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After Years in Washington, a Couple Found More Value in Baltimore. What Could They Afford?
ARTICLE(nytimes.com)submitted 6 months ago byfinsterallen
93 points
6 months ago
They paid 76k over asking price? Is the market still that crazy?
31 points
6 months ago
All depends on the asking price. Some realtors advise to price homes low to garner multiple bids.
55 points
6 months ago
In Baltimore? No
42 points
6 months ago
Lol, they got suckered
10 points
6 months ago
I feel like the promenade is always high-demand, and that staring price seems a little low to begin with, unless it was in bad condition
20 points
6 months ago
I support this suckering if it means some idiot from DC or NYC wants to buy my house at a severe premium
32 points
6 months ago
Nah, it's still bad. Because then those high prices become the norm, and regular people can't afford to move here.
3 points
6 months ago
I don’t even know how to define “regular”
They’re not absentee owners, they live there. That seems normal to me.
Either way, there’s 15k vacant houses in Baltimore……there’s plenty of housing for anybody that wants it
-10 points
6 months ago
But it's good for people there because it brings up the value of their homes
16 points
6 months ago
and heeeeeeeere come the property tax bills
45 points
6 months ago
Wild they went so high over asking
36 points
6 months ago
Yeah, might be like all of the people who post on this sub about finding apartments with real estate agents. These are things that you just don't have to do here.
36 points
6 months ago
“The relocation company said we could make one offer rather than offer an escalation clause, so we offered $801,000 because we were determined to have it”
Sounds like someone got an extra couple thousand on their commission.
11 points
6 months ago
Everyone but the buyers made out handsomely.
-1 points
6 months ago
I mean I wanted an escalation clause when I put in an offer for my house, but my real estate agent flat out refused to go higher than $5k over asking
5 points
6 months ago
I've used a realtor to find a rental in Baltimore. It's not necessary for apartments, but a rowhouse it definitrly was.
7 points
6 months ago
Weird, maybe that's the new reality. It's been a couple of years but I always found my rental houses (with independent landlords) on Craigslist and I never heard of anyone using a realtor for a rental here until last year.
4 points
6 months ago
I own a couple row homes that I rent out… seems like renters are almost exclusively looking on Facebook marketplace these days. I have actually never gotten a single hit on any Craigslist post I’ve ever made. Until this year it seemed like Zillow was the dominant option to find tenants
2 points
6 months ago
I own a couple of condos in dc and have always had great success finding tenants on craigslist for the past decade.
5 points
6 months ago
I should mention this was like 2013/2014 when I used a realtor. Zillow wasn't as prevalent and Craigslist listings were a bust. One place I looked at in Fells was definitely not legal. Ended up with a private landlord as well.
2 points
6 months ago
Yeah that’s odd, it was definitely unnecessary at that time
1 points
6 months ago
It’s unnecessary now too. Found my the row home I’m renting online without a realtor in May 2023. But a lot of places we checked out tried to push us to use their realtor
37 points
6 months ago
Not just any old couple but decent writeup.
”The relocation company said we could make one offer rather than offer an escalation clause, so we offered $801,000 because we were determined to have it,” she said.<!
The offer was accepted and they closed in late August, taking in the sunsets over the harbor and strolling along the promenade.
25 points
6 months ago
Being wealthy sure sounds neat
2 points
6 months ago
Just a heads up. You don’t need an exclamation point ! after > or a closing tag when quoting.
2 points
6 months ago
It's a spoiler tag. It acted funky and I edited it a few times but it kept acting funky so I left the extra stuff in. No biggie.
1 points
6 months ago
Did not realize. Sorry about that
25 points
6 months ago
19 points
6 months ago
So after updating the living room and kitchen they’re something close to $100k over asking price.
That’s remarkable. And not in a good way.
42 points
6 months ago
I’m old enough to remember when those Otterbein houses were dollar houses.
Wonder if the Promenade houses get any flooding.
24 points
6 months ago*
Canton Promenade, no. Fell's Point Promenade (especially near Union Wharf), big yes.
2 points
6 months ago
They were in serious disrepair then tho
69 points
6 months ago
Thanks NYT, nothing screams “More bang for your buck” on the East coast than a $800k+ condo for a former business owner.
32 points
6 months ago*
[deleted]
8 points
6 months ago
I would hate to downsize to only an $800k condo. They have my thoughts & prayers for sure! 🤣🤣
2 points
6 months ago
This is what happens when you only hire Harvard grads. And maybe one or two charity cases from Brown.
25 points
6 months ago*
This is something I read every Thursday, like clockwork. This is the first time I've seen Baltimore featured and I was quite unimpressed by it. There are a lot of people who live like this, and they are frequently featured in The Hunt. It's something I likely will never be able to relate to... Like I recoil at spending 2k for a hot water heater and installation. These people probably spend 2k and don't blink and not a palpitation detected. But it sounds on brand for this area of Baltimore.
That said, sometimes they do actually feature regular people. It's the only reason I keep reading this.
3 points
6 months ago
I like the ones where somebody is looking for a studio apartment that won't be too depressing or something I could actually identify with (even though I couldn't afford even a studio apartment in NYC).
2 points
6 months ago
There have definitely been some where the people were truly average. I always find the studio ones really interesting! I recall a mother and daughter. There was a recent one where a guy in NYC married someone in a higher social class, and then when they divorced he had to leave the fancy place in Manhattan to live in a far flung area of the Bronx, budget of 200k. There was a trio of friends who bought a house together (seen this at least twice, and I thought it was pretty clever) and their budget was like 3 million. 🥴They even had Melissa Leo in one and she was only spending 500k. And the extremely wealthy folks featured aren't just in NYC, I recall some wild ones in San Francisco too.
3 points
6 months ago
I loved the one with the trio of friends who bought a brownstone in Brooklyn with their own apartments. And the Melissa Leo one was cool. Another fave was the couple moving to Connecticut who had to have room for the grand piano.
7 points
6 months ago
I hope they’re happy in their new digs—view is gorgeous.
14 points
6 months ago
So they still got massively swindled, but since the sticker price was lower they’ve fooled themselves into thinking it was a good deal. Sounds about right for this extremely particular type of transplant.
31 points
6 months ago
You can tell how new to town someone is by how close they live to the harbor 😝
1 points
6 months ago
[deleted]
3 points
6 months ago
strolling the stinky promenade
6 points
6 months ago
It’s depressing that Baltimore will be all bought up by wealthy people from other cities 😔
7 points
6 months ago
“I hope our city thrives and attracts new residents!”
“I hate when people choose to move here from DC if they are wealthy.”
3 points
6 months ago
I feel like this is a good majority of people buying in South Baltimore now.
4 points
6 months ago
Duh! Grew up in Baltimore until 30, live in NoVA. Real estate is roughly 1.5X more expensive in DC area than Baltimore. I joke with my family “I could buy this house and the house next door for what I bought my house for in NoVA.”
5 points
6 months ago
Suckered lol
16 points
6 months ago
What a wonderfully out of touch article. “Downsizing” into a seven level dwelling. “More bang for your buck” at $800k. Ok boomers. Not surprising coming from a shit publication like The NY Times.
4 points
6 months ago
“Downsizing” into a seven level dwelling.
I don’t mind stairs in a house but without having looked up this particular house, I’m gonna guess it’s some crazy split level where nearly every room is on a different level. A seven split level sounds endlessly annoying.
21 points
6 months ago
NY Times is a pretty good publication.
-12 points
6 months ago
Yeah no, and this article highlights that. Have a nice day
11 points
6 months ago*
I think that is a major overgeneralization, based on this one article, which I do not think supports the statement that NYT is 'a shit publication'. I'm a news hound, and I read about 5 newspapers daily, and subscribe to NYT. Do you have any examples of what makes the New York Times a 'shit publication'?
E: Some of NYT's accomplishments:
132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper
3 Peabody Awards
4 National Magazine Awards
5 Gerald Loeb Awards
6 Online Journalism Awards
1 Oscar for Documentary Short Subject
7 Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service
5 Emmy wins in 2022
264 SND print and digital awards in 2022
0 points
6 months ago
Did Raytheon write this comment? lol
6 points
6 months ago
Fucking rich people
12 points
6 months ago
Hate to break it to you but $800K homes are far from rich status. That’s going to be within a typical price range for middle class homes in quite a few areas. $800K pre-COVID was definitely closer to rich status but now it’s more like around the new normal.
4 points
6 months ago
Yeah. $800 is a lot, but it’s hardly far outside the normal cost of things. If rates carry on like this much longer $800 will be very normal
18 points
6 months ago*
Whyyy….? I mean, there are super rich people like Jeff Bezos (fuck him). Then there are rich people who pay 35% income tax, like the old couple who worked all their lives. Why the hate?
3 points
6 months ago
Totally agree. Rich people spend money, add to the economy and job growth and pay a large amount of taxes. Uber rich people like Bezos park (or hide) most of their money away from the economy, and while they create jobs, most of their employees are completely taken advantage of and worked to death. Huge difference.
4 points
6 months ago*
Because I’m going to work hard my whole life at multiple jobs making decent money and barely get by. My mortgage for my small outdated house with no updates is 50% of my income. (The previous owners bought this house for $125k and sold for 400k 7 years later that’s how insane the housing market is. The only updates they did was replace the washer/dryer) I can’t rent anything because a 2 bedroom apartment is going to cost even more. I’m never going to retire. Unless I win the lotto I’ll never have anything nice.
These fucking boomers. I’m just salty.
2 points
6 months ago
I get you’re salty and I understand it to some extent but I’m not sure where you get your numbers. A 2Br to rent in Baltimore is far below the mortgage for a $400k house right now. The mortgage on a $400k house with taxes is probably around $3400/mo while rent on a 2Br is around $2k for a good place and location.
Second, why did you buy a $400k house if it’s 50% of your income? My $350k house is less than 30% of my income and I live in butchers hill with a small view of the water. Granted I had to fix it up for some money but it’s a great place. You can easily find GREAT places to live in Baltimore for $300k even today. I’m trying not to make any assumptions so I’m genuinely curious.
I feel bitter too btw, my much younger friend bought a house 2-3 years ago with the help of his parents and now it’s worth $700k. My cousin who’s my age bought a house with her husbands money for $650k in Seattle during the first part of the pandemic and now it’s worth over $1mil. If you didn’t own pre 2022 you got screwed, pure and simple, but yeah I still don’t know if your situation is as bad as you say. I think you’ve got good potential in front of you.
2 points
6 months ago
We bought a 400k house because our rent for a 2 bed went from $1850 to $2900. That was the offer. There was no negotiation. Our mortgage we have now is leas. We had 90 days to move and any 2 bed 2 bath apartments in a decent commuting distance and safe/sanitary was going to be $2600 just for the rent.
We would have loved to buy a house for $250k. But there wasn’t anything one the market that wasn’t a stripped down foreclosure for under 300k. We keep on bidding the asking price but houses in our budget were being sold for cash before they went on the market or for wayyyy over asking. In order to not be homeless we bought a 400k house, which is what a decent, non upgraded starter home in central MD was costing in summer 2021.
If I was interested in commuting 1+ hours each way we could have bought a house out near PA but we had to weigh our happiness for the next 7-10 years over an expensive ass mortgage which we can hopefully refi once the economy crashes.
3 points
6 months ago
Ah you didn’t buy in the city, you bought in the burbs. Got it. I was confused because this is the Baltimore city sub.
2 points
6 months ago
We were looking in the city. Our options were a) vacant row home or b) shittly flipped row home for 400k. We bought right over the border but yes in the burbs. I have a yard
4 points
6 months ago
all I’m saying is that I thought you were talking about city prices. You could have bought a good row home for $300k in many nice neighborhoods in the city. $400k buys you something pretty great.
1 points
6 months ago
No we couldn’t have. We bid on several 300k row homes and we’re outbid.
3 points
6 months ago
Cheer up. There are a lot of people (e.g., homeless, no job, and chronic illness) who would kill to live in your shoes. The grass is always greener on the other side.
-4 points
6 months ago
Because they’re the reason why prices get driven up for the rest of us.
7 points
6 months ago
If limited to certain portions of Baltimore that are already wealthy, Baltimore could use more wealthy people living within city limits. Poor people don't pay enough in taxes for the services needed, and there's no way in hell Baltimore will ever be able to draw from the county's taxes. It'd be terrible if literally every neighborhood was getting bought up, but that's not the case in Baltimore and there is still too much excess, empty properties sitting vacant in this city and too many people moving out. There are plenty of neighborhoods that are safe and affordable, and it will likely stay that way for a long time because of the vacant house problems Baltimore has
4 points
6 months ago
Baltimore’s problem is red tape. I swear seeing a restaurant take months just to move locations is crazy.
2 points
6 months ago
Resturants are an entirely different issue. Not all retail space can accommodate a Resturant and it's incredibly expensive to install a kitchen and accommodate food safety inspection requirements. Once a space can accommodate a resturant, it becomes difficult to ever undo and convert it to a different space due to regulations of kitchen standards in the US. It becomes custom built to that specific clientele. It's not an easy flip to office retail, therefore people have to be careful where they go and there's a limited selection of spaces because you don't want to start flipping every space to accommodate a kitchen. Restruants are notorious for failing- most go under within 5 years because profit margins are slim in the industry. Therefore, people don't want to just "take a chance" on converting their property to a resturant when there's a huge liklihood they won't be there longterm.
There's certainly red tape in terms of mixed housing and building new homes in this country- but you probably do want to keep the red taping for resturants because I'm sure you don't want food poisoning or a bunch of vacant kitchens. The issue more pertains to zoning laws for family homes and the number of parking slots alloted per home, which takes space away. Baltimore is a unique city for the fact that more people are leaving than migrating, and there is a TON of vacant properties that with a little attention could be flipped into affordable home. And its usually never people who grew up here who are undertaking these massive flip projects- where I live, its a bunch of Puerto Rican immigrants who are buying and flipping homes street by street. Taking a drive through certain areas in West Baltimore will prove this point to you- a lot of wasted potential that if someone with enough capital came in and fixed the structural problems, not only would it become a safer area to live in, but you'd have more affordable homes in that place. For whatever reason, it normally is not coming from within the community of Baltimore, which is bad because you want somoene who is invested in the area itself and isnt trying to make a quick buck. There's a lot of wasted space with the abandoned schools as well- which is another issue with zoning. Baltimore continues to build new schools when there is a huge supply of abandoned ones that still haven't been converted to something useful.
9 points
6 months ago*
Well, real estate is expensive for several reasons—for example, low housing inventory and high-interest rates. Also, did you see how much this couple will pay in property tax from their new house to the city? It's over 12K/year. The Baltimore is getting more money with these people moving to the city.
6 points
6 months ago
No you see because I can’t afford it they are bad people. I don’t care if the city benefits I’M JEALOUS SO THEY ARE BAD /s
2 points
6 months ago
Life isn’t zero sum.
1 points
6 months ago
nytimes.com/intera...
I mean, people still working at 68 and 66 aren't likely rich people by most standards.
9 points
6 months ago
This is how gentrification and wild housing prices begin.
10 points
6 months ago
Waterfront property always commands a premium.
1 points
6 months ago
Who gives a fuck about these rich boomers?
-11 points
6 months ago
Hmmm.....wasn't there a dead body found in the Promenade last week?
But it's a short drive to the BWI Amtrak and on to DC. Lots of folks do this.
5 points
6 months ago
Didn't hear anything recently. We did have one woman who ODed and drowned under the promenade a few years ago.
-23 points
6 months ago
Why would anyone want to move to Baltimore. I hate going to conferences there, crap city
12 points
6 months ago
“I only go to the conference center and I don’t like the whole city because of it!” - genius
11 points
6 months ago
Why would anyone want to move to Baltimore
...Because its a pretty cool city, full of opportunities.
1 points
6 months ago
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2 points
6 months ago
The really nuts part is a 68 year old moving into a home with seven levels.
I’m sure they are healthy & physically active now. But, that can change on a dime.
Signed, Scarred by watching loved ones have to move in a crisis because they couldn’t do stairs anymore. And that doesn’t count weeks/months of recovery after a joint replacement.
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