More property owners in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Montgomery counties faced foreclosure last month while those inside the Beltway — in the District, Arlington County, Alexandria City and even hard-hit Prince George’s County — saw fewer foreclosures.
The mortgage crisis is still “working its way through the system,” said Dennis Melby, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. and president of the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors.
Prince William County, which has the highest foreclosure rate in Virginia, and Loudoun County, which has the second-highest rate, experienced double-digit foreclosure increases.
In Prince William, foreclosure filings spiked from 1,147 in February to 1,497 in March, a 30.5 percent increase. Filings jumped 28.2 percent in Loudoun County, from 393 to 504 filings, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, a Web-based foreclosure listing company that releases monthly foreclosure data. Foreclosures in Fairfax County inched up 3.7 percent, from 1,074 filings to 1,114 filings in March.
However, Prince George’s County — which is ranked first in Maryland for its foreclosure rate and had more than 25 percent of all the foreclosures in the state — actually saw a 14.8 percentdrop from 1,324 filings in February to 1,128 in March.
This fluctuation is normal, said Melby. Foreclosures “bring the market down a little,” increase the inventory, decrease the prices and could eventually entice buyers into the market to clear out some of the foreclosed properties.
Homeowners in Montgomery County, which had an 18.7 percent increase in foreclosures from 540 in February to 641 properties in March, faced this price drop, noted Melby.
The median house price declined from $415,000 in February to $402,500 in March, according to numbers from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
Those closest to D.C. fared better. Alexandria City and Arlington County, which each had under 100 foreclosure filings, reported decreases of 6.3 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. In the District, foreclosures dropped 8.7 percent from 340 filings in February to 307 in March.
Higher energy prices have made locations offering shorter commutes “much more attractive,” said
Melby.
