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If you think breaking into the housing market is impossible, meet Courtney Turner.
Turner, who turns 35 this month, bought her first home in late 2023. For $200,000, you get three bedrooms, about 1,200 square feet, one and a half bathrooms, and a completely updated basement. This home had been completely renovated before it was sold, so everything inside was brand new. The few repairs she had to make were minor, costing a few hundred dollars at most.
Best of all, Turner took advantage of two separate programs offered by the city he bought it from, netting him $15,000 in benefits. Another is the state’s efforts to help with student loan repayments.
Across the country, there are first-time buyer programs and initiatives to help with other financial barriers. But when it comes to sheer high-end homeownership, it may be hard to beat Baltimore, the city where Mr. Turner is proud to have put down roots.
And as efforts to reclaim the city from decades of blight, violence and disinvestment gained momentum, people like Turner became the face of Baltimore’s renaissance. She is a smart, resourceful, and happy urban pioneer. More importantly, she is young, single, black, and female.
Attract and retain a diverse population
The two mortgage assistance programs for which Mr. Turner qualified were administered by LiveBaltimore, a nonprofit organization dedicated to attracting and retaining city residents, with a particular focus on homeownership assistance. In 2025, 71% of LiveBaltimore’s customers were female and 73% were single. Approximately 60% were between the ages of 25 and 44, and a whopping 81% were African American.
These numbers are in sharp contrast to the national average.
In 2025, 74% of white Americans owned a home, compared to only 46% of black Americans. Black borrowers’ mortgage applications are denied more than twice as often as white borrowers.
“Single Black women have been our biggest customer by far, and that’s really intentional,” said Meghan McCorkell, executive director of Live Baltimore. “This is a majority-minority city, so we want to foster that community.”
McCorkell said LiveBaltimore strives to show the faces of young women like Turner who are buying homes because the group knows other young women may see themselves in the visuals.
They might say, ‘Oh my God, it’s been achievable for me because it’s been achievable for so many other people just like me,'” she told USA TODAY.
Building equity and intergenerational wealth
Shaniqua Payne, also 35, recently became a first-time homeowner with the help of LiveBaltimore. Payne is a dialysis technician who is also attending nursing school while raising two sons on her own.
Becoming a homeowner made her feel “stable,” Payne told USA TODAY. “I feel like I’ve taken a step forward as an adult…and now I can give something to my kids, too.”
Payne had lived in Baltimore for many years and decided it was the perfect time to buy a home. She said she looks forward to getting more involved in her neighborhood, called New Northwood, and improving her sons’ legacy.
New residents aren’t the only ones who will benefit from ongoing revitalization efforts. Martia Rogers inherited a house from her grandparents more than 20 years ago. When she walks through her neighborhood, the city’s Johnston Square area, people often tell her they remind her of her grandfather, who owned a store there.
But by the time Ms. Rogers took ownership, the house was in such disrepair that she had to spend years, not to mention thousands of dollars, restoring it. She received help from the Legacy Homeowner Repair Program, which is administered by an organization called ReBUILD Metro.
Mr. Rogers also emphasizes homeownership. “It’s an asset, a wealth that is passed down through generations,” she says, and she believes that a high percentage of ownership in any area gives people more ownership of the land and more incentive to take care of it.
Ensuring that longtime residents participate in the city’s revitalization and are not forced to relocate as housing prices rise and new people move in is a key goal of the city government and LiveBaltimore.
McCorkell describes it as “owning a piece of this city.” She recalled being a single mother of three boys who qualified for the grant, saying, “I want to show my sons what it’s like to own a home, and I want to show them that we’re collecting generational wealth and that it’s important to have a piece of our city.”
Turner, who works in the mortgage industry, knows that her professional background helped her understand the benefits of homeownership. She encourages everyone to “do it while you can.” She believes homeownership means more stability than renting, even if it feels like a big risk.
“Sometimes you have to step out in faith,” she told USA TODAY.
