Baltimore City - Thoughts on stagnant appreciation?

[Emmett Freedman]

I purchased my first single family rental in Baltimore City and am currently looking to purchase a second one a year and a half later. In my opinion it’s a great market to find cashflowing properties and there are definitely deals to be had.

That said, it seems like for the most part of real estate in the city (Federall Hill, Canton, Patterson Park) has not appreciated much in the last 5+ years. How do other Baltimore investors think about that as they look at deals? Does it make the market much less attractive?

I also am very new at this and mostly use Zillow home sale history to assess whether home values have increased, so if I am mistaken about the market’s performance please let me know and I’ll happily be corrected.

Thanks!

[Ned Carey]

@Emmett Freedman I am surprised there is no appreciation in the  last 5 years in those areas. That conclusion may be due to some anomaly in the algorithm used to calculate that.  But as others said it will depend on neighborhood. Generally the poorer the neighborhood the less likely you will see appreciation over the long run. Better neighborhood like the ones you mentioned as well as Hamden, Charles village and other areas with market values of $200k plus will be more likely to appreciate.

I have to restate something @Brenda E. said to clear up some confusion. SDAT does NOT set market values. Buyers and the marketplace do. All SDAT does is set the tax assessment. The tax assessment is the amount you pay property taxes on. It is the government's estimate of property value. However the tax assessment is often not close to true market value and a change in tax assessment has virtually no affect on property value.