Foreclosure filings jump in Md. suburbs

Foreclosure filings doubled in Montgomery County in July and jumped 60 percent in Prince George’s from last year, according to data released Thursday.

Maryland as a whole ranked 11th in the country for foreclosures with one filing out of every 450 homes in July, according to data from the online foreclosure-tracking company RealtyTrac. The number of filings jumped to 5,152 statewide, a 66 percent increase from last year.

Nationwide, there were 360,149 foreclosures in July, about a 30 percent increase from last year. One in every 355 homes had a foreclosure filing last month.

“Despite continued efforts by the federal government and state governments to patch together a safety net for distressed homeowners, we’re seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank repossessions,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

In Virginia, Prince William County ranked third in the state in July, with one filing in every 128 homes. More than 1,000 foreclosures were filed, a 17 percent drop from the more than 1,200 in July 2008.

“The D.C. area has pretty consistently been above the national average for the past year, year and a half,” RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist said. “In some other areas, we’ve seen foreclosure numbers flatten out.”

He added, though, that it’s too early to tell whether areas with fewer filings, such as Prince William, have turned a corner. Government intervention at both the federal and local levels has created “pent-up” foreclosure inventory, and “a lot of those foreclosures that have been delayed [are] coming online and affecting the process,” he said.

Though problems associated with subprime loans hit last year, Alt-A loans, which are given to homebuyers with credit slightly less than prime, are still creating problems, Blomquist said.

He added there was “definitely evidence that unemployment” was contributing to continuing foreclosure problems. There is about a two-month lag between someone losing his job and entering into foreclosure, so it is difficult to break down the causes specifically, he added.

The national jobless rate spiked to 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high, before dipping to 9.4 percent in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Blomquist also said there was a “cloud looming” of another wave of foreclosures, mostly due to adjustable-rate mortgages.

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