I work in commercial real estate and try to sell Baltimore to alot of investors, and businesses….There is a saying in the commercial real estate industry: Baltimore is scattered with the bones of outside developers.

There are a lot of investors from New York and DC who come and and say wow it’s SO cheap here and think the area has charm and alot of potential (which is true) and they say Wow this area looks like it’s going to transition and become nice soon……Welp They’ve been saying that since the 70’s and 80’s and we have a lower population now than we did in then. They’ve been right in some select, core markets over the years like Federal Hill, Fells, Canton and the Inner Harbor. But it’s been a very slow transition relative to the gentrification seen in other cities.

I’m optimistic we’ve hit bottom, but crime is 100% the most important issue affecting the ability for Baltimore to attract outside investment and start make it start growing again. Sure seems like it can’t get much worse.