It’s unfortunate that our metropolis has reached a stage where a headline like Developer targets middle class is actually news, but here we are, and there it is. Pennrose Properties is constructing 72 rowhouses in Baltimore’s Belair-Edison neighborhood, northeast of downtown, as part of a project that will ultimately include nearly 500 units. Give or take, the new homes will cost about $200, 000, which is just about exactly the current average for a home in Baltimore City.

BeyondDC doesn’t know all the specifics of the deal, so our optimism is a little jaded. Maybe these units will be subsidized by making the other 400 more expensive. Maybe it was required by the City. We don’t know. Further, we’re the first to point out that the current affordable housing crisis is not solely the fault of developers (in fact, we’d rank them way below NIMBYs and counterproductive zoning ordinances on the list of guilty parties). And of course, this is in notoriously inexpensive Baltimore, not Columbia Heights or Dupont Circle. But nevertheless, the proof is here: It is possible for developers to build new housing that’s not marketed for the “luxury” demographic.