One thing I should add is that Laurel is served by the MARC Camden Line— which is in every way inferior to the roughly parallel MARC Penn Line. The Camden Line is slower, runs less often, and has fewer connections; it does not go to BWI and the only Amtrak connection is at the end of the line, Washington Union Station. Silver Spring is on the Brunswick Line, with comparable connection opportunities.

As far as the real estate market, well, the flip side of a slowing market is that gentrification is also going to slow, and with the recent spike in crime, the risk of speculating in a marginal area is much higher.