Baltimore metro area's foreclosure rate
The Baltimore region's foreclosure rate ranks it in the middle among all metro areas, according to a new report -- a lot better than the hardest-hit places and a lot worse than the best-off spots.
Mortgages in the foreclosure process, meaning that lenders were trying to repossess the homes, accounted for 3.7 percent of all loans in Baltimore and its surrounding suburbs as of June. That's according to Foreclosure-Response.org, an effort by Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Urban Institute, the Center for Housing Policy and KnowledgePlex.
Our rate is lower than that of 192 metro areas and higher than 173.
Here are the communities at both extremes:
Metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates are all in Florida:
1. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (17.8 percent)
2. Cape Coral-Fort Myers (15.8 percent)
3. Palm Coast (15.6 percent)
4. Port St. Lucie (15.0 percent)
5. Punta Gorda (14.6 percent)
The least-touched are more geographically diverse:
1. Bismarck, N.D. (0.9 percent)
2. College Station-Bryan, Texas (1 percent)
3. Harrisonburg, Va. (1.1 percent)
4. Midland, Texas (1.2 percent)
5. Corvallis, Ore. (1.2 percent)
Foreclosure-Response.org also looked at "serious delinquency" -- mortgages in the foreclosure process plus ones at least 90 days behind but not yet in foreclosure proceedings. Baltimore's rank was somewhat higher for that category but still middle-of-the-pack, 164 out of 366.
The serious delinquency rate in the Baltimore area was just over 8 percent, vs. more than 25 percent in Miami and and less than 2 percent in Bismarck.
So that's where we stood at the beginning of this summer. Does that make you feel better or worse?
Categories: The foreclosure mess
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