Five years ago, Terry Reamer decided to break ranks. She moved into the city.
“My generation, the generation before me, everybody stayed in Pikesville,” she says. “But I like the diversity of the city. After living in Pikesville my whole life, I wanted to meet people who are different.
“I think that other people are looking for that, too.”
As a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty in Pikesville, Reamer is in a position to know. For several years now, she has seen many baby boomers and empty nesters make a slow but steady migration into the city.
Just as Reamer relocated to Canton, others have moved to Federal Hill, Fells Point, Patterson Park and Butchers Hill.
“Anything around the water,” says Robert Ellin, also a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices HomeSale in Baltimore, who says home sales in the city make up 25 to 30 percent of his business.
“It’s being driven by the 50-plus crowd, people who have moved and lived in the suburbs their entire lives and now they just want to go outside and walk to the grocery store, walk to the movies, to the restaurants and even to the green spaces that are coming up,” says Ellin, who himself moved to Hampden from Pikesville two years ago.
Baltimore’s urban influx of young, middle age and older mirrors a global trend. As of 2014, around 54 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, according to the United Nations, and that figure is expected to reach 66 percent by 2050.
Baltimore’s newest dwellers are not changing the overall population of the city, which stands at about 622,000 people. Instead, newcomers are helping to balance an ongoing decline caused in part by 20- and 30-somethings who depart for suburban destinations once their children come along.
“As these younger people move out of the city and into the suburbs when they have kids, there is a trend toward people whose kids are grown to now turn around and look for a change,” Reamer says.
That change used to dictate a move to Florida or Arizona. While many still make that leap, others may want to stay closer to local family members, or may still be working themselves. For these folks, the city has become an attractive option.
Reamer and her husband, Andy Gorelick, like the walkability of downtown and the nearby amenities. The 10-minute stroll to Fells Point is a frequent favorite.
“We walk along the promenade, along the water the whole time, and there is always lots of activity. It’s a great place to meet friends, go to dinner,” Reamer says. “We go to all the festivals. There are always concerts and restaurants that we can walk to.”
Others find that a home in the city makes a comfortable offset to a winter residence in warmer climes. “For these people, they just want to be able to leave quickly, to shut the door and go,” Ellin says. “That’s hard when you have a big house and an acre of property, as compared to having a condo in the city where you can just lock the door and leave.”
The move downtown comes with a financial price. “Downtown is more expensive, you are going to pay a premium for downtown living. The range depends on where you go, but in general you will pay for the extras, the amenities, the convenience,” Ellin says. “You might leave a $700,000 house in [Baltimore] county where taxes are lower, and you move into a much smaller condo for $300,000 in town, but you will pay condo fees of $1,000 a month and taxes of $500 a month.”
Money is a consideration, and so is security: From the suburban point of view, there’s always a concern about safety in the city. Realtors are quick to note that while crime statistics can seem gloomy, it’s important to look closely at specific locations. Urban crime tends to be a very neighborhood-driven phenomenon.
Balancing the challenges of cost and crime against the upsides — diversity, cultural opportunities, a pedestrian lifestyle — Reamer says she has found the city to be the obvious choice. She notes that demographics may well have been a determining factor for her and others.
“We are the generation who is always trying to do something different,” she says. “As baby boomers, we never just did what our parents did. We’ve always looked at our options.”
Adam Stone is an Annapolis-based freelance writer.
Photo by Steve Ruark
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