When you take into consideration the number of vacant abandoned properties the City already owns, and has owned for many years -- the thought of using tax dollars for the city to acquire even more -- that's a little scary to me.

Perhaps they should start fixing up the properties they already own, make sure those properties are in the hands of people who will live in them and become taxpaying citizens -- do this first, and do it well.

Graziano's agency needs to prove itself worthy of even more of our tax dollars, and taking care of the properties already in its care would be a great start.

80 units for $5.8 million. That is $72k per unit. That number seems high.
Maybe there is a way to spend less per unit and rehab more?

Lesson: Had the city dealt with the vacancies "then" the foreclosures would be statistically significant now.

Wholesale demolition of entire sections of the city owned housing is warranted on so many levels this being just one more example of the problem.

All the infrastructure too. Cap off and redirect all sewer, water, gas, storm drain pipes; the streets and roadbeds too. Then fill in the basements and re grade.

Create large swaths of meadows. This "raw land" will then have real development value and make the remaining properties worth more too.

When the time comes to build don't sell out cheap; plan for another Ashburton or Roland Park. And don't clutter it up with low income either. Far too much of that in the City already.

That $5,800,000 will just about cover the planning costs. Use it wisely.

Baltimore Slumlord Watch, the city has picked several nonprofit groups to do the acquiring and rehabbing for this program -- St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and Habitat for the Humanity of the Chesapeake, to name two. (I don't know if that alleviates your concern, but I thought you might not have seen that detail in the story.)

bdc, both St. Ambrose and Habitat have said they try to do good-quality rehabs that won't leave buyers with, say, a busted heater down the road. They're also doing energy-efficient renovations. Professional rehabbers would have a better feel for this than I do, but it seems to me that if you're fortunate enough to pick up a more-than-shell for $20,000, you could still easily put more than $50,000 of work into making it decent.

MrRational, it's interesting you mention that -- jurisdictions are allowed to use the money for demolition.

St. Ambrose and Habitat are both fantastic organizations, and we wholeheartedly support their work. Good to know something positive could come out of this venture.

Jamie, I was interested in hearing about the state program described in this WaPo article. "O'Malley weighs more measures to slow Maryland foreclosures" [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/30/AR2009123002305.html]

Do you know what the percentage is of people who are using a similar mediation program in Maryland?

Hi, Lea -- there isn't a mediation program in place in Maryland yet. As that article notes (and as the Sun's Laura Smitherman has reported), O'Malley plans to propose a program.

Baltimore would have their hand out! The city has done itself a major disservice by not capping the number of parcels that do not collect taxes. I agree that its scary to think that buying property with tax money is stew-ped! I would say fire sale everyting must go.. sell propeties currently owned for pennies on the dollar. Taxes still have to be paid on them!

This may seem like a stupid question.But why doesnt the City bring back the "Dollar House" program ?

I work on interior demolition and from my experience many of the abandoned houses in Baltimore are good structurally.

We actually have some of our greatest architecture in some of our most rundown neighborhoods! It's a shame that some of our best housing stock has been left to rot!

And while i admire Habitat For Humanity and have volunteered for them many times, i must say that they can only fix up a fraction of the thousands of abandoned houses.They are a great organisation and can be part of the solution.But they can't be the WHOLE solution!

That is a good question...why doesnt the city bring back the dollar house program? The leaders of this city have no strategic vision. I would move to the city If there was a "buy a block" program with dollar houses. I wouldnt take the leap alone; Baltimore is to dangerous for that.

The Gov't has no business in buying real estate from the banks. There is a reason these homes are not selling. Either they are inhabitable, in a bad neighborhood, price too high, or a combination. If anything, the City should require the lenders to fix up the properties themselves. How could they give a loan, buy the property back, and let it turn into a dump? Most likely, these properties were a dump before the banks bought them back. Why not just tear them all down and rebuild? Let a developer buy them blocks at a time so they can invest their own money. Everything the Gov't does is inefficient and a waste of money.