Full-bladdered Baltimoreans, consider this your first warning:  Canton is watching, and if you pee on their walls, or in their alleys, or on their cars (!!), you may well be called out for it on the Internet.
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Featured Hot Listing:   2515 Boston St. #P8  Canton, MD 21224

OPEN HOUSE  SUNDAY  2/10  12:30-2:30

Hot House: 3222 Foster Avenue, Baltimore, 21224

Custom designed modern house, stucco and brick, built in 2006. Four bedrooms, three and a half baths with separate garage and carriage house. 5,200 square feet total, with multiple decks, views, outdoor courtyard, fireplaces, glass catwalk, elevator shaft: $1,299,999 Read More →

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Michael Phelps has moved into a $1.1 million, 6,000+ square foot Canton loft  on Curley Street. Could it be the same $1.1 million, 6,000+ square foot Canton loft  on Curley Street that Cynthia McIntyre wrote about for Hot House last January?

Read – Hot House: Trophy Loft in Canton 

It’s only fitting that our Michael should live in a trophy house, no?

Patrick Michael McCusker, the owner of  two popular Canton eateries, Nacho Mama’s and Mama’s On the Halfshell, was killed last night when his bike collided with a bus in Ocean City.

From the Ocean City Police Dept. website:

On August 24, 2012, at approximately 8:38 p.m. Ocean City Police and Paramedics responded to the north bound lanes of 132^nd Street and Coastal Highway, in reference to vehicle collision involving an Ocean City Municipal bus and a bicycle.

Emergency personnel arrived at the scene and determined that a bicycle being operated by an adult male impacted a city bus that was travelling in the north bound bus lane, in the area of 132^th Street and Coastal Highway.

The operator of the bicycle was seriously injured and treated at the scene by OC EMS.  The cyclist was taken by ambulance to Atlantic General Hospital and then transferred to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where he later died.  The deceased has been identified as: Patrick Michael McCusker, 49, of Cockeysville, Maryland.

Ocean City Police are investigating this fatal collision.  The identity of the municipal bus driver involved in this collision is not being released at this time.

Anyone with any information regarding this incident is asked to contact the OCPD, SGT R. Townsend at: 410-520-5357.

SOLD! This classic Roland Park house sold quickly, but under the asking price.

Looking back over a year of Hot House columns, searching for some rhyme or reason to the local real estate market, the Baltimore Fishbowl ran a quick check to see which dream houses have sold and which ones are still hanging around.

What’s moving — sleek condos or charming cottages? Old estates or giant McMansions? There are any number of ideas on what makes a house sell in this down economy, but the prevailing market-think is best summed up by Noah Mumaw, of Prudential Homesale, YWGC Realty, “This is the most price-sensitive market that I have ever seen.  Homes that are priced properly are flying off the market.”

 Of course, one man’s “priced properly” is another man’s “practically giving it away.” What is undeniable is that the average home sale price has dropped about 30 percent in the past five years, and yesterday’s $500,000 house is worth only $350,000 in today’s money.

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Remember back in January when we said that the founders of Baltimore’s Millennial Media, Chris Brandenburg and Paul Palmieri, would become Baltimore’s next Kevin Planks? (See our post  IPO to Make Instant Millionaires Out of Millennial Media Founders.) Well, it has happened.  The company’s initial public offering was yesterday and shares in the company started at $13 and doubled by the end of the day.  Both co-founders are now worth, on paper, over $100 million.  Not bad for a couple of tech geeks from Baltimore and Harford counties.  Just kidding guys; we’re just jealous.

Millennial Media is an advertising network for mobile devices.  It is the third largest mobile ad network in the U.S. with offices in London, New York, Singapore, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta.  Company headquarters are on Boston Street in Canton.

Read more about the IPO at TechCrunch.

Are you in market for a new home? Are you thinking of selling your house and need some price comparisons? Are you a house obsessed lookey-loo? Well, grab a Starbucks and power up the GPS. We have your Sunday afternoon covered with our picks of the best open houses this week.

3415 Woodberry Avenue, Baltimore MD 21211

$529,000

3br/3.5 ba

Hip builder’s model contemporary at “Clipper Mill.” Look past the uninspired decor to see its industrial chic potential. Surroundings include fab community pool, artists’ studios and Woodberry Kitchen. Visualize walking to lively Saturday brunches with yoga toned artsy friends.

911 South Decker Avenue

$ 249,000

2 br/1.5 ba

Everything about this Canton townhouse says “OMG! it’s sooo cute.”  Therefore, if you are a twenty-something single girl who can swing the mortgage, this one might be for you. Alternatively, if you’re looking for an investment property to rent out, this one is guaranteed to attract plenty of twenty-something single girls. Visualize: Walking home form the St. Patrick’s day festivities in Canton without fear of a DUI or depositing a rent check.

12 Saint Martins Road

$955,000

4br/2.5 ba

This Guilford home strikes an undeniably pretty curb-side view. Sure, the interior decor is wacky but that is exactly why it is worth a visit, to see how much work is needed to get down to the original bones. The good news is that it all looks to be scrupulously maintained so the home’s systems are bound to be in good shape. Visualize: pruning roses in that fairytale-like walled garden in the back.

HOT HOUSE: 1023 South Curley Street, Baltimore 21224

An 1880 Federal style townhouse, recently resurrected as a glamorous, industrial style loft space.  6,800 total square feet  (including 2,800 square feet of unfinished garage). Three bedrooms, two and a half baths, with hot tub, roof deck and open fireplace on three levels: $1,100,000.

What: Behind the polished, brick façade of an old Canton townhouse, lies this huge, ultra-hip loft — completely and beautifully finished, with custom designed staircase, flooring, lighting and furniture.  Offered for sale by Drew McQuaid, for whom it was “a batch pad,” this property appeared last August in the Wall Street Journal’s “House of the Day.”  Downstairs at street level is the unfinished garage, which looks like it could hold three cars and then some.   Upstairs is a sleek, confident lair — masculine in feeling, but warm and refined in taste. High-end everything. Steel and concrete furniture, which is more comfortable than it sounds, sets the tone for a cool, laid-back aesthetic. The top floor contains the bedrooms, including a large master bed and groovy bath, as well as the sliding doors that lead to the roof deck and hot tub. Views are nice, especially at night.  Heating is natural gas and solar.

Where: South Curley Street is a quiet side street just off pleasantly bustling O’Donnell Square in Canton. Number 1023 is six blocks south of Patterson Park and three blocks north of the waterfront. It’s a great location — just a dash over to the bank, dry cleaners and a wide range of bars, from the Claddagh to the Elvis Lounge and Looney’s. St. Casimir is your local parish.

Why:  1.  It’s a house  that can easily accommodate your “big” furniture. 2. An historic tax credit makes your taxes a shockingly low $3,775 a year — at least for the next five years (as of 2011).  3. There are just not many properties this stylish in Baltimore.

Why Not: 1. You are intimidated by 20’ ceilings. 2. In a million years, you would never use a  hot tub on a roof.

Would Suit: Daniel Craig.

NB:  You are not really on, or even very near, the water here, which for some people is the appeal of the neighborhood.