Baltimore Sun: A New Yorker Bets Big on Baltimore's Vacant Homes. "It's Going to Be Crazy Down Here."
The Baltimore Sun profiles rising investor interest in Baltimore's vacant homes, featuring Brian Leibowitz of Dominion Properties on the real cost of renovating vacants and why the numbers matter more than they appear.
The Baltimore Sun reports on the growing wave of investors buying vacant homes across Baltimore, following one New York investor's aggressive bidding at a city auction that outpriced a local community development group hoping to redevelop the same block. The piece looks at rising vacant home prices citywide and the tension between outside investment and community-led redevelopment efforts.
Brian Leibowitz, Director of Acquisitions at Dominion Properties, speaks with the Sun about why Baltimore's vacant homes can be riskier than they appear to outside investors. He explains that home values vary significantly block by block across the city, and that an investor unfamiliar with those differences can easily spend $200,000 renovating a rowhouse that is only worth half that once complete. Leibowitz shares that rehabbing a vacant home typically runs $150 to $160 per square foot, though Dominion can sometimes bring that down to $100 to $120 per square foot when renovating multiple homes at once. He notes that he does not know the investor featured in the story and was speaking generally about the market.
The article also includes perspectives from a nonprofit community development group navigating the same competitive auction landscape, and from housing advocates on what responsible reinvestment in Baltimore neighborhoods should look like.
Read the full article for the complete story.