Montgomery County officials announced agreements with the state Tuesday to fund programs to help residents fight foreclosure while the number of foreclosure sales in Montgomery had increased 1,250 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to first-quarter 2008.
Raymond Skinner, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development, said Tuesday that the state and county both contributed $100,000 for homeowner counseling services, plus $200,000 each for zero percent loans of up to $15,000 for families facing foreclosure that need time to refinance, and $2.5 million each to guarantee against some losses for local banks that refinance loans for people facing foreclosure.
“This is a call to action,” Skinner said, adding that Montgomery leaders were the first to partner with the state to help fight foreclosures. “People need to take the first step and ask for help, but we’re happy to work with Montgomery County to support sustainable homeownership.”
County Executive Ike Leggett said, “The numbers speak for themselves about why we’re doing this.”
County officials released data showing Montgomery foreclosure sales increased 1,250 percent, from 68 to 918, from the first quarter of 2007 to first-quarter 2008. Meanwhile, there were 611 notices of mortgage default issued in Montgomery during the first quarter of 2008, up 493 percent from the 103 notices issued in the first quarter of 2007.
Manny Hidalgo, executive director of the Latino Economic Development Corp., said mortgage brokers are going after people with Hispanic surnames.
“There’s a lot of the easy-prey philosophy out there,” Hidalgo said, adding thatthe jargon used by mortgage brokers is intimidating and confusing even for people whose first language is English.
State officials say they are in talks about similar agreements with Prince George’s leaders, because their county leads the state in foreclosures, and hope to initiate discussions with Baltimore County and Baltimore City officials.
