Spent the morning pulling the sold record around 21213 (Broadway East, Berea, Belair-Edison).

The auction floor is the real floor. 1721 N Regester St went through an online auction and closed at $20,500 in October 2025. 1640 N Wolfe St — vacant, listed as "ideal for redevelopment" minutes from Johns Hopkins — closed at $35,000. 1108 N Luzerne Ave, described as the only vacant building on its block, closed at $45,000. These aren't whisper numbers; they're the public record on streets people keep calling "revitalizing."

Developer money pays up — but only in the right pockets. 3131 Lawnview Ave, fully renovated by a developer with a new HVAC, closed at $236,900. 3130 Ravenwood Ave, renovated top to bottom, went for $190,000. 3335 Dudley Ave in Belair-Edison, renovated in 2025, closed at $175,000. Notice the gap: the renos sit in the more stable Four-by-Four and Belair-Edison pockets, not on the Broadway East blocks where the auction deals closed.

The long sit tells you what the spread costs. 1414 N Milton Ave — a vacant Broadway East rowhome marketed as an investment play — sat 548 days before closing at $70,000. A year and a half of carrying costs on a $70K close is the whole margin walking out the door.

My read: the Hopkins anchor is real, but it doesn't lift every block equally. Buyers pay retail for finished product two streets over; they'll steal a vacant shell on the auction block. What dies in between is the half-renovated flip priced at developer money on a shell street.

Comps. Quick look at the numbers around it:

As-is/vacant: 1721 N Regester St — $20,500, sold Oct 2025 (online auction, Broadway East); 1640 N Wolfe St — $35,000, sold Oct 2025 (vacant, "ideal for redevelopment," near Johns Hopkins); 1108 N Luzerne Ave — $45,000, sold Oct 2025 (only vacant building on block, "ready for renovation"). That puts as-is value roughly $20K–$45K, most likely around $30–35K for a vacant auction-floor buy in this pocket.

Renovated: 3131 Lawnview Ave — $236,900, sold Oct 2025 (developer reno, new HVAC); 3130 Ravenwood Ave — $190,000, sold Oct 2025 (fully renovated top to bottom); 3335 Dudley Ave — $175,000, sold Oct 2025 (renovated 2025, Belair-Edison). Honest caveat: the renovated comps sit in the more stable Four-by-Four and Belair-Edison pockets — no fully renovated comp closed on the immediate Broadway East auction blocks, so that end of the street carries its own ceiling. So a renovated range of $175K–$237K, mid-market closer to $190K.

For the flippers eyeing 21213: are you buying at the auction floor and renovating to the developer standard — or buying at investor-retail and hoping the block catches up?

— Dawon | Baltimore, MD