Affordable Homes

Erika Middleton had done everything right. She was working full time, was saving instead of spending and had qualified for a rare, moderately priced condominium going up in a plum new location: 1901 West. After plunking down a $1,000 deposit, she signed a contract on a two-bedroom, two-bathroom model offered for $179,500. She was looking forward to moving out of her parents' city home in late August or early September. "I was very excited with still being able to live in Annapolis, and I just thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime," she said.

Annapolis is moving to broaden access to an underutilized program that sets aside "workforce housing" at new and renovated residential developments. On Monday, the city council unanimously approved five amendments that members said would likely increase the number of eligible applicants. With the changes, school system staff and people who have worked in the city for at least a year will be eligible to apply for the set-aside units. The program has been open to qualified city residents and workers, including full-time teachers.

Paul Taylor works full time downtown, where he goes to happy hours and other social events and plays in organized city sports leagues. When it comes time to go home, though, Taylor, a 33-year-old single statistician, hops in his car or onto the Metro and heads 20 miles northwest to his two-bedroom condominium in Owings Mills' New Town community. With house renovations in full force and new condos and apartments sprouting all around downtown Baltimore, thousands of single young professionals have flocked to neighborhoods such as Mount Vernon, Federal Hill and Canton, attracted by proximity to restaurants, pubs, night life, sports stadiums and the stylish aura of urban life.

MARYLAND IS experiencing significant population growth, particularly in and around the suburbs of Washington. But the Baltimore region is also attracting more people, lured by jobs and somewhat more affordable housing. Much of the state's overall growth is being fueled by minorities, and the increasing diversity is a growing national trend as Maryland is one of nine states in which minorities account for at least 40 percent of the population, according to 2004 data from the U.S. Census.

More than four in 10 Marylanders are minorities, as Latinos, Asians and blacks flock to the Baltimore and Washington suburbs, accounting for much of the state's overall growth in population in recent years. Maryland is one of nine states nationwide in which minorities make up at least 40 percent of the population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Demographers believe the increasing diversity in the suburbs may have a simple explanation: pursuit of the classic American success story.

County Councilman David A. Rakes provided a key vote at a County Council meeting late yesterday that killed a plan to allow more affordable housing in eastern Howard County. Rakes, an east Columbia Democrat, voted with Republicans Charles C. Feaga and Christopher J. Merdon in a 3-2 vote that defeated a Robey administration plan to remove 100 housing allocations from the western county and transfer them to the east to bolster efforts to provide moderate income homes. In voting with the Republicans, Rakes reversed his position in June when he voted to approve the concept of moving the allocations, which regulate how many new homes builders may construct in each of five planning districts covering the entire county.

Carroll County will continue to grow at a phenomenal rate and the cost of residential construction is rising so fast - more than 26 percent last year - that many families can no longer afford to live here, according to a housing study released yesterday. The study, which shows the county has grown by nearly 30,000 houses in the past 25 years, points to a pressing need for affordable housing. It includes several recommendations for encouraging construction of smaller, less-costly houses, including zoning for higher density and enacting a work force housing ordinance.

Carroll County will continue to grow at a phenomenal rate and the cost of residential construction is rising so fast - more than 26 percent last year - that many families can no longer afford to live there, according to a housing study released yesterday. The study, which shows the county has grown by nearly 30,000 houses in the past 25 years, points to a pressing need for affordable housing. It includes several recommendations for encouraging construction of smaller, less-costly houses, including zoning for higher density and enacting a work force housing ordinance.

After years trying to devise ways of building affordable housing that's indistinguishable from surrounding higher-priced homes, Howard County officials are thinking of reversing the trend. Forced by rising home prices and the complaints of builders that they can't build lower-priced units next to $600,000 townhouses, the county government is struggling to find new ways -- or return to older ones -- to provide moderate-income housing for middle-class workers. "I grew up in a neighborhood in a two-bedroom Cape Cod and down the street was a mansion, and everybody was better for it," said Neil Gaffney, deputy county housing director.

Not long after Betty Bland-Thomas moved into her home on Cross Street in Sharp-Leadenhall four years ago, she began hauling a broom outside and sweeping the street. Not just the part in front of her home - the entire block. "People would come up and ask me what I was doing, saying that's crazy," she says, laughing. "I'd just say I want it to look nice." The determined Bland-Thomas is poised to take on a more daunting task: The community president wants to turn the tide of market forces and block the sky-high home prices of neighboring Federal Hill and the Otterbein from spreading to Sharp-Leadenhall.