With the nation undergoing a surge in high-interest loans for people with a history of bad credit, analysts should have seen what was coming next: foreclosures. For March, there were nearly 149,150 foreclosure filings nationally, up 7 percent from February, RealtyTrac, a nationally recognized foreclosure Web site, said in its monthly report. Maryland had 965 foreclosures in March. “The difference between now and the past is all of the subprime mortgages,” said Deborah Ford, director of the undergraduate real estate program at the University of Baltimore. “Also, a lot of these adjustable-rate mortgages are resetting, meaning rates are continuing to go up. We have not had that in the past.”
In Maryland this March, there was one foreclosure for every 2,220 households, substantially better than the nationwide figure of one for every 775 households — but it’s not all good news. Maryland saw a 160 percent jump in foreclosures for the month, compared to the national average of about 7 percent. Put up against last year’s numbers, foreclosures are up 327 percent in state.
Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics also indicate that people are spending more money on property. In March, real estate in the Baltimore region was selling for an average of nearly $306,588, an increase of about 4 percent from 2006. With this jump in cost, along with a 12.39 percent fourth-quarter increase in subprime mortgages reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, residents can expect to see the number of foreclosures going up.
“I think it’s going to keep rising this year,” Ford said. “The rest of the nation is going up, too.”
(www.examiner.com)
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