Middle-class homebuyers flocked to the county in the early part of this decade as prices in other Washington-area suburbs surged. Now, scores of families face the threat of foreclosure, throwing one of the nation's wealthiest majority-black suburbs into what state and local officials who gathered here yesterday called an emergency.

Prince George's had twice as many home foreclosures in the first nine months of 2007 as any other Maryland locality, according to data compiled by the firm RealtyTrac Inc. and released yesterday by state officials.

RealtyTrac, as I reported last month, freely concedes that there are issues with its numbers for Maryland because it's a difficult place to gather foreclosure information. But all the housing counselors and foreclosure experts I've talked to agree that Prince George's is really getting hit hard.