Curious what neighborhood you ended up in. The "relatively speaking" part is huge in a city where a mile can make the difference between "reasonably decent and can still walk to things sometimes" and "might as well have bought in the county if I have to drive everywhere".
And I wasn't just looking in the heart of gentrified neighborhoods either (didn't even bother with Canton/Fells/Hampden/Fed Hill/etc). I was shopping for over a year back in 2017, and even when I found a place in need of some work, a little ways out past the recent renovated flips and dual-income-large-dog-owners, I'd still get beaten by cash offers, even if I put in my offer the day it went on the market.
Those "decent spot, but haven't been updated in a while" places are prime picking for flippers and rental property owners, whereas in the past those were how you got a deal and "bought up" into a halfway decent area without mortgaging your life away.
Around Charles village: station north, Barclay, old goucher, Abell, etc. Greenmount is seeing some development now and it's becoming less of a dividing line than it used to be.
We picked up a 2 bdrm/1.5 bath for ~190k in 2019. We're within walking/biking distance to a ton of cool restaurants and things to do.
And I wasn't just looking in the heart of gentrified neighborhoods either (didn't even bother with Canton/Fells/Hampden/Fed Hill/etc). I was shopping for over a year back in 2017, and even when I found a place in need of some work, a little ways out past the recent renovated flips and dual-income-large-dog-owners, I'd still get beaten by cash offers, even if I put in my offer the day it went on the market.
Those "decent spot, but haven't been updated in a while" places are prime picking for flippers and rental property owners, whereas in the past those were how you got a deal and "bought up" into a halfway decent area without mortgaging your life away.