[staytrue]

"I think we're getting value for our money."

If this is value, I would hate to see what they thought was a ripoff.

[staytrue]

ping

[Asclepius]

The purchase and renovations, done by a nonprofit housing group and paid for with federal and state funds, average out to $231,583 per house - more than twice last year's average sale price of a city home.

This is the cost before you account for plunging property values in the rest of the neighborhood as home owners flee to the safety of exurbs and edge cities.

[Jack Wilson]

As a landlord and real estate investor for over 20 years, I can tell you definitively that managing or doing anything related to real estate is way beyond the scope of bureaucratic talent.

[swampfox98]

"I think we're getting value for our money."

The value is, the left has once again screwed the white tax payers. And they'll do it again and again all over America. This is just a trial run.

[tomball]

The city I live in has been doing this for a real long time in order to force diversity down everyone's throats. (Never mind that the community was already diverse to begin with.)

Over the past ten years alone, I have seen local neighborhoods literally destroyed by this practice.

Beaurocracy at its finest.

[txdoda]

average out to $231,583 per house >>>>>>>>>>


Yikes !! *these* are for "low income rentals".....???

[dogbyte12]

Here is where I am confused. $231,000 is more than twice what an average house goes for in Baltimore?

$115,000 median price seems a wee bit low? Any freepers from Baltimore around.

An aside, another reason I am glad to leave California. On my way to work, I pass through a neighborhood that is gang ridden, with alot of grafitti. They just put up some "luxury condos" there next to the 7-11, on a 4 lane major strip. The 2,400 sq foot models are advertised at "starting at $580,000". Makes me wanna puke.

[cynicom]

Business friends are re-habing a half dupex in Baltimore. Black neighborhood. When finished it will sell for less than $100,000. They would love to work for the city.

[Montfort]

What do you bet that all work must be done by union members, and that the contracting companies are well-connected to City Hall?

[SENTINEL]

"I think we're getting value for our money"

OUR MONEY ?

YOU MEAN MY MONEY !!

[Publius6961]

"It's fairly expensive but I don't think it's exorbitant," he said of the program

This kind of mindless blather can only make sense to a loser who has never held a real job.

The notion that taxpayer money is not real is infuriating. I would be campaigning to get this loser fired ASAP and as far away from my pocket as possible.

[sergeantdave]

More neo-communist Rat bureaucrats ripping my tax dollars off. For $231,000 I could build a new six bedroom house, with sauna, fireplace, workshop, rec room, library and a pen in back along with a pair of hunting dogs. I'd probably throw in a free rod and reel and Evinrude, too.

I hate liberal east coast cities. They attract the worse scum walking on two legs.

[Madame Dufarge]

Baltimore officials are spending nearly $7 million to quietly buy and renovate 30 homes in mostly white, middle-class neighborhoods for use as public housing rental unit...

Because a similar but smaller program was scuttled four years ago after a community uproar, housing officials discussed this program with neighborhood leaders beforehand but until recently refused to publicly disclose many details.

First of all, I'd like to know who the "neighborhood leader" in my neighborhood is - what does that even mean?

And if this was discussed so comprehensively with the "neighborhood leaders" who purportedly are all for the idea, why does the city have to resort to "quietly" buying up the properties?

[RightWhale]

When you're trying to get into some markets that are healthy markets, you're going to pay more for it."

Why get up to the eyebrows into some markets? They could put these low-income units into high-rent districts without any problem if they spread out the units. One unit per block, not 30 units in a block.

[lowbridge]

Acknowledging that there are cheaper ways to provide public housing, city Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said rehab costs averaging about $80,000 per unit were driven by federal regulations, ranging from lead paint abatement to historical preservation, and by the decision to install new roofs and heating systems to lower future maintenance costs.

Federal regulations causes home building costs to almost double? Who'da thunk it?