--134,923: Maryland homeowners behind on their mortgages at the end of June.

--163,479: Maryland foreclosures it predicts between this year and 2012. (If that comes to pass, it would be one in every seven homes with a mortgage, according to my quick check of Census Bureau data.)

The center has numbers for every state -- under the headline "The Impact of Bad Lending" -- and it's reminding us of this now because it's trying to rally support for the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

As real estate columnist Kenneth Harney notes, the agency would oversee real estate and mortgage matters, plus "credit cards, debit cards, consumer loans, payday loans, credit reporting agencies, debt collection, stored-value cards and even investment advisory and financial advisory services, to name only part of the list."

Continue reading "Foreclosures and financial protection" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: The foreclosure mess
        

By now you probably all know what a short sale is: a deal in which the lender allows a home to change hands for less than the balance on the mortgage, forgiving most or all of the difference.

For months, agents have said there are far more would-be short sales than closed deals. The lenders reject the offers, or they take so long to consider that buyers give up and move on. So I was curious to hear what Olivia Surge, who negotiates short sales on behalf of homeowners at the Law Offices of G. Russell Donaldson in Crofton, is seeing now.

Compared with 2007, when nine months could go by before lenders would even look at an offer, "things have gotten much, much better," she said. "But we're still slow and go."

Lenders are typically taking 30 to 90 days to acknowledge that they have an application for a short sale, she said. "They're so inundated," she said.

I talked to Surge for Sunday's story about the growing number of homeowners selling for less than their purchase prices. I only had space for a few of her observations in the article, but I've got all the space in the world here. And I think you'll be interested in hearing more of what she had to say about what works, who's eligible, whether lenders are forgiving all the debt and how frequently these deals are popping up.

Continue reading "Short sales" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Mortgages, The foreclosure mess
        

More supply means more downward pressure on prices, the firm notes:

For a number of reasons, banks have not been aggressively taking title to homes and selling them, which has resulted in very few distressed sales in comparison to the actual level of distress in the market. This delay in REO sales, along with historically low mortgage rates and an $8,000 tax credit, has helped to stabilize the housing market - temporarily.

It is very clear that price stabilization is temporary unless something is done.

What sort of "massive supply" numbers are we talking about? Pretty, um, massive: One out of every 10 U.S. homeowners is behind on mortgage payments, John Burns Real Estate estimates. Not one in 10 homeowners with mortgages. One in 10 homeowners, period.

I keep hearing from local real estate agents that they're seeing foreclosed homes that haven't been put on the market yet by lenders. Is this true near you?

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: The foreclosure mess
        

Home prices in the Baltimore metro area were among the weakest in the nation this summer, but there are some hopeful signs for frustrated sellers, according to a new report by a real estate data firm.

Prices rose a tenth of a percent in the metro area in the four months ending Sept. 25 vs. the previous three months, California-based Clear Capital said. That’s lower than all but two other major housing markets — Las Vegas and Tucson, Ariz.

But you'll notice that prices are up, not down. It’s the first break in price declines for the Baltimore area since the summer of 2007, the report said.

Kevin Marshall, president of Clear Capital, thinks earlier increases in other parts of the country had a psychological effect on Baltimore buyers.

Continue reading "Home prices ... up?" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Housing stats, The foreclosure mess
        

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Borrower needs help. Borrower goes to foreclosure-rescue business to get help. Borrower signs documents to get or start the process of getting the mortgage refinanced, only to discover later that the foreclosure-rescue specialists were really getting the home signed over to them.

Such fraud has happened across the country, both before and after the housing market went downhill. One local case just wrapped up in Baltimore City Circuit Court with a judgment ordering the defendants to pay just over $1 million in restitution and penalties.

The business associates, Michael K. Lewis, brother Earnest Lewis, Cheryl Brooke and Winston Thomas, pleaded guilty earlier in the year to criminal charges related to dozens of foreclosure-rescue scams. Michael Lewis was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison, Earnest Lewis to 4 1/2 years, Brooke to almost four years and Thomas to just over three years.

The Baltimore civil case, brought by the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office, covered 13 properties, most in the Baltimore area. Once the homeowners unwittingly signed over their properties, Earnest Lewis pulled all their equity out with a new loan and split the money with the defendants, said Bill Gruhn, chief of the Consumer Protection Division.

"Some of the homeowners have moved," he said. "Other homeowners are in their homes and we were able to facilitate settlements" with the lenders.

Continue reading "Homeowner beware" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Mortgage fraud, The foreclosure mess
        

If you like to know how we compare with the rest of the nation, the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program has just the report for you: It ranks the 100 largest metro areas on economic and housing-market measures of health.

I wrote a story for today's paper about the economic stats -- we're 18th best, for instance, as measured by the recent change in employment. (As in, it's not as bad here as it is in 82 other places. Woohoo!) The Baltimore metro area was in or near the top quarter of metro areas on most of the economic measurements.

But what about the housing stats? Those are a different story.

Our 5.8 percent drop in home prices in the spring, compared with a year earlier, ranked us 73rd out of 100. (With 100 being worst, at least from a homeowner point of view.)

The metro area was 61st out of 100 for its share of bank-owned homes -- 2.84 for every 1,000 mortgageable properties. (The average for all metro areas was higher, but only because some big regions are so hard hit.) These homes, which were foreclosed on and taken back by lenders, are typically called "REOs" for "real estate owned."

Baltimore's worst ranking on the report: Measured by the change in bank-owned properties from the first quarter of the year to the second quarter, it was 83rd out of 100.

Continue reading "How Baltimore stacks up" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Housing stats, The economy, The foreclosure mess
        

A number of lenders -- plus housing counselors and attorneys -- are expected to be on hand at a foreclosure-prevention event in Baltimore County this Saturday, and you can still register for it today if you'd like to attend. The event, sponsored by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Woodlawn High School, 1801 Woodlawn Drive in Gwynn Oak.

The event flyer (a PDF) has more details, including what documents you should bring. You can find the online registration form here.

UPDATE: Cummings' office says you can still register on Thursday, even though the form says the deadline is 9/9.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Foreclosure help, The foreclosure mess
        

That's made some industry folks very nervous. In the "what goes up rapidly might reverse course and go splat" sense.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that rising defaults on FHA loans are endangering the agency's reserves:

Options for the agency could include politically unpalatable choices, such as asking for taxpayer funds to boost reserves or increasing the premiums borrowers pay for the insurance offered by the agency. Agency officials say if there is a shortfall, they don't have to do anything except report it to lawmakers. But some mortgage and housing analysts see trouble ahead. "They're probably going to need a bailout at some point because they're making loans in a riskier environment," says Edward Pinto, a mortgage-industry consultant and former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae. "...I've never seen an entity successfully outrun a situation like this."

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Mortgages, The foreclosure mess
        

One in eight -- that's how many Maryland borrowers were at least a month behind on their mortgage payments during the spring, according to new numbers.

What can you do if you're in that group?

The state says to call for help immediately -- before you're in trouble, even, if you're still current but see problems on the horizon. It has a foreclosure-help hot line -- 877-462-7555 -- to put you in touch with a nonprofit housing counseling agency near you. Or you can find the list of HUD-approved nonprofits here.

The struggle to get assistance from lenders has been well publicized, so I wondered how much success local foreclosure-prevention counselors are having. The state Department of Housing and Community Development said the nonprofits helped just over 4,500 people avoid foreclosure in the fiscal year that ended June 30. (That runs the gamut from people who received a repayment plan to those who got their mortgage refinanced, and includes folks who sold their homes.)

That "avoided foreclosure" group is up 33 percent from the previous fiscal year, the state says.

But nearly 13,700 in total saw counselors in the year ending June 30. So what happened to the nearly 9,200 who aren't on record as avoiding foreclosure? The state says some of those homeowners are still in counseling, some dropped out of the system and the rest ended up in foreclosure, bankruptcy or similarly depressing circumstances.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Foreclosure help, The foreclosure mess
        

Economist Dean Baker with the Center for Economic and Policy Research says such a move will help keep vacant homes from piling up on the housing market and dragging down neighborhoods. His "right to rent" proposal suggests that homeowners-turned-tenants be guaranteed the option to stay in their homes for a "substantial" time, such as five to 10 years, as long as they pay market rent.

Many borrowers would have an easier time paying rent than a mortgage, Baker says, because rents are significantly lower than the ownership costs of the typical home purchased in many markets in 2006 and 2007. In the Baltimore metro area, he says, the monthly fair-market rent is $1,037 for a two-bedroom unit while the monthly ownership cost for a starter home is $1,666.

(The fair-market rent figure comes from HUD. Baker is calculating ownership costs by assuming that a home equivalent to a two-bedroom rental will be valued at 75 percent of the median home, and he's including property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs along with principal and interest. He assumes a 6 percent interest rate.)

The $629-a-month savings he calculates for struggling Baltimore-area homeowners becoming renters is more than some markets, like Cleveland ($126) and Philadelphia ($274). But it's less than pricey places like New York and Washington (both more than $1,000).

But what about the tax benefits of homeownership? He says owner-to-renter savings would dip to $475 a month in the Baltimore metro area if you take that into account, assuming a 25 percent income tax bracket.

Baker, who co-authored the July report with Hye Jin Rho, writes:

During ordinary years, homeowners would not gain much from having a right to rent, since the gap between ownership costs and rental costs is usually not very large. However, because of the run-up in house prices during the housing bubble years, ownership costs vastly exceeded rental costs in many bubble markets. ... Right to Rent offers the advantage that it could immediately benefit all homeowners facing foreclosure without any bureaucracy and would require no taxpayer dollars.

What do you think of this proposal? Does it make financial sense for a lender to turn landlord rather than home seller -- and would homeowners be willing to become renters to avoid a forced move?

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Renting, The foreclosure mess
        

Here's what the federal agency says about "Operation Loan Lies":

The FTC charged that the defendants falsely claimed that they would either obtain a mortgage loan modification or stop foreclosure, or both, and that some of the defendants falsely represented that they would give consumers refunds if they failed to do so. After charging consumers the equivalent of one month’s mortgage payment or more in advance, these companies often did little or nothing to help homeowners renegotiate their mortgages or stop foreclosure. After failing to provide the promised services, the defendants that promised refunds did not honor those promises.

Here's the full list (link opens a PDF), which includes the firms and players that Maryland went after. Several are run by attorneys.

The state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation offers suggestions for avoiding foreclosure-help scams, including this one: "Beware of any person or organization asking you to pay up-front fees in exchange for providing mortgage counseling services or modification of a delinquent loan."

Remember, HUD-approved nonprofits have counselors who help borrowers navigate their lenders' loan-modification process, and they do foreclosure-prevention work free of charge. Here's the list of Maryland housing counseling groups.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Foreclosure help, Mortgage fraud, The foreclosure mess
        

The number of Maryland borrowers in trouble on their mortgages keeps rising -- particularly among homeowners who were supposed to be better credit risks. Some 60,000 prime borrowers were at least one payment behind during the first quarter of the year, up 90 percent from a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That includes people on the brink of losing their homes.

Maryland had about 15,000 fewer delinquent subprime loans than prime. And their numbers rose 44 percent from a year ago, or half as fast as the prime mortgages in trouble.

Subprime borrowers are still much more likely to get behind than prime, mind you. Practically 40 percent of Maryland's subprime loans are past due, including those the lenders are trying to foreclose on. Yes, four in every 10.

For prime loans, it's 7.2 percent -- less than one in 10.

But no more than 3.5 percent of Maryland prime loans were behind in the late '90s, when the housing market was normal and jobs were plentiful. That's a big, big change. We'd have 30,000 fewer loans in various stages of delinquency if the ones in trouble still added up to 3.5 percent of the state's prime mortgages.

Lorraine Mirabella has a story today about the mortgage delinquencies. Economists are blaming the continued job losses.

As it happens, Maryland borrowers weren't struggling nearly as much during the early '80s double-dip recessions and the early '90s recession. Among all borrowers, delinquencies didn't top 5.5 percent between 1980 and 1982 or 1990 and 1991.

But delinquencies got pretty high -- peaking at nearly 8.5 percent -- in the late '90s and early part of this decade. And not because of the 2001 recession, either. Because FHA mortgages (government insured, and therefore not counted in either prime or subprime) were going bad at a frantic pace in Baltimore. That was during the spike in illegal flipping that landed people in jail for mortgage fraud.

Depressing to think that now it's worse. The share of all Maryland mortgages in trouble? More than 11 percent.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: The foreclosure mess
        

Eighteen percent of home sales in the Baltimore metro area in the last year were "distress" transactions -- either foreclosures or short sales. So says a new report from Zillow, the real estate information site. 

That's not helping prices any. Home values in the first three months of the year dropped 11.5 percent vs. the same period in '08, according to Zillow. That's a decline to early '05 levels of about $252,000, though the decreases vary depending on the type of house. Cheaper properties shed 7 percent of value while the priciest homes lost twice as much, the company says.

That matches up with Zillow's estimates of how local jurisdictions fared. Baltimore City home values dropped the least -- about 6 percent vs. a year ago -- while expensive Howard County declined the most (16 percent).

The company relies on its "Zestimates," which means these figures are estimates of all home values, not just the price of recently sold properties.

Home values declined faster nationally than they did in the metro area, dropping about 14 percent, Zillow says.

Other stats:

--Nearly 14 percent of homeowners in the Baltimore metro area are "underwater," their property values having dropped below the amount they owe on their mortgages. That's depressing, but Zillow estimates that the percentage of U.S. homeowners in the same situation is 22 percent.

--As you might guess, people who bought in 2006 and 2007 are the most likely to be underwater. More than half the Baltimore-area homeowners of that vintage -- the ones with mortgages, at least -- owe more on their loans than their properties are worth, according to Zillow.

--Folks who bought in the Baltimore area in 2004 are (as a group) still doing all right. Zillow says the typical '04 buyer has equity of almost $60,000.

--Homes in the metro area are collectively worth $30 billion less than they were a year ago, Zillow says.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Housing stats, The foreclosure mess
        

No. 1 for risk: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. It's an area that tops a lot of "problem" lists related to housing.

These rankings, based on economic factors such as unemployment and the direction of home prices, are for the first three months of the year. The Baltimore metro area was a bit lower on the risk list at the end of last year -- 76th.

The Washington metro area, meanwhile, was judged a much riskier 25th. But that's an improvement from the end of last year, when it was 13th.

Here's what First American CoreLogic says about mortgage troubles nationwide:

The continuing decline in house prices has created a self-reinforcing feedback loop, where lower prices lead to more defaults and excess housing inventory, which in turn cause demand to decline and prices to fall further, and so on. This downward cycle poses substantial ongoing difficulties for the U.S. economy, not least of which are its devastating effects on personal wealth and consumer spending. Until home prices and the economy stabilize, mortgage risk will remain very high.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: The foreclosure mess
        

First interesting number: 11.9 percent. That was the "national mover rate" in the United States last year, a record low. The Census Bureau has tracked the rate since 1948. (The actual number of people moving was 35.2 million, down 3.5 million from the year before "and the smallest number of residents to move since 1962.")

Second interesting number: 34.1 percent. That's the share of people defaulting on Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans in January who gave "curtailment of income" as the reason, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. "Excessive obligations" came in next at 19.8 percent, followed by unemployment (8.1 percent), illness (6.5 percent) and marital problems (3.5 percent). (Those were the most common reasons, but there were others.)

Third interesting number: $16.3 million. That's how much K Bank, an Owings Mills company that a number of rehabbers turned to for loans, lost during the fourth quarter. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has required the bank to "stop issuing construction and development loans and raise more capital," Andrea K. Walker reports today.

Fourth interesting number -- OK, numbers: $360,000, $360,000 and $420,000. That's how much Scots Glen condos sold for at auction yesterday after a lender foreclosed on builder Dale Thompson, according to Realtor Pat Hiban. Hiban says on his blog:

The 420k was the former model with 4 finished levels and an elevator. The model was last listed at 740k and the other two were in the mid 600's. ...

The lots in Highland drew even more bidders. Out of the 7 lots for sale, 4 sold at prices acceptable to the bank. The sale prices on the lots were 250k,255k,290k and 295k. The other 3 got bids of 150-180k and Columbia Bank chose not to accept those. It was quite an experience and it was good to see so many serious buyers there in earnest.

At one point the auctioneer yelled out "These are going for way less than the market!!!" and the guy next to me yelled back "Your looking at the market buddy!!! This is your market, right here right now!!!"

Thanks to David Hobby for pointing out Hiban's post -- I would have missed it otherwise.

Have other interesting housing-related numbers to share? Comment away.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Housing stats, New developments, The foreclosure mess
        

It's not just homeowners who have to worry about foreclosure -- builders do, too.

As Lorraine Mirabella reports today, "Two separate lenders have foreclosed on 35 of Dale Thompson Builders' unsold homes, building lots and unfinished houses in Columbia's Scot's Glen townhouse development. One lender also foreclosed on seven lots in a neighborhood of $1 million homes in western Howard County, according to public records detailing property auctions."

As the price tag suggests, these are upscale homes. You can see a photo of Scot's Glen -- and a map showing the numerous unsold properties -- on Dale Thompson Builders' website. The company is local, based in Howard County.

It's a tough time to sell, but that's not the only issue facing homebuilders. It's also not an easy time to keep the financing flowing for a homebuilding project.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: New developments, The foreclosure mess
        

The foreclosure bill that did pass was HB 640, which "allows local governments to pass ordinances requiring lenders to report foreclosure filings to local governments within five days of filing them, instead of two weeks before evicting tenants," the Daily Record says.

There's a delicate balance between protecting the rights of tenants in a foreclosure situation -- if they were paying their rent, they're innocent victims -- and the rights of lenders, who have repeatedly said they don't want to be landlords.

What do you think is the right balance?

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Renting, The foreclosure mess
        

Nearly $4 billion is supposed to flow to neighborhoods across the country to deal with the effects of vacant foreclosures, part of the package Congress passed last year to try to stabilize the housing market. Columbia-based Enterprise Community Partners, one of the organizations that pressed to have that money included in the bill, released a report today about how cities, counties and states say they'll put it to use.

Analyzing "action plans" for more than half the money, Enterprise says 56 percent of the dollars are earmarked for foreclosure purchase and rehab, 21 percent for financing homebuying, 13 percent for redevelopment, 6 percent for demolition and 4 percent for land banking. (That's of the money not going to administrative costs.)

Most of the jurisdictions intend to stretch those dollars by adding other sources of taxpayer money or getting funds from private sources -- foundations, businesses and the like.

A sizable chunk of the money going to Maryland as well as directly to local jurisdictions -- including Baltimore City and Prince George's County -- is intended for purchase and rehab. The applications from the state and jurisdictions suggest the money will touch 1,500 homes in one way or another, Enterprise says.

Enterprise is a nonprofit builder and financier of affordable housing. So why does it care about foreclosures? This is its answer:

Foreclosures can cause a downward spiral of disinvestment, leading to yet more foreclosures. Thus, as foreclosures rise nationwide, communities decline. Enterprise and many other community development organizations have been working for decades to build high-quality, safe and stable neighborhoods. Therefore, our role in solving the national foreclosure crisis is to stabilize communities and design innovative solutions to ensure that this never happens again.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: The foreclosure mess
        

He usually works from Annapolis southward, though he's represented foreclosures farther north in the Baltimore area as well.

Q: How long have you been a real estate agent?

Licensed, I've been in the business for two years. (My mother has been in the business for 12 -- I worked with her as her assistant for a time.) …

It was a simple twist of fate, really. I used to do audio engineering work for a band, and I had an accident on the job where I broke my fingers in 23 places. I decided it was time to get out.

Q: Holy cow -- how did that happen?

Backstage, after a show. … I got in [real estate] right as the market was tanking, which might be less than opportune, but when you get lemons, you make lemonade.

Q: What's the lemonade?

Foreclosures. … Everybody wants a foreclosure right now. Even when they don't want a foreclosure, they think they want a foreclosure. If I had a dollar for everybody who said, 'I want a foreclosure for half-price that needs no work,' I'd be a rich man.

The problem with foreclosures is, it's always a double-edged sword. They always need some work.

Q: What sort of condition are the foreclosed homes usually in?

Continue reading "Q&A: Jonathan Benya, real estate agent" »

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Q&A, The foreclosure mess
        

Two pieces of recent mortgage-default news I thought you might want to know about:

First, the travails of FHA, the go-to place for borrowers with small down payments. The Federal Housing Administration insures FHA mortgages, which means it's on the hook if those loans go bad. Now its market share has shot up to about 30 percent -- thanks in large part to the death of subprime and no-money-down options -- and it's being swamped with problem loans. Some borrowers are missing payments immediately.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, this has raised the specter of another taxpayer bailout -- or changes for future borrowers:

If defaults drain the FHA's insurance fund, the Obama administration will have to decide whether to ask Congress for taxpayer money or raise the premiums it charges to borrowers. That decision will be spelled out in President Barack Obama's 2010 budget, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told lawmakers.

The other news: a glimpse into what works when lenders modify mortgages to try to keep borrowers from ending up in foreclosure.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, which track two-thirds of U.S. mortgages in quarterly reports, said "re-default rates" on modified loans last year "were consistently lower for modifications that resulted in lower monthly payments."

When modifications decreased monthly payments by more than 10 percent, only about 23 percent of the loans became seriously delinquent six months later. By contrast, some 51 percent of the loans in which payments remained unchanged were seriously delinquent after six months. The comparable number for loan modifications in which payments increased was 46 percent.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Mortgages, The foreclosure mess
        

The good news is that 89 percent of Maryland borrowers weren't behind on their mortgages at the end of last year. The bad news? Only 89 percent of Maryland borrowers weren't behind on their mortgages at the end of last year.

That's the smallest share since the Mortgage Bankers Association began keeping track 30 years ago, and it means more than 100,000 borrowers in trouble.

A record percentage of prime and subprime mortgages in the state weren't current -- either behind a bit or to the point that the lenders were trying to foreclose. The prime group is actually larger than the subprime -- 56,000 vs. 46,000 -- but there are a lot more prime borrowers in the state than subprime.

The share of Maryland subprime loans in trouble is staggering. Take a guess. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Waiting ...

Waiting ...

OK: Almost 40 percent.

Some 6.7 percent of prime mortgages in Maryland are past-due or in the foreclosure process, a much smaller share than subprime but still unusually high. It was 3.7 percent as recently as the beginning of last year.

You can find national delinquency statistics here.

If you'll recall, delinquencies and foreclosures began shooting up as a result of problematic lending standards and falling home values. Lorraine Mirabella reports in today's mortgage delinquency story that the new problem is the one that would normally be to blame for foreclosure:

"Employment is the issue," Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist, said during a conference call. "It's not an issue with changes in payment structure or payment resets. As jobs go away, you first see this show up in" subprime, fixed-rate lending. Then it works its way up to the less-risky prime loans.

Posted by Jamie Smith Hopkins at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: The foreclosure mess