Vacant Land in Baltimore:
The High Cost of Misvaluation
Lars Doucet & Greg Miller | CLE Report | Aug 25
Baltimore is sitting on nearly half a billion dollars of undervalued, vacant land.
Our investigation reveals how flawed state property assessments systematically undervalue empty lots, often assessing them at a fraction of their true market price. This practice creates an unintentional incentive for speculative blight and unfairly shifts the tax burden onto homeowners and active businesses.
A Tale of Two Lots: Baltimore's Valuation Problem
The land under the improved parcels: assessed around $20,000, or $11 per square foot.
Yet, the land under the vacant lots is valued at around $2,000, or $1 per square.
The vacant lots are assessed 10x less than improved parcels.
The 2300 Block of Whittier Avenue has 7 vacant lots next to 7 rowhomes.
Same zoning, same block, same location.
Therefore, they should have the same land value.
Ignoring Market Signals Creates a Vacant Lot Subsidy
We analyzed State Department of Assessment and Taxation (SDAT) records for assessments of vacant land in Baltimore. By isolating vacant lot sales that reflected fair market transactions (e.g. not a vacant lot passed between family members), we found that vacant land zoned for rowhouse development sold for 8.3x its assessed value. Even when the vacant lot sold in the year prior to the assessment, when the assessor had access to the sales information, vacant land was undervalued 2.8x.
Baltimore contains $327 million of total assessed value on vacant parcels. Of that, $66 million is zoned for single-family or rowhome use. Based on this analysis, Baltimore’s vacant lots zoned for single-family or rowhome use may be undervalued by $484 million