The factoid applies only if you live, and work inside the City. Given so many businesses have left the city due to high costs (parking, taxes, etc) there is only small population of residences who would benefit from the fore mentioned strategy.

If anything the high real estate tax rate is a Catch 22 for Baltimore City. The city needs the funds to maintain services, but it also drives businesses and home owners out of the city, while increasing service costs (25,000 vacant homes cause trouble.)

This would be a better argument if there was reasonable transit and services available in the city without use of a vehicle.

But ignoring grocery stores (which are finally starting to come to the city), my family is forced to drive to the suburbs to do most of our other errands. If we didn't have a car, we'd have to either spend large amounts of time to do these errands via public transporation or spend the money on cabs (thus negating the savings)

And I say this as someone who lives within blocks of both the subway and lightrail, owns only one car as a family and works at the same location as her spouse within the city limits less than three miles from my home. We drive the three miles to work together because it takes a minimum of one transfer and 45 minuts to get to work via transit.

And this argument would be better if we got comparable services for our tax dollars as the suburbs. But since you often can't send your child to the local school or count on the city to respond to your crime issues, it seems an unfair comparison on that count too.

Lived in the City (Guilford) and loved everything about my time there except for the $12,0000 per annum property taxes. I moved to Atlanta and cut my taxes into one-quarter the Baltimore total in a home of greater value.
I never understood why teh high taxation was tolerated - everything North of University Parkway should simply seceed and incorporate as the City of N. Baltimore. Let South Baltimore go to Anne Arundle, let East and West Baltimore go to Baltimore County, and leave downtown and the Harbor as a city-county merged government "Baltimore".

It is sooo rare that in a two income household, that both spouses work in the city or any where near each other for that matter. I think our situation is more typical. We located centrally in a great downtown neighborhood for nearly a decade, but both had to commute to our respective jobs- Columbia and Hunt Valley. We have since moved to the county a matter of feet over the city line, because after much research we found that moving to the county would greatly reduce our expenses both in taxes and in insurance costs, all of which were halved by our move. I personally think that trying to promote the city as cheaper by claiming you can eliminate a car just by living there is false. Ironically, where we live now is actually closer to stores and other necessities that we always had to drive to in the city. Even if we did have one less car in the city, the expenses still would have vastly outweighed those in the county.

We always considered ourselves city people and in our hearts would actually prefer to live in the city if it were logical. But Baltimore seems to be in complete denial about how bad the property tax burden really is, especially since the housing prices in the better neighborhoods have escalated. Despite the bursting of the housing "bubble", they will never reduce back to a point that the taxes are affordable. I could go on and on. This topic near and dear to me and one that frustrates me to no end.

You couldn't pay me enough to live in Baltimore City, or as I call it the Stain on the Bay.

I have lived in the city my entire life and my parents always stressed the importance of supporting the city's faltering tax base. In fact, my wife and I just purchased our first home in Federal Hill/South Baltimore last November. We love the location for social/entertainment purposes (O's and Ravens games, bar life, etc), but we do all of our shopping for items other than food in White Marsh or Arundel Mills or Towson. I work in Columbia and my wife works downtown, so two cars are a necessity and our porperty taxes border on exploitation. The property taxes I pay on my rehabbed row home are comparable to a $1.8 million home in Potomac. I like supporting the tax base and plan on staying in the city for the next few years, but it's insulting when I receive my property tax bill along with Sheila Dixon's BS propaganda explaining how the city has made strides against high property taxes. To quote local attorney Barry Glazer, "Don't urinate on my leg and tell me it's raining." The city takes advantage of those folks willing and/or able to pay higher taxes to make up for those that can't/won't. I've come to terms with that so let's all just drop the charade.

As some of the other posts... this argument does not hold water for Baltimore for one overwhelming reason.

In agreement to the other valid points already brought up, the city's public transportation is a complete failure for a majority of the population. It has become a perfect storm of mounting inefficiency and lack of public safety.

Case in point - I love to bring up the fact that Baltimore has a subway line to my co-workers. Not one was ever aware it existed.

Thanks for all the comments, folks. Stay tuned for a poll tomorrow about living costs.

As someone who moved from the DC area and was thinking of buying here (hold on, I said thinking, believe me until house prices fall by half, I won't go near a purchase), the argument about the 2nd car is over-stated. In the DC metro area, you can go virtually anywhere by subway, What we have here is a light rail and a subway (they don't even connect for heavens sake) that each have just 1 leg. It's ludicrous. I know that DC metro gets some federal support, but still...Around here, you can't rely on public transit. You still need your car(s)!

There are so many holes to Bob's logic, that I was going to go on a huge rant, but I think everyone else did a good job in revealing those holes.

I wonder if Bob owns a car, or chose a place to live solely based on a bus route that'll take him to his work, and to a grocery store.

I have lived in many different areas: rural, suburban and urban. I am head-over-heels a fan of city living. The trick is walkability. I can walk to public transportation, stores and restaurants. I take care of all my daily tasks and errands without using my car. I do use my car a couple times a week for certain things such as larger runs to the grocery store. Occasionally, I use a taxi to get around and luckily I live within a $10 cab ride of anywhere I want to go.

As far as public transportation: yes, it is not perfect, but the demand for it is growing. Just last year, they canceled and adjusted the some of the bus service because ridership was down. Now I expect we will see an expansion of public transportation because more people are choosing public transit due to high gas prices.

In my opinion, the car has become a ball and chain. People don't know how to survive without it and they are horrified if someone suggests that they should try. Add to that the fear that Baltimore City is a dirty violent place and people will stay in the shelter of the suburbs. That is fine with me. People need to live the lifestyle that suits them.

If you want to find out about how your neighborhood scores in terms of walkability, see this web site: www.walkscore.com
My neighborhood gets a 94 out of 100 - "Walkers' Paradise"

We live Downtown which is great, but Bob Aydukovic is disingenious. He's skirting tons of Baltimore City costs:

-IMO Baltimore schools are still SUB-PAR! Pointing out Roland Park and Mt Washington is an insult to the rest of the City who may not have the resources of the homeowners and parents in those neighborhoods.

-Baltimore City living, especially Downtown, functions as a tax on parents who won't sacrifice years of their children's education for "the cause". Ask the Mayor and President if they send their kids to public school - I can tell you for a fact THEY DON'T/ DIDN'T! Not being mean, but just sayin'. Can't he advocate to the well-paid North Avenue PhDs to get their acts together TODAY, not in some far off future? We're paying over $15K for a 6 year old...thanks a lot Baltimore City!

-Baltimore City Parking Authority is an abusive racket! Have gotten ticketed at my home with permit in PLAIN VIEW! The Judge intelligently dismissed the case, but I had to take time out of my schedule to address this. i.e. The City is moving back "No Stopping" signs FARRRR from the curb to generate income; they think no one notices and try to sell this as a safety issue. The signs were fine before, and should only be moved in proven cases of visibility problems at a corner. Also, any street within 2 miles of Downtown, like the Johns Hopkins area, they overload with parking machines and meters. We pay HIGH taxes, can't we park on the streets without being gouged? Check out low income areas, no parking meters there...

-Bad enough my parents spent 25 years in Baltimore City, buying into making it better before it was "cool", but enough already. They paid for private school for us kids because of crappy schools, and now I'm paying for mine! Their property tax (Camden Yards) is now more than their former mortgage and Baltimore City ALWAYS finds a new fee or permit to levy.
-Baltimore City customer service (i.e. parking, water, etc) is an oxymoron. Have to say the exception to this is Keiffer Mitchell's office; such nice people!

-Baltimore street conditions are the worst! They've destroyed two cars (one was a Lexus) with pot holes, rocks, trenchs in the middle of street etc. I know about the miles of roads are expensive, but City works can see the metal jagged pipe stickingup 3 inches out of the ground at the SSA building (Route 40 at Greene Street)?!?
I have to end this rant or my head will explode....

We live Downtown which is great, but Bob Aydukovic is disingenious. UPDATE:

-I forgot! Baltimore City pay scale is notoriously miserly! They're under the impression that we're still in 1985's Baltimore. Yet, the cost of living has skyrocketed to almost DC outskirts proportion. We'll unless you are okay living in a ROUGH section of town. Professional families like ours will move out of Baltimore City for this reason VERY SOON!

-Public transportation? What a joke! If living Downtown it still takes 30-60 mins to travel/ commute from one Downtown location to another (say 3 miles), using public transportation, can you really say people don't need their 2nd car with a straight face? Shameful!

The property tax rates in Baltimore City are out of this world. The math for living in the city still does not add up. The really smart money is living in the inner ring suburbs near the Baltimore Metro. I live near the Baltimore Metro and life is good.

I have a small place in Baltimore County. I am within walking distance to a County Metro Station, which means walking distance to Downtown Baltimore and all its ammenities for just subway fare. So I have the best of all worlds. Cheap County Property taxes, city convenience and 21201 walkability to anything worth seeing or doing.

The funny thing is so many of the bright folk who suggest ways to live well without a car miss this awesome opportunity. I do not have a car but, living so close to a county stop on the Baltimore Metro saves me money, time and hassle. Only negative is you have to share the subway ride with thugs and lowlife but thats just like New York.

Ride the front most subway car, mind your business, ignore the homeless - pan handlers, drunks and crazies so long as they respect your space and its fine. I rarely have problems on the Metro. There is no police presence on the Metro trains but they are monitored by tv camera's.

If you want quick easy access to all the fun of Baltimore City, while paying county property taxes, in relative county safety, want to leave the car home more often than not and spend more time having fun, want a BIG HUGE county yard in a detatched house that won't cost you a kings ransom. Trust me the inner suburban ring just outside of the city is an undiscovered gold mine. Luckily most people in Baltimore overlook this obvious opportunity to save money while living well and not driving everywhere. Even the dumb walkability website did not factor in how living close to a Metro station changes the walkability of locations close to the subway. If you live close to a Metro station then the 21201 zip code and all it offers is an extention of your walkable area.

Trust me living on a Metro Line is a Walkers Paradise even if that dopey website is too weak to realize it!