One of the reasons why the dollar houses in Federal Hill, Ridgely's Delight, Otterbein, and Barre Circle were so successful was because the city had condemned them en masse to build a highway. When the highway didn't materialize, the city had contiguous blocks of vacant houses to sell at the same time. The density and continuity of the vacants was hugely advantageous for building healthy neighborhoods. Individual house-buyers could be confident that every other house on the block was being renovated to a similar standard and that every future neighbor was committed to living in the neighborhood for several years after renovations were finished. A completely renovated block surrounded by completely renovated blocks, all with a high rate of owner-occupancy, is a fantastic way to develop and maintain neighborhood stability.

Today, unfortunately, the city-owned vacants are scattered all over the place. You might see one or two (or several) on a block, but it's basically unheard of for the city to own every house or lot on a block. Large numbers of vacant properties in the city are in private hands - some are owned by speculators, others by out-of-towners, still others by owners who have died without a known heir. If tomorrow the city listed every vacant property it owns for $1, and somehow made financing available and affordable, you'd be helping on average one or two houses on a block - which, while a good thing, wouldn't be enough to create the completely renovated blocks surrounded by completely renovated blocks with high rates of homeownership throughout that are the markers of a healthy neighborhood.

To bring back the dollar house program and make it as successful as it was in the '70s, the city would need to figure out how to condemn entire neighborhoods at once while navigating a whole host of thorny, expensive problems that will make a lot of people very angry. I just don't see how that happens today.