I remember the $1 houses in Detroit; now it's $1 houses in Baltimore. Interesting how it came down to the thoughts and opinions of five people, and just the approval of four people, in a city of over half a million to sell hundreds of properties.

It is also interesting that primary-owner-occupancy is a requirement for the $1 program, but there's also a pricing tier for nonprofits and developers to get in on it as well.

Article--

You could buy a house in Baltimore for $1, after plan OK'd to sell some city-owned properties

Baltimore officials approved a program that would sell city-owned vacant homes for as little as $1.

The city's Board of Estimates voted on the program during a meeting on Wednesday morning, despite pushback from City Council President Nick Mosby.

The board passed the new pricing structure for city-owned vacant homes on the "Buy Into BMore" website in a four-to-one vote where Mosby was the sole opposition.

Baltimore has over 13,500 vacant properties, nearly 900 of which are owned by the city, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The fixed-price program would only apply to certain city-owned properties, according to a page on DHCD's website.

Buyers need to promise to fix up the homes

Those purchasing a home in the program must promise to renovate the property and have at least $90,000 to fix it up. Owners must also move in within a year, and stay in the home for five years.

During Wednesday's meeting, Mosby said the program does not have guardrails written in place that would ensure city residents had priority to buy these homes and won't be forced out of these neighborhoods when their conditions improve.

“If affordability and affordable home ownership and equity and all of the nice words we like to use are really at the core competency as it relates to property disposition, this is a really bad policy,” Mosby said. “This is a bad policy because it doesn’t protect or prioritize the rights of folks in these communities.”

Who can buy a home for $1?

As part of the program, only individual buyers and community land trusts would be able to purchase the properties for $1. Nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees would pay $1,000 while developers and nonprofits with more than 50 employees would have to pay $3,000.

I was thinking the same thing. The vast majority of people with $90K readily available are not going to be interested in these types of opportunities, especially since you have to owner occupy.

Seems the powers that be have two completely separate goals. Get empty homes off the books. Keep the properties for the folks already living in the area. As asked above, are there 900 financially secure potential property owners living in the area?

When my hood did this they designated Economic Development Zones. Peeps who could qualify got $$ loans on the cheap and had to commit to living in the hood for 5 years.

Lost a great tenant to this plan.

@6X6 I like your following comment.

"Then you have the really fine print that is on the back of the contract."

Your comment reminds me of this.

Education is what you get when you read the fine print.