Maryland Secretary of Housing and Community Development Jake Day said the state is at “an inflection point” when it comes to housing during a news conference hosted by a trade association of realtors last week. Ninety-nine percent of those ages 18 to 34 say it is harder to buy a home today than for previous generations, according to a survey of over 800 registered Maryland voters conducted in January by a polling firm.

The year 2023 was a dynamic one for businesses across all sectors. Artificial intelligence went from a novel technology to a more widely utilized business productivity tool. Many companies invested additional resources in sustainable business practices. And digital business solutions helped companies thrive. Here are predictions for what current and emerging trends will further shape businesses in 2024.

If education equals intelligence, then Maryland is a very smart state. WalletHub’s annual ranking of Most Educated States has Maryland at No. 3 on the list, behind Massachusetts and Vermont, and it jumps to No. 2 for percentage of graduate or professional degree holders. Virginia ranks 6th overall, and No. 4 for graduate and professional degree holders.

When I moved out of my parents’ house in Lutherville, I vowed to never live in the suburbs again. For nearly two decades (minus a 2-year stint in Honduras), I was a city person. I found the scent of bus exhaust exciting. I lived in Charles Village and Hampden and, for six years, in a quaint Mount Vernon apartment so near the old Hippo night club that its dance music rattled my radiators until 2 a.m.

Cushman & Wakefield announced that law firm Blades & Rosenfeld P.A., will soon occupy 8,900 rentable square feet at the One South Street building in downtown Baltimore, the first lease for the property’s new owners, One South Street Baltimore LLC. Blades & Rosenfeld has deep roots in Baltimore, having its offices in the downtown area since its founding in 1921.

Capital One Financial is set to acquire Discover Financial Services in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal. Under the agreement, Discover shareholders would receive 1.0192 Capital One shares for each Discover share or about a 26% premium from Discover’s Friday closing price of $110.49. The companies said they expect the deal to close in late 2024 or early 2025, after which Capital One shareholders would hold 60% and Discover shareholders would own 40% of the combined company.

A trio of executives — including a former Baltimore Ravens player — are teaming up to build a venture capital fund with a business model tailor-made for an era when capital is harder and harder to find. The Tiger Fund is the creation of former Ravens player and Super Bowl champion Kyle Richardson, Patrick McQuown, Towson University’s executive director of entrepreneurship, and venture capitalist Alfred Ko of the StepStone Group, a fund with $139 billion of assets under management. The group plans to raise at least $2 million through institutional and retail investors before investing any money.

The Maryland comptroller’s office said Monday that it has processed about half of the roughly 530,000 state returns received this year, following delays due to a tax system upgrade at the start of the season. State returns have been taking slightly longer — up to 10 business days — to process following the upgrade period that held up the office’s systems for roughly the first two weeks of the tax season, which opened Jan. 29.

Things have changed gradually and steadily at Baltimore’s biggest mosque since Hanan Williams started working there 17 years ago. The modest building that once constituted the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Windsor Mill has tripled in size. A private school that was situated in trailers has its own indoor wing, a gym hosts sporting events and prayer-session overflow, and three red domes surmount the sprawling, sand-colored complex.

One after the other, drivers pulled up the hilly terrain of The Alameda onto school grounds. A woman wearing a leopard-dotted headband and Baltimore City College sweatshirt emerged from the entrance near the football stadium. She stood in front of the orange door with a posted sign: “ALL FOOD DELIVERIES HERE.”