Most expensive Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore Sun photographer Kenneth K. Lam
Know the Baltimore neighborhood pictured above? It's the most expensive in the city, as measured by 2009 average sale prices.
Which is it? Can you guess?
Read on for the answer, along with the rest of the city's priciest neighborhoods in '09.
1. Homeland. Average sale price: $506,000. Number of homes sold: 40.
2. The Orchards. Average sale price: $493,000. Number of homes sold: 7.
3. North Roland Park/Poplar Hill. Average sale price: $479,000. Number of homes sold: 11.
4. Guilford. Average sale price: $475,00. Number of homes sold: 28.
5. Roland Park. Average sale price: $440,00. Number of homes sold: 45.
6. Inner Harbor. Average sale price: $422,000. Number of homes sold: 46.
7. Cedarcroft. Average sale price: $409,00. Number of homes sold: 8.
8. Otterbein. Average sale price: $359,000. Number of homes sold: 20.
9. Fells Point. Average sale price: $344,000. Number of homes sold: 64.
10. Tuscany-Canterbury. Average sale price: $340,000. Number of homes sold: 33.
You can glimpse each neighborhood in our "most expensive" photo gallery.
The ranking is based off my analysis of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data -- the local multiple-listing service.
A Wonkish but important aside: An average sale price can only tell you the average of what actually sold. It can't get at the true average value of all homes. A lot of high-end houses and condos are sitting on the market rather than selling, which can make a neighborhood look cheaper than it really is ... though the pricey homes that aren't finding buyers probably aren't worth as much as the owners hope they are.
So yeah -- true value is not an easy number to come by.
Here, though, are where the homes selling for $1 million or more last year are located:
Five in the Inner Harbor
Four in Fells Point
Two in Homeland
And one each in Guilford, Tuscany-Canterbury and Blythewood, neighborhoods clustered near each other in North Baltimore.
Does this match up with your sense of where the city's pricey homes are located?
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Comments
The home pictured under Cedarcroft (#7 on the list) is not located within the boundaries of Cedarcroft and does not accurately reflect the architecture of the neighborhood. Please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedarcroft,_Baltimore for more information.
Posted by: AB | March 8, 2010 8:21 AM
I couldn't send photographers out to all 10 neighborhoods just for this list, so I had to rely on photos taken for earlier stories. This one was identified by the photographer -- and probably someone in the neighborhood -- as Cedarcroft. But people don't always know which neighborhood they live in. (Think how much larger the boundaries of Federal Hill would be if they were purely self-identified.)
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | March 8, 2010 8:53 AM
Well, I don't think the list would look quite the same if it were to look at existing stock of expensive homes rather than sales. My impression is that Roland Park and Guilford would top the list. I think that people have recently been willing to pay a premium to be in Homeland because it's not a pricey as Roland Park but in the same school district.
Posted by: lisa | March 8, 2010 2:33 PM
That could very well be, Lisa. Good point.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | March 8, 2010 2:53 PM
After all of Canton's complaining about all of the taxes they pay, it's a real shame their neighborhood didn't make the top 10.
Posted by: Kenwood Tiger | March 9, 2010 8:51 AM
What does one consider 'true value'? When I went to college, the college had a residence built for the college President. The cost was about $125,000 to $150,000 (back in the late 1960s, housing prices were much cheaper), and the craftsmen were Amish. When I moved to the DC area right after leaving college, a house on Reservoir Road that was a near match to the house in Indiana was put on the market for $1,000,000 (and was quickly sold at that price). So what is the 'true value' of a house? Isn't the selling price of a house the price that people are willing to pay, not the 'true value' of that house?
Posted by: Mike Inlow | March 10, 2010 10:54 PM