Charm City Baltimore Real Estate: Baltimore, Maryland Real Estate & Homes

This well-loved townhouse is conveniently located near Johns Hopkins Bayview, on the eastern edge of Baltimore City. Walk to shopping and Joseph Lee Park, or find yourself on several major public transit routes and near access to several major Interstate highways for commuting. Live in the recently updated two-bedroom Owners Unit, with a downstairs den, and rent out the two-bedroom second floor apartment, or rent both for more income. The shady corner lot is fully fenced and there is off-street parking for two cars behind the house.

Offered at $97,500

This property has a WalkScore ranking of 75 (Very Walkable).
Click here for more information and the location of local resources.

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Recently renovated, this open, contemporary one bedroom/one bathroom home is completely detached and in great condition. Its also in a great location, just one block from the Square, one block from the Dog Park, and two blocks from the waterfront. Close to Canton Crossing, Brewer’s Hill and the Canton Safeway, there’s no better place for independent living! With wood floors, central heat and air conditioning, and a cathedral ceiling, this feels like a big house even though its just over 800 square feet. There’s even a private back yard for ‘container gardening’ or grilling! Put this one on your “must see” list!

Offered at $187,500

This property has a WalkScore ranking of 80 (Very Walkable).
This property has a TransitScore ranking of 57 (Good Transit).
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When architect and interior designer Henry Johnson would work on a high profile, historic
restoration or renovation and it was necessary to remove an original element, it found its way
into this beautiful two bedroom, two bath condominium.

The result is a fully modern residence that has the authentic feel of a place much older and more grand.
Walls are upholstered in fine fabric, wood surfaces are hand painted in matching wood grained finishes,
with antique light fixtures providing just the right glow. Fine French draperies and the top grade carpeting
finish off the decor. Each bedroom has its own suite bath, and the views in three directions are stunning.

Bedrooms: 2
Baths: 2

Price Improved to $249,000!
Antiques and custom made furniture are available as a separate transaction. Please inquire for terms.

This property has a WalkScore ranking of 89 (Very Walkable).
This property has a TransitScore ranking of 81 (Excellent Transit).
Click here for more information and the location of local resources.

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You’ll love entertaining in this spacious three bedroom townhouse in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood. Each of the three bedrooms has its own suite bathroom for convenience and privacy. Go up on the roof for a spectacular 360 degree view of the city and the harbor. Dual zone heating and central air keeps everyone comfortable, and after a hard day you can relax in the Jacuzzi whirlpool tub. On a quiet side street, but near the heart of Baltimore’s urban life, this house has it all for the city dweller!

Bedrooms: 3
Baths: 3.5

Price Improved to $269,900

This property has a WalkScore ranking of 91 (Walker’s Paradise).
This property has a TransitScore ranking of 60 (Good Transit).
Click here for more information and the location of local resources.

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This neighborhood — a little slice of Mt. Washington tucked in between Falls Road and Falls Run — is a hidden gem that the residents say is a great place to live. Turn onto this dead end street and you can see why! The tidy cottage style homes, each with their front porch, invite you to put up your feet and stay awhile. This three bedroom, two bath house has large, open main rooms, warm natural wood cabinets in the kitchen, and newly carpeted bedrooms. Shoot a round of pool in the basement recreation room or, on colder days, warm yourself in front of the wood stove. Easy access to Falls Road, Interstate 83 (JFX), and the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) makes this a great commuter’s home. The stores and cute shops of Mt. Washington Village are just a short distance away.

Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2

This lovely home is currently Under Contract.

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This property has a WalkScore ranking of 57 (Somewhat Walkable).
Click here for more information and the location of local resources.

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Everyone has read or heard of the problems in the housing market. But most of the news articles and commentary have focused solely on the single family home situation, whether townhouse or detached. The economic recession and foreclosures have created significant problems for condominium owners and buyers that have not been as widely publicized. So if you own a condo, or think you might like to, you should pay attention to these issues before you want to sell or buy.

Condominiums became popular as the price of owning a single family home grew, giving first-time buyers an option to become homeowners. Owning an apartment in a larger building, however, brings a secondary player into the process: the condominium association. The association is in charge of caring for the building itself, for the benefit of each individual unit owner. When a buyer goes to their bank to buy a condo, the bank not only has to approve the buyer for the loan, they also have to look at the condo association to make sure that its being well run, and is doing a good job of looking out for the property in which the bank will be investing the buyer’s mortgage.

For that reason, lenders and the Federal Housing Administration maintain lists of “approved” condominiums for which they will approve mortgage loans. The criteria for this approval are important, and should be examined by every condominium association Board of Directors and considered — along with their condo bylaws — as an important guideline for their operations. When your association falls off of these approved lists, it becomes much more difficult for your unit owners to sell their homes, which means prices fall and you have a group of unit owners who are not very pleased with your stewardship of their investments.

So, what are these criteria? Here are some of the items that can severely jeopardize your association’s ability to be approved:

• pending litigation against the condo association, or by the association against the builder/developer.
• 15% or more of the owners being delinquent on their condo fees, even by just one month.
• a high percentage of investor-owned units, or one entity owning more than 10% of the units.
The exact percentage varies, depending upon the type of loan or the lender, but in general terms
an association should keep a watchful eye on the number of investor-owners, and make sure that
the public record is correct as it classifies which units are owner-occupied and which ones are not.
• lack of a reserve fund equal to at least 10% of the annual budget.
• lack of necessary insurance coverage, both property and flood insurance.

If your condo association has issues with any one of these bullet points, it could mean that buyers will have a difficult time getting financing to move into your building, and that your current owners are unable to sell quickly and for the best value.

One other item for condo associations to consider: are your condo fees themselves becoming barriers to buyers? For instance, if a typical buyer interested in your building can afford a total monthly payment of $1,500 — including taxes, condo fees, insurance, principal and interest — they most likely can’t afford to purchase a unit and live in your building if the condo fee is $500 a month. Yet, I’ve seen the number of non-luxury condo buildings in the Baltimore area with condo fees far above $500 per month growing in number, squeezing out the buyers in need of financing that they rely upon to absorb units for sale. With those buyers no longer in the picture, your building now has to rely upon cash-rich buyers and investors as purchasers, prices have to fall to reduce the cost of financing, or the units may go unsold and your current owners move out and rent their property, becoming investor owners. If your condo association hasn’t submitted its subcontractor agreements or management contracts to competitive bidding in a few years, its time to do it. Saving money and lowering condo fees — while still maintaining and caring for the property — will be essential exercises for every condo trustee!

** Richard Pazornik of SunTrust Mortgage provided essential lender information for the writing of this article. He deserves my deepest thanks for sharing his expertise.

It’s time for me to take a position on a controversial discussion beginning to take place around our offices, and in Washington.

Congress should act quickly to not just extend the Homebuyer Tax Credit, but it should also be expanded to cover more transactions and move beyond first-time homebuyers. Our marketplace is still very fragile. The real estate market, admittedly, was the starting point of this severe recession and needs to be supported so that the “tender green shoots” of recovery continue to grow and spread into next year. We will have new foreclosures entering the market, new short sales, and continuing economic distress long after the current expiration date of November 30. Its likely, in my opinion, that the housing market will shrink in the new year without this stimulus — which could jeopardize the health of the economy. The reasons for extension are perfectly clear.

The argument for expansion is equally compelling. First, the existing first-time buyer credit has jump started the under $250,000 segment of the marketplace, but in our area it has not had a similar effect on ‘move-up’ homes or ‘downsizing’ condominiums. To begin to spread the wealth, and help struggling homeowners out of economic distress, or the growing family feeling the pinch in a terrible economy, expansion of the tax credit to those segments would have an incredible effect on associated businesses and communities. There’s very little stimulus that would have the same impact for each dollar invested, not only in actual capital investments but also consumer sentiment, arresting the slide of home values and shoring them up against further upheaval.

In order to make the distribution of these monies is equitable, the eligible properties could be defined as those falling under the regionally adjusted FHA loan guidelines. That would effectively exclude investors and the very wealthy whose properties would require non-FHA ‘jumbo’ loans. This is an idea whose time is right now.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Fannie Mae is in the process of tightening the requirements for condominium mortgages at the very moment in time when home lending of all stripes needs a boost. We are also about to see a flood of new condominium units come onto the market — those projects where financing had been obtained and construction begun before the lending meltdown took place — and these new rules will certainly make it more difficult for those developers to avoid bankruptcy.

First the specifics: Fannie Mae has always had restrictions on condo lending, in particular the requirement that the developer own less than half of the units in the building. That requirement will now be greatly increased, so that a developer will have to have sold at least 70% of the units before Fannie will guarantee the mortgage. The new rules will also require that a purchaser have at least 25% downpayment to avoid paying a closing cost penalty of .75% of the loan — no matter what the purchaser’s credit score. It keeps going. Fannie now will not back the loans in an existing condo association where 15% or more of the residents are behind on their condo fees, or where a single outside entity owns more than 10% of the units.

The mortgage giant defends these new policies as being careful with the taxpayer’s money by not taking responsibility for loans made in speculative or failing condominium developments, while ignoring the fact that these tightened rules make it more likely that currently healthy communities will be weakened. In many cities, condominiums are the least expensive option for home ownership and serve as the entryway for first time homebuyers, so these rules are making it tougher for new purchasers to enter the housing market and help drive down the excess inventory that has been built up over the last three years.

The inventory of unsold condo units will only swell as projects currently under construction start to open sales offices. According to the National Association of Realtors, the United States ended 2008 with a fourteen month supply of condominiums on the market, the highest backlog since they began keeping records ten years ago. In 2009, industry sources estimate that another 93,000 brand new units will enter the market across the country — a whopping 12,000 of them in the greater New York City market alone. Not only will these units be more difficult (if not impossible) to sell given the new guidelines, but even some of the pre-sold units may not settle since lenders now have these new rules in place that will “de-approve” buyers who thought they had a loan locked in. Never mind the fact that these units may also be worth significantly less than their pre-construction pricing a year or two ago.

Sometimes that Law of Unintended Consequences is a real bitch.

An article in the May 29th edition of the Baltimore SUN updates local real estate devotees to a danger that I first blogged about nearly two years ago, i.e., that the Baltimore metro area was in line for WAAAAAY too many condo projects to be healthy for this marketplace. The SUN article focuses on two developments in particular as having a large number of cancelled contracts, or difficulty in settling: The ultra-high-end Ritz Carlton on the Inner Harbor and 414 Water Street just a few blocks from the water in downtown.

Fortunately, since my original blog post, several condo projects have been postponed, cancelled, or converted into rental developments with a higher retail component than originally conceived. But we have more on the drawing board, such as the other ultra-high-end Four Seasons slated to go up in Harbor East.

I hate to parrot ‘common wisdom,’ because it usually smells of a lack of imagination, but when it comes to the Baltimore condo market there is a basic truth behind it. Baltimore is not, has never been, and may not be for quite some time… a condo town. Our housing market is *still* the most affordable of any northeastern city. Condominiums will still be attractive to the empty nester market (probably the main draw of the aforementioned ultra-high-end developments) for some time to come. But in other cities one of the main draws to condos is as an entry point to home ownership for younger buyers who can’t afford either a single family detached or townhouse dwelling. Baltimore is one of the few cities I’ve known of where there have been condominiums on the market with asking prices higher than the surrounding housing stock. Talk about being ‘upside down’ in a home… and then paying condo fees on top of it!

Real estate developers sometimes have wacky ideas about what makes sense. This is a prime… or should I say ‘sub-prime’ … example of it. Condo over-developments have done great damage to the health of the housing markets in many cities, and if City Hall doesn’t take some action to cut down on speculative development here, it could delay the recovery of our own.