Residential Real Estate : Buzz

Officials with the nonprofit activist group People for the American Way met recently in Baltimore to talk about how cities can cope with the foreclosure crisis.

The group of 40 toured Whitelock Community Farm in Reservoir Hill, an area on the decline that now has affordable housing for artists. You can read more about the tour on the nonprofit's blog.

What'll $500,000 get you on Baltimore's real estate market?

Here's an excerpt:

"This building was built in 1920, and until the 1970s was the site of a Polish bakery. It was converted to a residence in the 1980s, and the latest updates, by the current owners, were done over the past 10 years. The first floor, what was once the bakery's storefront, is a living and kitchen area, with an original fireplace."

Read the entire listing.

The Chris Bohl, architect-owner of a three-level penthouse overlooking Federal Hill Park, and his wife Barbara spent six months renovating the 1980s home.

Check out the pics from the WSJ here.

Living in Baltimore, it's easy to see that the arts play a huge role in the city. As with eveyrthing that's created here our artists do it with a flair found only in Charm City. The Washington Post captures the style in a series of articles focusing on everything from art to theater.

Here's an excerpt:

"Baltimore brews its own arts scene, with a taste of what America was and what it will be."

Read the entire series of articles here.

When then-Mayor Martin O'Malley announced plans to redevelop a large swath of East Baltimore that would require the displacement of more than 500 families, it was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Flash forward and the plan is being hailed as the model for other cities.

Here's an excerpt:

"The question is: Can we Americans be more sensitive than we were after World War II, when "urban renewal" forced inner-city residents - mostly black - to abandon their neighborhoods? The prime excuse then was to "eradicate blight." But the uses of the lost neighborhood land often told a different tale: flashy public projects, real estate opportunities for developers and massive freeways that plowed through low-income and minority areas.

Notwithstanding redevelopment around the Inner Harbor, much of Baltimore's inner city was a poster child for deindustrialization. It saw riots in the 1960s, a massive middle-class exodus, waves of drugs, crime, property "flippers" and slumlords.

The Casey Foundation was initially skeptical when Baltimore's mayor, now Gov. Martin O'Malley, asked for help with a $1 billion-plus plan to acquire and demolish hundreds of homes in the Middle East neighborhood, just north of the Johns Hopkins campus. The idea was to create an 88-acre community for life sciences research facilities, retail development and market-rate housing."

Read the entire op-ed here.

The New York Times takes a look at the city's arts districts and its plan to create a third arts district on the Baltimore's westside. The paper of record doesn't draw any conclusions but presents both sides of the debate.

Here's an excerpt

"The idea for a west side arts district has been around at least since the administration of Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore's mayor from 1987 to 1999. Over the years, the city took steps to improve the area, though without official arts district designation.

One step was to turn the old Hippodrome Theater at 12 North Eutaw Street into the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2003. Another was converting the century-old Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, at 21 South Eutaw Street, which was modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, into artists' studios.

Mr. Schmoke, now dean of the Howard University School of Law in Washington, said that while he had not seen specific plans for the new arts district, he supported the idea generally."

Read the entire article here.

Last week, The Baltimore Sun ran a couple of pieces on the city's proposal to create a so-called arts district in West Baltimore.

Here's an excerpt from articles for and against the project:

"City officials backed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake are to be applauded for moving ahead with plans to create a new arts and entertainment district on Baltimore's West Side near downtown. The area has been pegged for redevelopment as a cultural hub for more than a decade, but the pace of change has been disappointing. Anything that helps jump-start the process is all to the good.

One might well ask why the area even needs a formal designation as an arts and entertainment district, given the ambitious renovation of the Hippodrome Theatre (which re-opened on the west side in 2003) and the imminent arrival there of the Everyman Theatre Company. Isn't it already on a path to becoming the cultural magnet its backers originally envisioned?"

Read the entire article here.

"A proposal endorsed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake would make the city's west side into an arts district, which the administration hopes will help turn around the ailing neighborhood.

This is not the solution. Why? Baltimore already has two arts districts -- Highlandtown/Patterson Park and Station North. It doesn't need a third.

The city declared Highlandtown/Patterson Park an arts district in 2003. That same year, the Creative Alliance at the Patterson (pictured), a mixed use arts/performance space, opened. Offering art exhibits and cutting edge performances, the Creative Alliance was supposed to be the cultural anchor for an arts renaissance in Highlandtown.

Nearly seven years later, Highlandtown/Patterson Park hasn't seen a sliver of the artistic explosion and revitalization that was supposed to happen. Aside from the Creative Alliance and the Southeast Anchor Library, Highlandtown/Patterson Park doesn't have much more in the way of arts than it did in 2003."

Read the entire post here. And now tell us what you think...

Don't judge a book by its cover...and in this instance don't judge a home by its seemingly modest facade, especially when two designers pull out all the stops to remodel their own home.

Here's an excerpt:

"You may not realize how close you are to Paris. You are, in fact, only as a far away as a modest cottage in Homeland. Well, "modest" isn't really the right word, because from the moment you set foot in the black and white diamond-pattern tile foyer, you'll understand that this home is anything but modest.

Dan Proctor and Jeffrey Hess purchased the home, their third purchase together, in pursuit of a design style that they had never tried before. Both designers by trade, they knew what they wanted, and were intent on achieving it. Here is their finished product."

Read the entire article here.

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund has launched an investigation into what it calls "Hard Times Profiteers," scammers who post signs throughout metropolitan areas offering help with foreclosures, home sales, etc. Reporters headed to D.C. first, but now have posted a video by Robert Strupp, director of research and policy at the Community Law Center.

Here's an excerpt:

"Drive through most any city in America and the offers will leap out at you: "Repair Your Credit!" "Modify Your Loan!" "Sell Your House Quick!"

Renting continues to be a better idea than buying in Seattle, according to reporting done by Time Magazine. A Seattle-based writer looks at what Baltimore shares with just 20 other U.S. cities.

An excerpt from the article reads:

In their latest issue TIME Magazine declares that in many cities, price-to-rent ratios indicate that buying a home has become a better deal than renting for the first time in years� but not yet in Seattle: Is Owning a Home Better Than Renting?

"A year ago, it was a better deal to rent," says Andres Carbacho-Burgos, an economist at Economy.com "Now you have a significant number of areas, especially those hit the hardest by the correction, where, when you compare prices to rents, you'd be led to believe it's a good time to buy."

A significant number � but not everywhere. At TIME's request, Economy.com ran the numbers for 54 metro areas and compared their current price-to-rent ratios to what their ratios have been over the past 15 years. The result: in 21 cities, renting still looks to be the better bargain. Among the renter-friendly outposts are Baltimore; Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.; Salt Lake City; San Antonio; Trenton, N.J.; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Seattle; and Portland, Ore."

Of course, this is the same publication that published the now-infamous Home $weet Home issue at the height of the bubble in 2005, so it's probably a good idea to take their advice with a large grain of salt.

Read the entire article here.

A critical mass of government sector jobs is keeping Maryland's unemployment rate low vis-�-vis the rest of the nation, and that has helped buoy the housing market. But there are chinks in the armor, as this article, derived from House Predictor research, explains.

An excerpt from the article reads:

Maryland housing sales are rising as a direct result of having one of the best employment rates in the nation. The federal government is hiring workers and government related jobs are growing as a result of the Obama administration, energizing home sales right outside of Washington D.C. Maryland is banking on government assistance in more ways than most other states.

The deflationary cycle in housing prices is showing signs of easing up in Maryland as home sales improve. But the declining values of homes have a long way to go before reaching stabilization as a result of the financial crisis. The days of fast money are over as new mortgage standards replace loose lending practices.

Read the entire article here.

Home sales in the Baltimore area rose for the second straight month, giving residents a hopeful sign that the housing market here is strengthening.

An excerpt from the article reads:

The number of homes sold in July throughout Greater Baltimore rose 10 percent to 2,240, up from 2,038 during the same month last year. That's according to Rockville market research firm Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

Meanwhile, the median sold price in the Baltimore area � including Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties � declined by 6.5 percent to $259,950.

Both home builders and economists have said the uptick in sales could be linked to first-time buyers taking advantage of the government's $8,000 tax credit and overall better real estate prices. Units sold in June rose nearly 2 percent, marking the first year-over-year increase in Greater Baltimore in more than two years.

Read the entire article here.

In an effort to stretch resources and help more families, Anne Arundel's Habitat for Humanity and Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity of Baltimore merged July 1, according to Mike Mitchell, executive director of the new Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake. The merger resulted in two layoffs.

An excerpt from the article reads:

"We had been hearing from donors for at least four or five years that this was something they wanted to see," said Mitchell, former executive director of the Chesapeake Habitat. "We're really excited about it."

One of Arundel Habitat's main projects was in Brooklyn, just over the Anne Arundel County line. In the past few years, the neighborhood along Jack Street has transformed from a rundown city neighborhood to a home for dozens of Habitat families.

But Chesapeake Habitat, which focused on projects in Baltimore city and Baltimore County, was building homes in the Pigtown neighborhood, just a few miles away. Joining forces just made sense, Mitchell said.

Read the entire article here.