What do you consider the next "hot" baltimore neighborhoods (Laurel: real estate market, rent)

[Keep1Belle]

What do you consider the next "hot" baltimore neighborhoods
I currently live in Upper park heights and am considering relocating and selling. A few people have said to just rent out my place because upper park heights is coming up? However, no one has sighted any evidence, thoush some think the BRAC at Ft meade and APG will have a good effect on Baltimore.

What are your thoughts. What are the projected up and coming hot spots in Baltimore? AND has anyone heard about upper park heights being one of them.

TIA

[Woodlands]

I do not live far from Park Heights and Upper Park Heights...so I share your interest and hope that they may become "hot" areas. I have read plan after plan for lower Park Heights only to learn that they have been in the works for over 30years. IMHO Upper Park Heights and the areas of Mt. Washington will continue to grow slowly and incrementally since they are already very stable neighborhoods but I do not know if they would be considered as "hot" without some major stimulus, like the redevelopment of Pimlico into some major destination with office, retail, residential and entertainment(which may or may not happen depending on the owners). BRAC may be too far away to have an impact on the northside though the northeast may certainly benefit. Areas such as Laurelville, Hamilton, Ashburton,Windsor Mill may continue to tick up at a good pace. Neighborhoods near Lake Montebello, Charles Village, Hamden and the attraction of some of the sections of East Baltimore near Hopkins' Tech campus, Pigtown, Union Square, Greektown, northern portion of Patterson Park may be also worth watching as will Westport in South Baltimore.

Lot of areas have potential, but many need some form of driving force to move them forward.. I just hope that Baltimore has enough gas to push beyond the inner harbor and the neighborhoods that are currently flourishing around the Harbor and in North Baltimore.

[carolott]

I stopped paying attention to the "up-and-coming" talk and made my decision to stay in Pigtown because I liked the neighborhood when I moved here and I still like it -- 8 years later.

[barante]

If you scroll the forum, you will see that I have posted my share of reports about up-and-coming. However, today's real estate market is so unsettled that I think that kind of speculation is pretty much a waste of time beyond of what already has been said.

[baltimore's best]

A lot going on in Canton too. Especially closer to Boston St.

[newleaseonlife]

Westport is the next Gold Coast.

[McMatt]

I have heard different rumors from different people about the next hot neighborhood. The only one I know for sure that is getting hot is Locust Point.

I have heard the following from various people as up and coming neighborhoods:

-The area just north of mt Vernon (I am not really sure what you would call it)
-Highlandtown
-Butcher's Hill
-Ridgely's delight

The real estate market is still really shaky though however I think it won't go down much more because it has sort of corrected itself.

Also, I don't know that BRAC will really affect baltimore city much. I live in maryland city minutes from Ft meade and it hasn't done that much even right here yet.

[ginbelt]

Originally Posted by McMatt

I have heard different rumors from different people about the next hot neighborhood. The only one I know for sure that is getting hot is Locust Point..

Locust Point isn't "getting hot", it already IS "hot"...in fact, it's been that way for at least 4 or 5 years now. Sheer development-wise, there are more projects that have just been completed, or are in the works, than possibly in any other residential area of the city. Property values have skyrocketed well past even the "normal" rate of appreciation. So, I wouldn't even put Locust Point in a conversation about the "next" hot area, because it's already arrived. What you're essentially looking for, is the NEXT Locust Point! (as LP was the "next Canton", Canton having started getting hot several years before LP did).

I have heard the following from various people as up and coming neighborhoods:

-The area just north of mt Vernon (I am not really sure what you would call it)

I guess you mean the area they are now calling "Station North" (used to be called Charles North....or, "the hole in the doughnut" ! I think it has a lot of potential, for sure, but don't know that i see it turning into anything like what Locust Point has turned into, in anywhere near the same time frame, either.

-Highlandtown

The realtors are now packaging this area as "Patterson Park", and due to the efforts of the Patterson Park Development Copr (PPCDC), it has taken off, and I think has probably "turned a corner". People priced out of Canton bought here, basically, and drove up property values and made it more stable than it was before.

-Butcher's Hill

I've been hearing about Butcher's for years now...I think it's somewhat popular among those who want to live near the park but want something bigger and more grand than your typical 2 story east baltimore rowhouse. Property values have already increased here.

-Ridgely's delight

NOW I think you're onto a neighborhood that is definitely off many people's radar, and also has potential. It's already stable, but could really take off even more, IMO.

Also, I don't know that BRAC will really affect baltimore city much. I live in maryland city minutes from Ft meade and it hasn't done that much even right here yet.

Yes, I think you are correct here....realtors and city officials are really trumpeting the BRAC thing, but I think, by and large, it's not going to be anything massive in Baltimore city proper, for several reasons. What could really help Baltimore city would be the MAGLEV -- if they ever build it between Baltimore and DC!

[jonjj]

The two neighborhoods that I see having the greatest potential down the road are Station North and Reservoir Hill. Both of those neighborhoods have already seen a ton of improvement and they also have spectacular homes fairly decent to the downtown area. It's just a matter of time before they both "turn the corner". Unfortunately, with both of them crime is a factor that can't be ignored. And, Reservoir Hill needs more conveniences that are essential to city living.
Highlandtown is separate from Patterson Park but both of these neighborhoods have seen massive improvements also. I especially think the commercial strip along Eastern Avenue has great potential in the future. It borders to the south with Canton and Brewers Hill and the immediate area around it has seen lots of improvements. Helping it along are the new library and the Patterson Theater rehab. I have noticed a number of the facades being cleaned up along that stretch and there is a new interesting middle eastern restaurant there with hookahs for pleasure. The Latino influx has also helped that stretch along with north Broadway.

[ginbelt]

Originally Posted by jonjj

The two neighborhoods that I see having the greatest potential down the road are Station North and Reservoir Hill. Both of those neighborhoods have already seen a ton of improvement and they also have spectacular homes fairly decent to the downtown area. It's just a matter of time before they both "turn the corner". Unfortunately, with both of them crime is a factor that can't be ignored. And, Reservoir Hill needs more conveniences that are essential to city living.

As I live in Reservoir Hill, and actually moved here before the buzz and most of the recent improvement started, I hope you're right. I have days where I'm convinced it's only a matter of time, and days when I get discouraged, and think that things will not improve considerably beyond how they've already improved. I WILL say this, however: having lived here for 8 years, I can tell you that crime really IS NOT a big concern of mine. I think the real thing holding Reservoir Hill back is the perception of crime, not crime itself. I've said this again and again, but there are actually more muggings and breakins in Bolton Hill than Reservoir Hill. But, people see the boarded houses (which you do NOT see in Bolton Hill, anywhere), and, I guess, assume that because there is poverty here and vacant houses, there simply MUST be lots of violent crime. The fact is, however (and you check this with police if you like) Reservoir Hill has never been known as a violent place, compared to areas that look similar in East and West Baltimore. There is drug dealing in some areas of it, but even that is not usually violent. Hence -- as long as you are not in the drug trade yourself, or on a block where it occurs, you'll almost assuredly be fine here. Get on a good block, like I am, and you'll have a Bolton Hill-ambience most days, at a fraction of the price, and a far nicer house. It's a very strange area, in some ways, with very well-off folks (the director of the Baltimore choral arts society lives here -Tom Hall - google him) who could probably afford to live in other, wealthier neighborhoods, renters, and also working class and the very poor. I'd go as far to say that we are perhaps THE most economically diverse neighborhood in the entire city. But Res Hill is so big and so diverse that many (including me) don't really consider it a true neighborhood, but, rather, a collection of sub-neighborhoods. Truly, it breaks the standard Baltimore pardigm.

Now...as to our problems. We do have them! Trash is a big one. Litter. Drug dealing. Occasionally we get car breakins. And probably the biggest nuisance is exactly the one you named --- lack of conviences. Whitelock Street, which bisects the neighborhood, used to be the street that had the stores on it. But drug dealing got so bad that by the early 90s, the city decided to just tear down many of the buildings there. It had become one of the most notorious drug bazaars in the entire city. I didn't live here then, but I know just how far we've come, how much Reservoir Hill has improved, when I talk to some of the old-timers who lived here thru the 80's and 90's.

But, I swear to god, I've never been mugged, neither has my wife, and we've lived here 8 years. I am raising a family here, too -- I have a preschool daughter and son, and I take them on walks to the park, around the block, etc. We have a charter school that serves the neighborhood too -- a huge drawing card that OUGHT to be trumpeted more by the neighborhood associations -- so we will not be moving out this fall when one of our children is ready for kindergarten.

Originally Posted by jonjj

Highlandtown is separate from Patterson Park but both of these neighborhoods have seen massive improvements also.

I checked this, and it looks like I was wrong about this -- I'd always heard that they were both roughly pretty much the same area, but it appears that they are not. I think the reason people were saying this is because Highlandtown used to refer to a larger area than it does now -- thanks, probably, to realtors. That's common, though --- Federal Hill has grown and grown to consume major parts of what used to simply considered south baltimore.