Buying the median home in Baltimore means financing $310,000. Against the area's $58,000 median household income, that works out to a 5.3x price-to-income ratio.
At a 1.22% effective rate, Baltimore property taxes add $315 to the monthly payment on the median home, $3,782 a year in total.
Maryland levies a state income tax on top of the $2,052/month this mortgage runs. Model your real after-tax take-home before deciding how much payment you can carry.
Baltimore's cost of living index is 108, above the 100 national baseline. That's on top of the housing numbers above, not instead of them.
Baltimore's median home price runs 54% lower than nearby Rockville: $680,000 there versus $310,000 here.