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ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST CITIES WANTS TO SELL YOU A HOME FOR $1

For those looking to undertake a renovation project, it could be the deal of a
lifetime

By Katherine McLaughlin

April 11, 2024
Saint Paul Street with view of downtown Baltimore.Greg Pease
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Baltimore, Maryland, is offering the deal of a lifetime by letting individuals
buy a home for $1. Currently, the local government owns hundreds of vacant
properties, and a recently approved program would allow it to off-load them to
residents at a steep discount. The city’s Board of Estimates, which includes
five voting members—the mayor, the president of the city council, the
comptroller, the city solicitor, and the director of public works—voted in March
to authorize a new pricing structure for government-owned vacant homes,
approving the plan 4-1. City council president Nick Mosby was the only dissent.

Part of an initiative called BuyIntoBmore, the recently approved pricing
structure is part of the plan’s fixed pricing program. Through this, individuals
who plan to use the property as their primary residence as well as community
land trusts can buy a home for just $1. Nonprofits with fewer than 50 employees
could purchase a vacant home for $1,000, while those with more than 50 employees
or developers would pay $3,000.



Vacant row houses in Baltimore

Photo: Kevin B. Moore/Getty Images


To qualify for the $1 homes, buyers have to commit to restoring the residence
and have at least $90,000 to do so. Interested applicants were able to begin
submitting applications on April 1, which are being processed on a rolling
basis. “Properties will be awarded once an applicant successfully passes the
vetting process. If there are multiple applications for the same property and
all applicants successfully pass the vetting process, applications will be
reviewed by order of submission,” the city’s Department of Housing & Community
Development explains.



Though Mosby, the city council president, did propose a version of a $1 housing
program, he voted against the legislation in March because he didn’t feel this
plan adequately prioritized current Baltimore residents. Additionally, he
worried that people with lower incomes would be pushed out of communities as
nearby homes are bought and renovated.

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Baltimore, Maryland

Photo: Douglas Rissing/Getty Images

“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,” he said during the vote.
“This is a bad policy because it doesn’t protect or prioritize the rights of
folks in these communities.”



Comparable programs have existed before. In fact, Baltimore piloted a similar
offer in the 1970s and sold $1 houses to homesteaders, while many Italian cities
famously sold houses for a euro in the late 2010s. Additionally, Newark, New
Jersey, held a lottery in January of this year to select residents to buy homes
for $1 too.







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