America’s housing affordability crisis is leading more home buyers and flippers to give abandoned and dilapidated homes in Baltimore a fresh look

BALTIMORE—With its boarded-up windows and peeling facade, the vacant building didn’t seem like the kind of house that would prompt a bidding war.

But after competitors doubled what he had wanted to pay, Chris Waldron, a plumber and part-time property investor, reluctantly raised his auction card to offer $45,000 for the chance to fix up and then resell the property. His winning bid, a bargain next to housing prices elsewhere, was steep compared with what Baltimore’s vacant homes used to command.