Howard Park/Forest Park Area (Baltimore: real estate, city hall, rentals)

[FromMAtoMD]

I'm moving to Maryland from the Boston area. I visited Maryland a few months ago looking for housing. I checked out the Howard Park/Forest Park area and it seemed okay, and was nicely priced. Could anyone tell me more about this community. Is it relatively safe? I was specifically looking at a home on Gwynn Oak Avenue in Howard Park.

[barante]

I don't see Gwynns Falls Avenue on my map. You may be referring to Gwynn Oak Avenue, which is in Howard Park, or Gwynns Falls Parkway, which begins at Druid Hill Park, and goes past the expanding Mondawmin Mall to Windsor Hills. No biggie. But we are talking about two different areas.
If you search our recent discussions about Mondawmin, you will see that I am a great believer in the turnaround of this area. The Gwynns Falls Parkway houses are mostly rowhouses until you get to Windsor Hills. The Gwynn Oak Avenue houses, by contrast, are mostly individual homes.
If it is the latter that you are interested in, I would zero in on houses around the Forest Park golf course. By definition, a well priced house near a golf course in America should have some intrinsict value. I recently walked through that area and it seemed fine, except for some crumbling sidewalks. I guess I saw one or two boarded up homes but otherwise everything seemed in pretty good condition. Lots of seniors live in this almost exclusively African American area, including a Jewish family that has occupied the same house for more than 50 years. When I called them recently, they told me that things were better today than they had been a couple of decades ago. So look at Hillsdale at the golf course and start from there. The blocks northeast of Gwynn Oak and Liberty Heights also are intriguing; the blocks southwest contain huge frame houses that seem to be rentals in iffy conditions. That intersection also has had law enforcement problems, including murders.
I am more familiar with the Gwynns Falls Parkway vicinity. Because the nearby Mondawmin Mall and Coppin State University are expanding and the area is served by Metro, I see it as a prime turnaround neighborhood once the current real estate craziness ends. Again, earlier posts contain web site links and such.
If I were on the market in that area, I would go for its upper-end properties. Those can be found around Lake Ashburton (Hanlon Park) and Ashburton. This used to be a very pricey white neighborhood of good quality homes.
For specific questions, message me.

[FromMAtoMD]

Thanks for the response. I was meaning to write Gwynn Oak Avenue in Howard Park and not Gwynn Falls.

[zesty waters]

I live in the forest park area. I have had no trouble, no incidence of crime. The neighborhood is quiet and the neighborhood is occupied by homeowners (more than 80%).

[Woodlands]

Hi all... I lived in Baltimore for about two years...relocated up here for a job in DC..settled in Baltimore so my wife would not have to commute from the job she landed in this area. I love the homes in NW Baltimore. I was dead set on pursuing a home in Ashburton, Windsor Hills, Forest Park area. One thing we could not grasp was why... particuliarly in Windsor Hills and Forest Park there were so many boarding/rooming houses. I imagine it serves a purpose of being affordable housing which is fine, but many were in various states of disrepair. Even now as we ponder "moving up" to a larger place possibly in those areas, I had read some time ago that the City was going to change the Zoning Ordinane to allow a variety of group homes to open in neighborhoods without having to go through a public hearing. The reason obviously being many neighborhoods would descend on City Hall and oppose such facilities in their neighborhood. I believe the City is being mandated to do so because of fair housing issues. Though this is necessary, could this be disaster for areas like NW Baltimore where you have some many large homes some of which are being rehabbed and sold as single family homes? , It may scare people away (including myself) if they are going to be unable to know or have input into how these types of uses can affect them or the fact you have a facilty open next to your new home where rooms could be rented weekly/monthly?