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16 Percent Decline in Maryland Foreclosure: Surge Expected Soon

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Surge Expected Soon

The rate of foreclosures in the real estate of Maryland have dropped by nearly 16 percent during the three month duration that came to an end in September in comparison to what it was in the second quarter. However, according to some officials of the state, this decline in the rate of foreclosure is something temporary. They have said that it is going to surge with job losses that is going to result into a weak economy. In comparison to the rate of foreclosure a year back, it is still 14 percent up in Maryland. The reason behind the decline in the rate of foreclosure from the second quarter to the third quarter, as said by the state officials, is due to the state-sponsored programs.

During the second quarter, the total number of foreclosures in Maryland was 9,453. It declined to 7,974 in July-September. Raymond A. Skinner, Maryland Housing Secretary has said, "There are so many issues out there in the national economy that will impact us. While we have made progress, there is still a lot of work to do." The unemployment rate that was 5 percent went 12-year high in the month of October and this is hoped to go up further. With stricter mortgage rates, the homeowners are going to face a big problem. There has been a filing of about 40,000 notices by the lenders since the month of April according to Mark Kaufman, deputy commissioner of financial regulation for the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Maryland ACORN organizer Joe Cox said that the new law has definitely brought down the rate of foreclosure. However, this is probably going to be short lived. A large number of homeowners are seeking for foreclosure help. Until a loan modification is done, the situation will continue to become worse. According to some real estate data, the largest share of state foreclosure were found in Prince George’s County with a foreclosure rate of 35 percent, Montgomery County with over 14 percent, and Baltimore with 11 percent.

Maryland is the 20th rank holder in its number of foreclosures during the third quarter. This is an improvement from its 12th rank that was seen in the beginning of this year. Among the five-state region that also takes into account Washington, D.C., Maryland holds the third highest position after Virginia and Pennsylvania during the third quarter. Only a few residents of Maryland have been able to get the state loan programs as several do not qualify for it because of bad credit and lack of equity.

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High Foreclosure Rates In April

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

California had the highest number of properties facing foreclosures with 64,683 foreclosed homes and the number being on rise as well. The rate of increase had occurred by 112% from April 2007. However, the number of properties facing foreclosure, have a declining rate which has been less than 1% in fact! The state had also posted records that its foreclosure rates have been the second highest in the country. There are at least one foreclosed household out of every 204 currently while at least one out of every 66 household gets a notice.

The metro areas of California have reported to have had a foreclosure rising by the rate of 6 houses out of every 10 have been involved with foreclosure related crisis. The state of Arizona experienced the third highest foreclosure rate on toe, having one out of every 224 households experiencing it. A whopping number of 11,620 homes have been reported to have experienced at least one filing. This is a rise of 181% compared to what it was last year. While compared to last month, this has been a reported 26% high.

Quite akin to LA and inland areas of California, certain areas in Arizona, received a sharp and cutting run-up in speculation-driven home rates. New homes have come up during the housing boom too. Florida on the other hand has reported to have had 35,264 homes with a minimum of one foreclosure filling during the last month. This is again a jump for the state and it is about a 17% hike as compared to March but a massive rise of 146% as compared to last year. This change into a foreclosure rate of one out of every 242 households had made it the fourth highest nation having received foreclosures.

In Florida in fact, the foreclosures are rather alarmingly back onto going higher. Within the span of a month, the numbers are violently on an up-swing. But, certain good news include that the Sunshine State has been lately passed on by Arizona with their new rates of billowing foreclosures placing them well ahead of Florida. So, a fresh report states an overall lower rate of foreclosures in Florida.

The states to have made into the top ten foreclosure places in the US currently are Maryland, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Massachusetts. Nationally foreclosures have just gone up by 4% in the total rating as compared to last month and 65% since April 2007. This has had its effect over 243,000 real estate properties. This has also been the highest number of recorded foreclosure rating since January 2005.

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Foreclosures Keep Soaring Nationwide With California In The Lead

Friday, May 30th, 2008

California is in the leads currently with its foreclosure rates soaring way higher than the rest. One out of every 204 households in California now is in some way or the other related to foreclosure. According to a report from RealtyTrac, the rate is just half the total that it used to be in March. Amazingly, there has been an increase by 112% during the last one year. This Irvine-based foreclosure tracker has in fact set all the necessary statistics to keep the foreclosure hike in check.

Followed by California, we have Florida closely on a massive hike with a rapid rise in its number of foreclosures. Foreclosure in Sarasota County, Florida, is up again by 20% since March with about 1,286 filings. The rise has been reported to have been higher by 59% as compared to the first three months of the year. The foreclosure count in Manatee County has been up by 66% to 868 fillings now. Its current rate also states it to be on the rise by 104% since the start of the year.

California has however ruled the foreclosure number game with a huge bulk of its real estate lying foreclosed, and 64,683 properties on the stage of being foreclosed. The danger is great, and has already led to a mass scale economic slump in the state.

States like Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan has followed suit. Nevada has in fact had an alarming number of one out of every 146 households receiving a filing.

In a more local stage, there has been some fresh news too! Sacramento fell out of the top 10 cities exposed to foreclosures. Instead, it has gone down to no.12 in April. It was in the 5th position till March 2008 until it fell to the twelfth spot in April. On a national level, the rate of filings has wildly increased by about 65%, still on the rise. As foreclosure filings increased in comparison to last year, about 243,353 properties have been claimed to be on the brink of further experiencing foreclosures! Foreclosure filings now stand at a rate of one out of every 519 homes nationwide.

While California had been seeing a tough time, Missouri had the 20th highest foreclosure rate this April. In Missouri, there had been one out of every 860 houses receiving a foreclosure notice or a foreclosure filing as it is. Overall, Missouri had around 3,051 foreclosures in the last whole month.

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Frederick Foreclosure Crisis Continues - II

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

The sub-prime loan rates that have prevailed with most of the homes loaned in Frederick County are all essentially adjustable rate loans. One of the ways this loan has garnered customers is to help buyers who are able to make lower credit payments or have poor credit payment histories, to get them to obtain their finances, enabling them to buy their homes. As reported by Edward Prescott of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, research economics department, the subprime products seem to have edging, though slight differences. However, all of these transactions seem to be having similar elements with some credit rates impaired. Low credit scores, high income-to-debt ratio, and a dearth of credit history as well as low documentation are such examples.

This risk laden lending process born during a time of booming real estate prices has in fact led to a big time crash in prices when these loans kept ending in foreclosure with people already in a tight fix for money. Ultimately, people found themselves unable to afford these mortgage rates of monthly payments as interest rates continued to spiral north.

The entire Frederick County may not have quite hit bottom so far. An appraiser with Six and Associates, Wayne Six, has commented that there is in fact much more to come in terms of foreclosure rise in the County. In an atypical way, the Frederick County had a balanced foreclosure market when almost 1,100 to about 1,200 homes went for sale, all at one shot. By April 21st, about 2,023 homes were being reported to be available for sale. From mid-Jan this year, the inventory had grown when the homes meant for sale hit 1,850. However, the number of people who were expected to reach up to make the purchases were dwindling rapidly too!

Though more people are buying, for instance, 40-45 sales occurring per week, compared to instances 20 to 30 years ago, about 60 or so homes are still being put up on the sales front each week. Six has said that it is quite like the situation with the fish on the hook which is biting the line only a little bit, but not really making it possible to reel the fish in, as would have been expected! This analogy in fact sums up the cagey and cautious steps taken by buyers in their natural preservations in the foreclosure situation all across the County.

Home prices experiencing the hardest hits compared to previous years, have in fact risen out of the ashes, according to the market research led by Andy Bauer, who is a regional economist and analyst for Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

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Frederick Foreclosures Continue Unabated - I

Monday, May 26th, 2008

The year 2006 witnessed about 455 foreclosures being filed in Frederick County Circuit Court. The number has however reached twice that of what it was in the current year. April has seen that the number has already reached 485 and financial experts predict a much higher rise in the months to come. At this rate, foreclosure numbers are going to double very soon!

The foreclosures this year have in fact included a $219,000 townhouse in Hillcrest Orchards and $650,000 in single-family homes all across the quarter-acre lots in Villages of Urbana. The foreclosure problem, it seems, has come to affect people all across the nation in all layers of economic growth. The entire spectrum of housing work from construction workers to white collar employees, all seem to have been suffering the tolling affect of foreclosures.

The situation has also brought about loss of jobs and predatory lending work. According to Joe Baldi, a former mortgage agent and also an alderman of Frederick, there are just too many causes for the high rate of foreclosures, but the solutions are really not being paid attention to by the government. Joe now works as a housing counselor within the Frederick Community Action Agency. As an effect of the high rise in foreclosures, many people are being caught within a triple whammy by not being able to pay their mortgage in time, not being able to sell even parts of their property, and also with the passage of time, their homes are becoming worth less than the original price it was purchased at. In certain parts of the County, the high-interest loans have made up for over one-third of the initial mortgages on single family homes, all of which were issued in 2006. This report has been prepared by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data.

The high interest rate loans are defined as those having an annual percentage rate of 3% or higher than the rate on Treasury bonds of such comparable maturity rates. Areas having the greatest concentric circles of those loans are those that have both sides of the Golden Mile in the City of Frederick and also the western part of U.S.

These areas have been predicted to reach the highest number of foreclosures in 2008. Some of these types of adjustable rate loans arrive with a two to three year period rates reset. People with these loan rates are just starting to come up with their kinds of readjustments. In some of these cases the mortgage rates have really been like a rip off to the loaners pushing them to near breaking points.

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Foreclosure Pains Creating New Problems For House Owners

Monday, May 19th, 2008

The huge housing slump has created a new breed of accidental renting. People who have undergone the painful experience of foreclosure are finding themselves navigating into territories where real estate prices are tight, and securing a rental market after the blows of losing their own homes is not easy at all.

Over hundreds of thousands of former homeowners have been waiting to plunge upon the opportunity to take a place on cheap rent. The rental properties too have shot up in short supply in most of the housing markets. As prices have gone higher, the land lords are now seeking the possibility of giving credit to people who really need a place to stay in right after going through a foreclosure.

Ray and Trish Vanags have recently undergone foreclosure with their last home, and have found themselves in knee-deep trouble with further indignities supplanted by renters. The couple had lost their three-bedroom townhouse over to a Frederick housing clean-up. This was their first venture in trying to buy a property. However, having had to deal with the mortgage bills jumping up to $3,300 from $990, it was impossible for them to keep up with it all. Since they could no longer afford to make these payments foreclosure drew them in, causing the loss of their only home in December. They had bought the house in 2005, and their house got auctioned off the last month of the previous year.

The young couple (both in their 30s), and their 3-year old son had moved into a rented townhouse in Gaithersburg right after facing the dwindling and harsh blow of foreclosure. Almost immediately after that, they kept facing problems in the new house. Ranging from a wobbling deck to dead electricity outlets and missing smoke detectors, it was no place for keeping a kid safely. There were enough issues with bad plumbing too. With the aid of the town’s health department, they simply moved out but haven’t been able to recover their $2,300 security deposit. They have now ended up in a 1960s split level in Rockville. Ray Vanags managed to accrue it by making a business deal by paying $2,250 per month.

Ray is a sales manager at an information technology company, and is suffering from depression and shock, having been faced with the loss of his dream home for which he had saved for years. In fact, with people like Ray, the situation gets even harsher when they have to face a landlord who likes to take advantage of a family that has just been subjected to foreclosure.

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Assembly Helps To Steady Foreclosures In Maryland

Friday, April 18th, 2008

At Maryland, many homeowners are now being faced with the scourge of foreclosures that are spreading like a plague across the nation. The legislation has now aimed at helping them to rise above the tide of the overpowering foreclosure rates. A House Committee has been set for full-fledged action to take place. This has been one of the set priorities in O’Malley’s administration.

One of the administrative bills as approved of the Environmental Matters Committee, as mentioned before the time of the foreclosures to take place, took from 15 days to about four months to get activated. Another of those resourceful measures that were beginning to be adopted in combating mortgage fraudulence took months to be activated. But finally, the charges for forgery and any sort of crime involved with foreclosures can land a person in jail for up to 10 years’ of imprisonment, or a fine of $5,000, or both.

The legislation enjoys a broad-spectrum support system from some Republican law makers, who have objected to the mindless provisions that allow fraudulent practices in mortgage bills. This would allow particular victims of a suspect practice to sue their lawyers without adequate reason, and can even allow them to do punitive acts of various kinds.

A third administrative bill again, passed at cracking down the accelerating rate of foreclosures, as approved by the panel earlier, is expected to be active soon by the full House. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee got out a similar sort of bills by Friday having cleared the way for the actions to take place in the Senate.

Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, a Democrat from Baltimore, is also the chairperson of the House panel. She has stated that the bills need extra protection in the form of greater benefit of Maryland’s homeowners so that they can cope with the avoidance of foreclosures in future.

As foreclosures have needlessly skyrocketed across the entire county as soon as the housing market slumped, many a homeowner failed to meet their requisite payments. They have been falling back on monthly payments as interest rates have gone up further and further more. The interest rate set up for mortgages that carry adjustable-rates have also increased as well.

Some of the homeowners in trouble had taken out their “sub-prime” loans even though they have just been pushed to take on greater credit risks with higher-risk borrowers having even lower income rates and lowly credit histories.

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New bill Help Combat Foreclosure In Maryland

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Mortgage fraud bills that serve to fight against impeding foreclosures and real estate properties lying foreclosed and rough handled, have been able to extract many of these properties from sliding into oblivion. According to the legislative authorities and analysts who deal with real estate issues, this bill alone has brought about many refreshing changes. The bill makes it tough for lenders to make sweeping and complicated property related schemes. This also does not allow for loaning schemes to come over easy and when matters get quite out of hand there remain severe possibilities of pursuing them with strong legal procedures. Under conditions of theft and trespassing of property, laws there remain a widespread choice of actions to be taken under the newly proposed bill. This resurrection in property law looks forward to an optimistic resuscitation of the situation in Maryland.

Del. Anthony J. O’Donnell, the cardinal figure in the minority from Southern Maryland has said that he has been pondering over mortgage fraud cases and that this bill would make things easier for mishandled real estate laws. According to him, the current bill would make both lenders and brokers “black hats du jour”.

A provision passed also allowed for plaintiffs to collect quite the amount that was treble the damages incurred. Even plaintiffs who managed to incur a paltry sum had been a happier sight for real estate and foreclosure related news than it had been in the past. The damages included the opening of a whole coterie of real estate lawyers meant for this cause at the face of the expense of an industry that could ill afford to do so at that time. Nevertheless, coming to think of it, there were no other options either! Whatever damage control the plaintiffs had been able to accumulate, were more in regards to the wilful violations of real estate related laws. This was done more so to secure the laws that were meant to protect the homeowners who were on the verge of accruing foreclosure of their properties.

Del. Doyle L. Niemann, a Democrat at the Prince George’s County, has also stressed for an upcoming happier state as a direct action to this bill. Specializing in white-collar crimes, Niemann states that this new bill holds good promise for the future and also for current investigations to take place in regards to property related crimes already committed. However, he also says that no resolute solution is expected to arise all at once, as few prosecutors would be able to have the requisite staff to carry on with a complicated investigation. Therefore, the greater consumer needs a support base that would allow them to sue against civil damages caused. This way a positive and healthier response to the bill can be achieved, making the situation at Maryland foreclosures a more stable and less threatening an issue.

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Maryland Foreclosures Shoot Up

Friday, April 11th, 2008

The rates for foreclosures in Maryland have gone on a national level high and the number has gone up with a record of 150% in the past one year itself. By the end of the year, over 13,000 homeowners have faced the loss of their real estate properties, as stated by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Some borrowers have come to be in trouble because of the risky situation they have led themselves to be in. Others are facing foreclosures completely due to faults of their own. According to Maggie L. McIntosh, a Democrat from Baltimore, who is also the chairperson of the House panel, helping lenders would mean that the foreclosure bills would come down and enable state-level banking to take place in an orderly fashion. She visualizes that on such levels the commissions that would be used to track and expose to the disordered mob of loaners would be helpful enough to keep situations under control. The plan also includes the involvement of the ground level banking sector in predatory lending.

Maryland’s foreclosure story records some of the quickest happenings in the nation that only seems to e slowing down with the passion of the recent-most, most effective real estate bill. The new proceedings could not begin with gusto until a 90-days’ haul and until a loan went into default. The bill recommended by the task force of O’Malley formed a year to take into process. After the bill was passed a new regimen for allowing lenders to take help, came into action. Lenders were in fact required to give delinquent loaners a 45 days of advance warning of the impending foreclosure. This was to provide borrowers with the adequate forerunning information regarding the buying and selling of properties. This small step in fact has been looked forward with immense potentiality about helping homeowners from losing their real estate properties.

The president of Maryland Bankers’ Association, Kathleen Murphy, has offered that the foreclosure bill comes with the codified price for responsible lenders, offering them with the best they can do about their situation.

Lenders have been welcomed to handle over the requisites of offering their loaners with more advanced warnings forestalling their perilous position in regards to the ownership of their real estates and property related issues. Murphy also draws our attention to the fact that borrowers, who really fall behind in making their payments, will never be able to get in touch with their lenders and so the lenders have to make all the efforts in communication. In fact about 80% of time, a good communicative approach saves an immediate foreclosure.

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New Legislation To Control Foreclosure Crisis In Maryland

Monday, March 31st, 2008

To combat the ever increasing problem of foreclosure in Maryland, the state lawmakers are embarking on a very ambitious legislation which will manage the real estate crisis by intensifying the process of mortgage lending and homeowner protections. A number of bills have made advancements in the General Assembly and all these together can bring an end to the loans and corrupt practices which are responsible for bringing about the foreclosure crisis.

Most of the bills were proposed by Martin O’Malley, the Governor and they gained considerable support in the legislature that was mainly controlled by the Democrats. The measures taken would subject fraud cases to criminal prosecution. Penalties for pre-payment would also not be allowed. It would not be possible anymore to hoodwink the home-owners into handing over their properties to third-parties. If the laws are passed then the people of Maryland will be protected from losing their properties, said the secretary of labor, regulation and licensing, Thomas E. Perez. According to him, the entire situation should be viewed properly so as to understand what practices led to the current circumstances.

The crippling effects that fine prints have lead to foreclosure, and the bills are trying to do away with those ill elements present in fine prints. The volume of foreclosure has been rising at an alarming pace and during the last month itself, Maryland witnessed around 4,000 foreclosures. This shows an increase which has been ninefold since the February 2007, according to the records of Realty Trac which is a site for foreclosure information. So far, the state hardest hit is Prince George’s County, which accounts for one third of all foreclosure actions.

The legislators from Prince George’s County and some other areas have shown urgent efforts to make sure that these foreclosure bills are passed properly. According to O’Malley, the real estate crisis faced last month was a dangerous threat to the growth and strength of the middle class. William A. Castelli, vice president, The Maryland association of Realtors, said that the legislation was bound to have positive results.

Lawmakers realize that the legislation does have certain limitations. There are people who bought homes which were beyond their affordability, deliberately. These people cannot be helped in any way. Steven Silverman, the chief of consumer production division of the office of the attorney general, declared that the bills could to a large extent prevent the foreclosure crisis from spreading any further.

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