Issue: Housing

Reference information pertaining to BEEF Projects and topics of interest to Baltimore City housing & neighborhoods.

Land Trusts

Reports:

Research Reports

Foreclosure Prevention and Remedy: Recommendations for the City of Baltimore
Funder: The Abell Foundation
2012 promises to be one of Baltimore’s worst years for foreclosure. The City has a better infrastructure of foreclosure-related services now than in 2007 when the foreclosure crisis began, but the scale of funding required to effectuate a full remedy dwarfs available government and non-profit resources.

This report guided the City in its negotiations with Wells Fargo and the Department of Justice in crafting the nearly $200 million national and City settlements and will inform the City on how it spends its discretionary funds.

Economic Impact of Project SCOPE: An Update through 2010
Funder: Goldseker Foundation
SCOPE was a vacant house disposition venture with a new idea: to harness the professional skills of the local real estate market. The real estate brokers multiple-listed the properties and actively marketed them for sale, rehabilitation, and occupancy.

Selected statistics showing the basic economic impact are as follows: Project SCOPE accounted for a total of 284 vacant property sales from the inception through year end 2010. The vacant property sales through 2010 amount to $7.2 million in gross revenue to the City. The rehabilitation costs associated with the sold properties are estimated to amount to nearly $20 million; based upon economic impact model assumptions, that represents 179 person years of employment. If the average value of completed rehabbed homes is $220,000, an estimated new revenue stream of nearly $5,000 per house annually in the form of real estate taxes is now flowing into the city coffers.

Do Tax Credits Help Promote Homeownership? An Analysis of Baltimore City Homeownership Tax Credit Programs
Funders: France-Merrick Foundation and Procter & Gamble Foundation
BEEF analyzed the City’s homeownership tax credit programs to suggest ways these programs could become more effective. Baltimore City has made five tax credit programs available to encourage homeownership and stabilize neighborhoods:
• Newly Constructed Dwellings Tax Credit
• Historic Property Rehabilitation Tax Credit
• Home Improvement Tax Credit
• Rehabilitated Vacant Dwellings Tax Credit
• Waverly Stabilization Tax Credit

These programs offer a credit against an individual’s property taxes. The review studied whether the tax credits are effective? How are tax credits used, marketed and perceived? What could be done to make existing tax credits more effective?

The report concluded that the tax credits could play a much stronger role in neighborhood revitalization efforts and in attracting new residents to the City. This is attributed to the lack of a coordinated marketing effort that reflects a comprehensive vision about the role tax credits can play in the overall revitalization and stabilization of the City. There were no coordinated strategies that utilize the credits as a community development tool, quantitative guidelines by which to measure its success, or cross-promotional efforts. Nor are there efforts to combine the tax credits with existing financial incentives such as low interest loans or grants that could increase their usage rate and therefore enhance their effectiveness.

Articles of Interest