Looking for Baltimore City housing?  Local leaders, especially Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, sure hope you are.

Every decade since 1960, the City’s population has been steadily declining.  Baltimore City residents have been moving their families out of the City and into homes in the surrounding counties.  This wouldn’t be so bad, except for one problem…many of these prior city homeowners never sold their old Baltimore residences.

Now Baltimore has an excessive amount of boarded-up vacant houses.  These vacants overrun many inner-city neighborhoods in East and West Baltimore, created blight for current City residents.

Why did this happen?

The majority of homeowners who fled Baltimore City over the decades were middle-class professionals with families.  They were seeking safer environments and better schools for their kids.  Their houses were difficult to sell, so many just left their homes boarded up.

This rash of vacant properties is turning into a headache for ALL citizens of the city.

With so many plots of City land being uninhabited, Baltimore is not getting the amount of revenue it needs from property taxes.  To cover the shortfall in city revenue, other current residents have to pick up the slack.  While Baltimore County property tax rate is just 1.1% of the cost of a house, the City tax rate is more then double that, standing at 2.268%,  the highest of any Maryland jurisdiction.

This creates yet another problem.  The high property tax rate in the City drives away potential new home buyers, and even causes some residents to leave the City.  A terrible downward spiral ensues.

Every ten year’s a population census is taken. The Mayor has set a goal of adding 10,000 household owners to Baltimore by 2020. There were hopes that by 2010, the City’s population would be increasing for the first time in four decades, but instead, since 2000, it lost another 30,000 individuals.

In comparison to previous decades, this loss wasn’t so bad, and many downtown neighborhoods grew by as much as a staggering 20%.  With house rehabilitation projects underway in the City, and programs in the works to make Baltimore a safer environment, government officials are optimistic about the future.

Now that Baltimore is trying to reclaim its name as Charm City, the only question left is, are you looking for a house?