Home In Baltimore

Dennis Patrick Lantz Sr., a salesman and thoroughbred racing enthusiast, died Wednesday of a brain tumor at the Joseph Richey Hospice. The Baltimore Highlands resident was 41. Born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown, Mr. Lantz attended Southwestern High School and played baseball in youth leagues at Carroll Park. As a teenager, he sold subscriptions to the old News American and later worked for Callen Publishing. Before his illness, he was a salesman for Allied Distributing in Westminster.

Along with the Drifters and Jeanette "Baby" Washington came newsman Ernie Boston.Mr. Boston was Baltimore's melodic town crier, on black radio and later on television, from the 1960s through the 1980s. His talent and dedication would eventually carry him to the top editor's job of a black-owned newspaper group in Maryland.Mr. Boston died of congestive heart failure Thursday at his home in Baltimore. He was 59."First, Ernie had great pipes, a beautiful announcer's voice," said Jonathan Compton, a disc jockey known in Baltimore radio as Sir Johnny O. "He was a true gentleman, modest.

Dr. James R. Ralph, 66, practiced adult psychiatry Dr. James R. Ralph, a psychiatrist, died in his sleep Friday at his home in Baltimore. He was 66.The Baltimore native graduated from Dunbar High School in 1951 and from then-Morgan State College. He was trained as a doctor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., served an internship at the old Baltimore City Hospitals and completed his residency at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital.From 1971 to 1978, he was chief of the Center for Studies of Minority Group Mental Health at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda.

Orin Carroll and his wife, Nicole, pay $575 a month in rent for their apartment in Northeast Baltimore -- a figure that's about to increase to $620. Believing that is too much, the couple is looking to buy a house.So are Goldie Balintag and her fiance, Kenny McGee, who live in Glen Burnie. Both couples took advantage of a homebuying fair during the weekend sponsored by Fannie Mae Foundation, Live Baltimore Marketing Center and Baltimore City.Nearly 5,000 people attended events at the Baltimore Convention Center and took advantage of free credit checks, access to affordable home listings and trolley tours of Central Baltimore.

Charles Edward McCarthy, 62, electricianCharles Edward McCarthy, a former electrician, died of a heart attack Aug. 4 at Franklin Square Hospital Center. He was 62 and lived in Fullerton.In 1973, he fell from a ladder and severely injured an arm, forcing him to retire. He began working in his 20s, first for Baltimore County government and then for area electrical contractors.Mr. McCarthy was born in Hampden and attended public schools in the North Baltimore neighborhood.He enjoyed spending time with friends and working around the house, said his wife, the former Catherine M. Gill, whom he married in 1957.

Median home prices in the Baltimore metropolitan area rose 5 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.The median price -- half the homes selling for more, half the homes selling for less -- of a home in Baltimore in the first quarter was $121,300, compared with $115,500 last year.Baltimore followed the national trend of increasing home prices, as all regions reported increases in the first quarter, led by the West with a 6.8 percent increase.

Floryan T. `Bud' Schultz, 77, longtime longshoremanFloryan T. "Bud" Schultz, a longshoreman who worked for 30 years at the port of Baltimore, died Friday in a car accident on U.S. 50 near Easton. He was 77.Mr. Schultz had moved to Easton after his retirement 10 years ago and enjoyed fishing and boating on the Chesapeake Bay.He had lived in South Baltimore for most of his life.An Army veteran of the Korean War, he was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.He married the former Catherine E. Seimer.

Seminar to explore incentives for buying a home in BaltimoreThe Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development will present a briefing on the home-buying incentive programs available in the city from 9 a.m. to noon Friday on the 13th floor of 417 E. Fayette St.Called "Tour of Baltimore City: In Action," the event will include information on the Settlement Expense Loan Program, Live Near Your Work, Buy...

Dick and Karen Cook's Baltimore is a safe haven where neighbors at a halfway house for recovering alcoholics watch over them from a porch nearby.Ruby Glover's Baltimore is an oasis of goodwill and lifelong friendships in the world's biggest small town.To them, Baltimore is not just a city of crime and poor schools that loses population every year. They stand their ground, and they will not be moved.Ten staunch Baltimoreans recently talked about why they stay. All have the financial means to leave.

There are homes that are so coveted they sell almost as soon as they're listed.Then there are homes that require the services of a savvy real estate agent who uses all the marketing strategies to bring in a contract.And then there are homes that seemingly no one wants to buy. Homes that sit stranded in the market, for whatever the reason. Homes where only divine intervention would help.To Allen Becker and his wife, that kind of intervention became imaginable. Even though the home had been up for sale for just six weeks, the Beckers knew they were in a competitive market with other nearby homes that had been languishing.

ERROL KENNETH JACKSON, SR., native of St. Louis, MO and former resident of Atlanta, GA, passed away suddenly in his home in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, July 18, 2009. Funeral arrangements to be announced.

JOHN L. GILLIN, age 70, passed away quietly in his sleep at his home in Baltimore, Maryland, surrounded by friends and family, on the morning of Tuesday, February 24, 2009, following a brief illness. He was a proud former U.S. Marine, ran his own home alarm company in Maryland (Safeway Security) and was an avid metal detector enthusiast and coin collector. He is survived by his daughters Jessica Gillin (Forestt Nye) of Milwaukee, Stacy Gillin of Richmond, Virginia, his son John T. Gillin (Mary Ellen)

He has traveled to so many cities and countries since the Olympics ended, when he wakes up in the morning, it's almost impossible for Michael Phelps to remember the date, or even what day it is. Is today Friday? Or is it Thursday? Without looking at his BlackBerry, he has no clue. Luckily for him, he has people - mainly his agent, Peter Carlisle, and his media manager, Drew Johnson, both of Octagon - to tell him where his schedules dictate that he needs to be. His schedule called for him to be in Baltimore yesterday, marking just the second time he has been home since he won eight gold medals in Beijing.

For a glimpse of the palatial opulence of America's Gilded Age, take a peek at Nick Piscatelli's meticulously restored home in Baltimore's Mount Vernon. Piscatelli, 58, a real estate broker and developer, took on the job in 2005 when he bought the free-standing, three-story brick house at a busy intersection just blocks north of the Washington Monument. "Gems like this home come along rarely," he said. "It was never converted into apartments. I can understand why it has had an average ownership of 40 years, having had only three owners in the last 120 years."

The severe slump in homebuying in the Baltimore metro area did not let up in April, sobering news for the 20,000 local homeowners who are trying to sell and were hoping for a spring pickup. Home sales last month were down 31 percent from a year earlier, to just shy of 2,000, Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. said yesterday. The average price was essentially flat, at about $310,200. MRIS, which runs the region's multiple-listing service, counts a home as sold once the deal has settled - typically a month or two after the contract is signed.

Marylanders in trouble on their mortgages are getting more help from their lenders than homeowners in the country as a whole, a new report suggests. A sign (right) advertising the auction of a foreclosed home in Baltimore indicates that the problem remains pressing for the state. [Article on Page 2D]

ELIZABETH JULIAN WHITE, former English and French teacher and the last of six siblings who made contributions in the fields of education, science, medicine, foreign service and vocational rehabilitation, died Sunday, December 30, 2007 at her home in Baltimore of age-related natural causes. She was 96. In addition to her devoted daughter Betty McLemore Stuckey, survivors include her loyal niece Faith R. Julian of Oak Park, Illinois and other loving nieces, nephews, relatives and good friends in Baltimore.

MILLER, E. Zachary Services held Monday, August 13 11am at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase MD. Internment Beth Tfiloh Cemetary in Baltimore MD. Arrangements by Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, MD. The family will be sitting shiva at the Nathanson home in Baltimore starting on Monday evening. Contact Ohr Kodesh, 301.589.3880 for additional information.

Dennis Patrick Lantz Sr., a salesman and thoroughbred racing enthusiast, died Wednesday of a brain tumor at the Joseph Richey Hospice. The Baltimore Highlands resident was 41. Born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown, Mr. Lantz attended Southwestern High School and played baseball in youth leagues at Carroll Park. As a teenager, he sold subscriptions to the old News American and later worked for Callen Publishing. Before his illness, he was a salesman for Allied Distributing in Westminster.

The Rev. Maurice Moore never forgot the happy years he spent as a commuting college student, and then later, visiting his parents in their Northwest Baltimore neighborhood of Ashburton. Here, large houses in a variety of architectural styles sit on wide, tree-lined streets, a world away from the bustle of busy Liberty Heights Avenue and Northern Parkway. Eventually, Moore and his eight siblings moved on to make their way in the world, and when their parents died, the beautiful house was sold.