Lars Doucet and Greg Miller | August 2025
Vacant Land in Baltimore: The High Cost of Undervaluation
This report documents substantial undervaluation of residential vacant land in Baltimore City compared with market transactions.
Undervaluation changes incentives by lowering the carrying cost of idle parcels and shifting more of the property tax burden onto active homeowners and businesses.
The findings provide a clear baseline for improving assessment practice and reducing the subsidy to speculative land holding.
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Key Findings
- •Vacant rowhouse-zoned parcels often sell far above assessed values.
- •Undervaluation persists even when recent sale information is available.
- •Citywide impacts are large enough to distort land-use incentives and tax fairness.