Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, August 14, 2015

Whether you are a first-time homebuyer, a growing family, or a life-long resident, I am committed to doing everything I can to make sure you stay and grow with Baltimore City. That means making it easier for everyone to purchase a home.

We all know that Baltimore is a city of small neighborhoods, each with its own charm. But for decades, we watched as our population declined, businesses shut their doors, and communities were abandoned.  Many of those who left cited our property tax rate, which was the highest in the state. I knew we had to act, so, a few years ago, I introduced my plan to reduce property tax rates for homeowners 20 cents by the year 2020. 

Since then, we have been working responsibly and steadily to provide real tax relief to Baltimore residents.  I am proud to say that we are already more than halfway there, with a citywide reduction of about 14 cents since I took office, helping ensure that more people can afford to stay in our city. But that is only one component of my comprehensive approach to expanding homeownership in Baltimore.  

My administration has also utilized an array of homeownership incentives to help our city grow. Our Homestead Tax Credit carryover is making it easier for families to find attractive options right here—as opposed to moving outside of the City; the “Maryland HomeCredit” program continues to better enable first-time buyers to enter the housing market; and our flagship program, the “Baltimore Homeownership Incentive Program” (BHIP), offers a number of additional initiatives, including our “Vacants to Value Booster Program,” our “Live Near Your Work” incentive, and our “City Employee Homeownership Programs,” that are all helping  more Baltimoreans realize their dreams of becoming home owners. 

This week, I was proud to announce our next step in these efforts with our “Grand Slam” Homeownership Program, a collaborative initiative between the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland, and Baltimore Housing, that will help hundreds more qualified home buyers purchase homes here in Baltimore City by the end of the year. 

Much like the “Triple Play” Maryland Mortgage Program (MMP) in Prince George’s County, Baltimore’s “Grand Slam” will support incentives offered by the MMP, including a State investment of $2 million and a City investment of $1 million toward Down Payment Assistance grants that will help more people buy homes, more easily.  

Baltimore’s milestone collaborative will be unique in the way in combines these MMP incentives with our superbly successful B-HIP program, ensuring that more people put their roots down in Charm City, strengthening our diverse neighborhoods.

I want to thank Governor Hogan, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Baltimore Housing for all their work on this joint initiative. 

Together, we can continue to develop innovative policies like the Grand Slam Homeownership Program that “knock it out of the park,” making easier for families to buy homes and grow with Baltimore.

This originally appeared in the Rawlings-Blake Review. If you do not receive the Mayor's weekly newsletter, subscribe here.