more affordable alternative. Now investors are piling in.
Chris Waldron, the plumber and part-time investor, visited the vacant property he’d won at auction and had second thoughts. “What did I get myself into?” he recalled thinking. But he quickly developed a plan: invest $130,000 over five months for renovations, then sell for more than $300,000.
The transformation isn’t universal. Carrollton Ridge, home to some of Baltimore’s worst homicide rates, actually has 40 more vacant homes than it did a decade ago. The neighborhood now counts 750 abandoned properties.
But elsewhere, longtime residents can hardly believe what they’re seeing. In Johnston Square, a community garden has replaced what was once a drug market. Blocks that sat empty and boarded up are now home to families.
“There was nothing but rows and rows of boarded-up houses,” said Regina Hammond, a longtime neighborhood resident. “Now it’s a whole different story.”
For working-class Americans watching homeownership slip further out of reach in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, Baltimore offers something increasingly rare: a shot at owning a piece of the American Dream. The homes may need work. The neighborhoods may still be healing. But the prices are real, and so is the demand.
