Perspective: Eliminating vacant properties through rehab, demolition can curb speculator purchases

Recently, The Baltimore Banner and other local news outlets have reported extensively about speculators purchasing both vacant and occupied properties in Baltimore’s disinvested neighborhoods. The speculators failed to deliver on promises and plans to rehab the properties that could have helped to revitalize those neighborhoods. The condition of such properties was also at the center of reports about the deaths of three firefighters in a vacant house.