The best immunization against foreclosure used to be affluence. No more.
The number of homeowners defaulting on their loans in the Baltimore metro area last year rose most quickly among the highest- income counties with the most expensive housing - Howard, Anne Arundel and Carroll. Maryland's income-rich Washington suburbs are feeling it even more keenly, a Sun analysis has found.
Lenders filed about 10,700 mortgage foreclosure cases in Baltimore and its five suburban counties, up 36 percent from a year earlier. On the Maryland side of the Washington area - Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and Calvert counties - cases doubled, to almost 11,900.
A year earlier, foreclosure cases in those counties were well below the number in the Baltimore area.
"The demographics have certainly changed," said Anne Balcer Norton, director of foreclosure prevention at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, a nonprofit in Baltimore that has fielded calls for help from homeowners in toney areas such as Roland Park and Bethesda. "Everyone's affected by this."
In Montgomery, where the typical household income tops $87,000, mortgage foreclosure cases rose nearly 130 percent last year. That was the biggest jump in the state.
"The worst is yet to come," warned Eric S. Friedman, director of Montgomery County's Office of Consumer Protection. "A lot more adjustable-rate mortgages are going to be resetting in 2008 and 2009."
The numbers, assembled by The Sun from court records statewide, offer a rare reliable look at how the counties and Baltimore City are faring in the nationwide foreclosure crisis.
Though the state is crafting new laws and programs to stem the problem, grasping its extent has proved difficult. The government does not compile statistics on foreclosure actions initiated by lenders at local circuit courthouses, the last step before auction. RealtyTrac, a provider of foreclosure data frequently cited by state officials, has conceded there are problems with its Maryland data, saying collection here is difficult.
The court caseloads show that no part of the state escaped without an increase last year.
Counties with high incomes and pricey housing were among the hardest hit. All but two of the 10 most affluent counties - those with median household incomes topping $70,000 - saw foreclosure cases rise by more than 50 percent.
