The Real Estate Wonk: Housing grants and housing vacancies - Baltimore homes, apartments, real estate: Buying, selling, renting and housing news from reporter Jamie Smith Hopkins

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October 3, 2008

Housing grants and housing vacancies

HUD said today that it's giving $50 million in grants to housing counseling groups, including about $3.9 million to Maryland organizations. Housing counselors are trained to help people buy and stay in homes, though it's the latter part that's taken a lot of their time in recent months as foreclosures rise.

Curious about which groups got what? You can find the grant list HERE. A big piece of the local pie went to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Silver Spring.

Meanwhile, the National Multi Housing Council says in a new research note that there are "approximately 825,000 excess vacant single-family houses and 125,000 excess vacant condos beyond normal vacancy levels" in the country. That doesn't count what it says are the "2 million excess existing houses and condos still occupied but on the market." It concludes:

Our view: we’re unlikely to be out of the woods until 2010 at the earliest.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Comments

Good morning Jamie,

A couple of weeks ago you published an article and a map comparing Foreclosures in the Baltimore area and Miami.

I've been trying to review that article, but I can't find it. Can you please resend it to me or let me know where I can find it.

Thanks.

Posted by: Aaron Rice | October 4, 2008 3:56 AM

It wasn't an article, actually -- it was a blog post. You can find it here.

Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | October 4, 2008 8:11 AM

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About Jamie Smith Hopkins

Jamie Smith Hopkins, a Baltimore Sun reporter since 1999, writes about the regional economy. Her reporting on the housing market has won national and local awards. Hopkins is a Columbia native and has lived in Maryland all her life, save for 10 months spent covering schools in Ames, Iowa.
She trained to become a wonk by spending large chunks of time as a geek and an insufferable know-it-all.
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