Foreclosure filings jumped 455 percent across Maryland in 2007, according to data released Tuesday, which paints a yearlong picture of the havoc wreaked by a failing subprime mortgage market.
The state ranked 17th in the nation with 25,109 default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions last year, accounting for 18,879 separate properties, or 0.83 percent of all Maryland households, according to online foreclosure research firm RealtyTrac.
During the fourth quarter, 9,735 filings represented an 870 percent spike from the same quarter in 2006. RealtyTrac reported 3,079 filings, down 1.6 percent from the previous month but up 1,478 percent from the December 2006.
“It doesn?t surprise me that the problem is getting a little worse,” said Sally Scott, co-chair of the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition, who said many subprime borrowers wound up with mortgages they were never able to make payments on. She attributed that to both predatory lending on the part of mortgage brokers and some cases of a borrower not understanding what they were getting into.
“It?s speeding up the process,” she said. “It used to take three or four years for someone to get into that situation. Now it can take just six months.”
Prince George?s County led Maryland with 6,983 filings last year, up 348 percent from 2006. In the Baltimore metro area, Baltimore City saw the most filings with 3,349, an increase of 793 percent from 2006.
The foreclosures are coming not just in Baltimore City but in suburban counties as well, said David McIlvaine Sr., Realtor with Keller Williams Select Realtors in Ellicott City specializing in foreclosure sales.
McIlvaine Sr. said he is busier now than in the last few years as foreclosures have grown but said many of the properties referred to him date back as far as the beginning of the housing crisis early last summer.
“From the moment they foreclose to when the bank evicts, that could be as long as a year. Are we bottoming out? It?s hard to tell because there?s such a lag time. I would think by midyear, we should have a pretty good feel what?s happening,” McIlvaine Sr. said.
