BALTIMORE (Map, News) - D.C. workers are leaving hefty mortgages for affordable Baltimore housing, mainly because of the MARC.

Maryland Transit Authority officials estimate 85 to 90 percent of MARC riders who board at Penn and Camden stations depart in D.C.

For $198,000, Aaron Weitzman, a researcher for a Washington company, bought, stripped and rebuilt a 120-year-old town house in Federal Hill.

As a former Montgomery County resident, Weitzman is familiar with exorbitant housing costs. The 37-year-old knows in D.C. he “would have to pay $400,000 to $500,000 for the home” he owns now.

In the first nine months of 2005, the average sale price for a home in Washington, D.C., was $517,743, based on Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data.

In Baltimore, the average sale price was $154,064.

Weitzman now starts each workday on the MARC platform waiting for the sun to rise and the 7:20 a.m. train to chug into the Camden Station.

Technical writer Michelle Duflo chooses to travel more than an hour to work in order to live in Baltimore because in her opinion, affordable housing is not an option in D.C.

“The housing prices in the capital are ridiculous — I found a place cheaper in New York City.”

A few seats down from Duflo is commuter-veteran Michael Naturas. The 54-year-old Homeland Security employee has been riding the rails to Washington for 20 years.

Although Naturas feels he’s been commuting “for too long,” he won’t become a D.C. resident any time soon.

“It’s just more pleasant in Baltimore — people are friendlier and there’s a stronger sense of community. Everyone is neighborly.”

In the late 1990s, Baltimore’s 225 neighborhoods were hemorrhaging population, said Tracey Gosson, executive director of Live Baltimore, a nonprofit organization that promotes the benefits of Charm City-living.

“Baltimore was losing 1,000 people per month, until we began to focus and promote all of the neighborhoods, not just the Inner Harbor,” Gosson said.

“In Baltimore, you can get a higher quality of life that leaves you with money left over to live the rest of your life,” she added.

jnovak@baltimoreexaminer.com