A plunging housing market and skyrocketing energy rates were among the top stories of 2007, a year that saw Baltimore spared from turbulence in the national real estate market, one major sale consummated, and another fall apart.
1. Housing crisis: Baltimore prices stable, sales down. Driven by a failing subprime mortgage market, the housing market cooled off nationwide after years of growth. In the Baltimore area, sales were down 30 percent during the last three months of 2007, while home prices remained mostly stable.
2. Subprime mortgage market woes. A moderate decrease nationwide in housing prices became a major crisis as many with subprime mortgages found themselves unable to refinance, with many sliding into foreclosure by this fall. A study released in December by the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition found one in five Baltimore City subprime mortgage borrowers were delinquent on their payments.
3. BGE rates increase 50 percent. After a deregulation of the state?s energy industry, Baltimore Gas & Electric and parent company Constellation Energy Group moved to increase electric rates, eventually wrangling a 50 percent increase in June amid an outcry from customers and politicians.
4. Mercantile bought out by PNC. One of Maryland?s premier banks passed into history after Mercantile was acquired by PNC Bank of Pittsburgh in a $6 billion deal announced in March. Mercantile branches changed over in mid-September, though PNC plans to preserve its legacy with history exhibits at several major branch locations.
5. Sparrows Point sale falls apart. A $1.35 billion deal would have put the Sparrows Point steel mill in the hands of a group led by Illinois-based Esmark after the U.S. Department of Justice ordered owners ArcelorMittal to divest the plant. But Esmark?s international partners backed out, steel union officials said, and the deal crumbled inearly December. The plant will put back out to bid in coming months.
